Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad

The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad is a freight railroad that began operations on September 5, 1986, using track spun off from the Chicago and North Western Transportation Company across South Dakota and southern Minnesota. Before its acquisition by Canadian Pacific Railway it grew into the largest Class II railroad in the United States, running trains through the Northern Plains with extensions into Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. In 2002 it acquired I&M Rail Link and renamed that system the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad, linking cities including Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Canadian Pacific bought the railroad in 2007 for about 1.48 billion dollars plus contingent future payments, with the Surface Transportation Board approving the deal in September 2008 and Canadian Pacific taking control that October. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary headquartered at CPKC Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Canadian Pacific sold its lines west of Tracy, Minnesota to Genesee and Wyoming in 2014.