the company owned almost 5000 lots in omaha; 1000 in council bluffs, iowa, and several hundred in columbus, nebraska, along with other land along the union pacific mainline. train once explained, "one of my plans was the creation of a chain of great towns across the continent, connecting boston and san francisco by a highway of magnificent cities." the company built a hotel it called the "credit foncier" in cleveland, nebraska in 1868; it was moved to columbus the next year. george train, with so much land in the city, predicted a great future for columbus. train is credited with writing newspaper articles and delivering speeches in which he promoted the town, calling it, "columbus, the new center of the union and quite probably the future capital of the u.s.a."