The line continued through Randall, crossed an east/west C&NW branch line in Jewell, and came into Webster City after crossing the Boone River. Near Story City, it had to cross a high trestle over Keigly Creek, which was later filled and replaced with a stone bridge. In Ames, it would cross Squaw Creek, and the busy C&NW east/west mainline. The line would cross the east/west Milwaukee Road mainline at Slater, It would go through Kelley, crossing the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern before arriving in Ames.
Starting from Des Moines, the line would start in downtown, and head north towards Ankeny. The line was a critical C&NW route to connect to the Twin Cities. The C&NW owned a large amount of track around Iowa at the time. The entire line came into the Chicago North Western Railway system by 1884.
The line was continued north by the Toledo & Northwestern Railway in late 1879, and was completed toīlue Earth, Minnesota by 1883. It was a narrow guage railroad, later standard in 1880. In 1874 the Des Moines and Minneapolis Railway constructed a line from Des Moines to Story City, in central Iowa.