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The Chicago Great Western Railway was a Class I railroad that linked Chicago, Minneapolis, Omaha, and Kansas City. It was founded by Alpheus Beede Stickney in 1885 as a regional line between St. Paul and the Iowa state line called the Minnesota & Northwestern Railroad. Through mergers and new construction, the railroad, named Chicago Great Western after 1909, quickly became a multi-state carrier. One of the last Class I railroads to be built, it competed against several other more well-established railroads in the same territory, and developed a corporate culture of innovation and efficiency to survive.

Nicknamed the Corn Belt Route because of its operating area in the midwestern United States, the railroad was sometimes called the Lucky Strike Road, due to the similarity in design between the herald of the CGW and the logo used for Lucky Strike cigarettes.

It was merged with the Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW) in 1968, which abandoned most of the CGW's trackage.

Almost forty years after merger and piecemeal abandonment, some Chicago Great Western trackage and infrastructure remains in service. In Illinois, for example, the CGW mainline through St. Charles is now operated by the Union Pacific Railroad as an industrial lead for several shippers including a lumber yard; in Byron, a small section of trackage is used for car storage. Several depots also remain, some converted to better serve their new, non-railroad owners, and others restored to their former appearance. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Elizabeth depot is currently being restored by the Elizabeth Historical Society. The mission is to make the Depot Museum the definitive repository for Chicago Great Western artifacts and to help preserve the local history of Elizabeth, Illinois.

Long sections of former CGW rights-of-way have been preserved as rail trails, such as the Great Western Trail between Villa Park and Sycamore, Illinois, the Cannon Valley Trail between Red Wing and Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail between Faribault and Mankato, Minnesota.

A handful of CGW locomotives remain operational, including all the former CGW SD40s, but all have long since been repainted and scattered nationwide. An EMD FP7-A, CGW 116-A, has been restored and repainted and is located at the former hub of the railroad at a museum in Oelwin.

Sometimes an observant train watcher will notice an old hopper or tank car still painted in CGW colors, but they are now quite rare.