Dakota Minnesota & Eastern

Company History: The DM&E launched in 1986 as a spin-off of Chicago & North Western. The mainline ran from Winona, Minnesota (where there are Mississippi River docks) west to Rochester, Mankato, then onto Pierre and Rapid City, South Dakota. At that point the line split with one leg headed west to Colony, Wyoming, and the other leg headed south to Crawford, Nebraska. There were also a few other branchlines. Total mileage was 965 miles (putting it between Chicago & Eastern Illinois and Montana Rail Link in relative size.)

Operations began with 39 locomotives, mostly rebuilt SD9’s of Milwaukee Road heritage. Eventually DM&E dumped these first generation engines and in later years had a fleet of 69 rebuilt SD40-2’s, GP40-2’s, GP38-2’s, and a few one-offs. They also had about 5,000 freight cars, mostly grain hoppers.

In 1997, DM&E announced their intention to build a line to the huge coal reserves in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. The project would have included rebuilding nearly the entire mainline plus building a new (and long) branch to reach the Basin. It would have been the biggest new construction since Great Northern’s Oregon Trunk in 1931. They did receive permission from the government but NIMBY opposition dragged out the start of construction for many years.

In 2008, The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern and sister road Iowa Chicago & Eastern were purchased by Canadian Pacific. After a bit of study, CPR wisely backed away from the Powder River Project.

Successor/Parent History: The Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), formerly also known as CP Rail (reporting mark CP) between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railroad incorporated in 1881. The railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (TSX: CP, NYSE: CP), which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001.

Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, it owns approximately 23,000 kilometres (14,000 mi) of track all across Canada and into the United States, stretching from Montreal to Vancouver, and as far north as Edmonton. Its rail network also serves major cities in the United States, such as Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago, and New York City.

The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada's first transcontinental railway, but currently does not reach the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. The CP became one of the largest and most powerful companies in Canada, a position it held as late as 1975. Its primary passenger services were eliminated in 1986, after being assumed by Via Rail Canada in 1978. A beaver was chosen as the railway's logo because it is the national symbol of Canada and was seen as representing the hardworking character of the company.

The company acquired two American lines in 2009: the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad. The trackage of the ICE was at one time part of CP subsidiary Soo Line and predecessor line The Milwaukee Road. The combined DME/ICE system spanned North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Iowa, as well as two short stretches into two other states, which included a line to Kansas City, Missouri, and a line to Chicago, Illinois, and regulatory approval to build a line into the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. It is publicly traded on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CP. Its U.S. headquarters are in Minneapolis.

After close of markets on November 17, 2015, CP announced an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of Norfolk Southern Railway, at a price in excess of the US$26 billion capitalization of the United States-based railway. If completed, this merger of the second and fourth oldest Class I railroads in North America would have formed the largest single railway company on that continent, reaching from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast to the Gulf Coast. The merger effort was abandoned by Canadian Pacific on April 11, 2016, after three offers were rejected by the Norfolk Southern board.

Read more on Wikipedia and on Canadian Pacific official website.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.