From the flat crossing, with connectors in all four quadrants, with the Omaha-Chicago line, and yard at Short Line Junction (MP 73.6), the line heads north, single track, Automatic Block System, maximum speed 30 mph, past an acute-angled flat crossing with the former Chicago Great Western at C&NW Crossing (MP 73.9), which then runs alongside to the east, ADM Milling, Easton Boulevard, Hull Avenue Yard, a C&NW line alongside to the west, a bridge over the Des Moines & Central Iowa, and Broadway, turning north-northeast, past a 7,966 ft. spur at Swanwood (MP 78.6), east, north past the 5,987 ft. siding and 950 ft. spur at Enterprise (MP 85.3), a 150 ft. spur to Central Iowa Feed at MP 86.8, a 1,150 ft. spur at Elkhart (MP 89.5), and the 4,492 ft. siding and 3,100 ft. spur at Cambridge (MP 96.6), where there are crossings with the C&NW and Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern.
The line turns northeast, past a 1,700 ft. spur at Shipley (MP 103.1), the future wye on the north side with the connector that will give access to the C&NW east-west line, and the 2,826 ft. siding and 2,500 ft. spur at Nevada (MP 107.0).