Atmosphere of the steam era - 2

One more photo from the US Library of Congress - this is a view of the Chicago and North Western Railroad's classification yard in winter snow at Proviso, Chicago, in December 1942.

The C&NW at this time operated over 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of track in seven states. The C&NW became one of the longest railways in the USA as a result of mergers such as with the Chicago Great Western Railway, Minneapolis and Saint Louis Railway and others. It retrenched in the late 1970s and by 1995 track sales and abandonment had reduced its total mileage to about 5,000. The majority of the abandoned and sold lines were lightly trafficked branches in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Large line sales, such as those that resulted in the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, further reduced the railroad to a mainline core with several regional feeders and branches. The company was purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad in April 1995 and the name disappeared.