Brian might be able to answer this, but I’d welcome any input:
I’ve looked at satellite imagery and old picture books, and I still can’t gain a good idea of how the MILW Cedar Rapids - Ottumwa line crossed the CNW main east of Beverly. When I lived out there, I never had the willingness to trespass on CNW and/or CRANDIC property to get a look at where the crossing may have been. I assume there was a cross-track there and perhaps a tower?
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Just east of edgewood ave the Milwaukee drossed the CNW There was a tower there and the crossover from the U Ps Mailline to the city line are to this day refered to the Tower crossovers They use to be manual switches but now the are connected to signals and thrown by the Dispacther
Hey thanks - very interesting difference between the Yahoo! Maps diagram of the area vs. the satellite image. The diagram still shows what must’ve been the MILW trackage leading-up to the crossing from the CRANDIC/MILW connection south of the CNW, and the city line heading northeast from the crossing. But, the Yahoo! satellite image shows just the CRANDIC connection joining the Ottumwa line coming out of the ADM plant with no sign of the MILW ROW (that was scrapped).
OMG, what timing! I just spent the morning railfanning that area down there, including walking the old MILW connection. Stay tuned for PICTURES!
Bring them on!
Would the small building in this Terraserver image be the tower?
That’s a much better image - you can clearly see the old MILW ROW.
OK, borrowing a satellite shot from Google, here’s how that connection used to exist…
This morning, while waiting for things to happen near the 26th St. SW grade crossing, I did alittle exploring. I found the abandoned ROW and followed a path worn in it back to where the bridges are still standing. Here’s a view of the ROW near where it crosses 26th St.:
Here’s the first bridge going southwest:
Here’s the second bridge, which actually crosses Prairie Creek and is visible in the satellite shot:
Old relics still standing:
I’ll post some shots of the UP action I caught while there later!
Yep, I would say so.
Those are fantastic - yet another answer about past railroads in towns I’ve lived in has been answered. Now here’s a follow-up:
Did the CNW & MILW share what is called the “city line” all the way up to the Cedar River bridge up by Quaker Oats, or did the MILW parallel the CNW “city line” for some distance and then enter the downtown area some other way?
Good question- I don’t know the answer to that, maybe someone else does. I gotta run some errands so I’ll be away from the forum for awhile- I shall check back later tonight.
I think I may have answered my own question:
Now that I recall, and looking at the maps again, I believe the MILW diverged from the city line over by 15th Ave., SW and headed east, under I-380, crossed the Cedar River and joined the CNW line from Otis near 3rd St., SE. That line running under I-380 southeast of Czech Village was always a question for me too when I lived there (CNW? CRANDIC?). Now I think it was the MILW.
The bridge over the Cedar River by Pennick & Ford (Penford Products) that the Crandic now uses is the ex-MILW bridge.
Just south of Wilson Ave, where the MILW and CNW lines went southwest out of town there was a small interchange yard. The Crandic “crossed” the MILW and this place was called “Vera.” Now the UP refers to this as the Wilson tracks.
At Beverly, in the last years of MILW operation, the tower was not manned. When the MILW needed to cross the CNW, someone from the yard office drove down to operate the interlocking. This lasted for a short time into the Crandic era, until they built the new connection.
Brian, was the old metal pole that used to have the Absolute signal (semaphores, long since gone) still along the right of way? I remember seeing it there for quite a while after the track was removed. It wasn’t too far from the road as I remember.
Jeff
Indeed, the MILW diverged at 15th Ave S.W., and crossed the Cedar River next to the 8th Ave. bridge. (That would be northwest of Czech Village.) It ran through the Penford plant. I remember a MILW switcher almost being a fixture at the plant in the 1970’s. CRANDIC used (and still uses?) this line to access downtown.
The Rock Island also had a lead into the Penford plant, following the west bank of the Cedar River south of the plant, parallel to A St. S.W. In the early 70’s, the tracks were still visible near the Farmer’s Market, but clearly long unused, with parts of the roadbed eroded away from the ties.
I once had a picture postcard with an aerial view of downtown Cedar Rapids, taken in the late 1940’s or 50’s. (After Roosevelt Hotel was built; before Union Station torn down.) It shows CRANDIC in interurban days street-running on 4th Ave S.W. and S.E. and crossing the Cedar River on its own bridges. (That’s bridges in the plural, since it crossed Mays Island between the Court House and old Jail.) The line ended at the front of Union Station. From the aerial shot, the CRANDIC bridges looked to be much less substantial than any other crossing in Cedar Rapids. I have never found any other photos of the bridge or the Cedar Rapids terminus.
Thanks, Brian for the pics. Being a kid on a bike, I never ventured to that part of the city.
Here’s a couple of shots of the tower that Jeff e-mailed me- Jeff, it looks like these were taken after the interlocking was taken out.
I don’t recall seeing any metal poles anywhere near the abandoned ROW. Are you referring to north of the old interlocking (under the US-30 bridge), or south where my shots are from?
Once again I got my directions screwed-up. I always figured where I-380 crosses-over the MILW tracks was southeast of Czech Village, but I gu
Actually…[;)]
I never even knew that that line split at one time…[%-)]
And now for a few pictures of UP action from this morning’s outing…
Here’s what the new interlocking looks like from 26th St. SW.
Somethings coming from the east!
It’s a westbound empty coalie- here he hits the interlocking.
He’s got a patched SP pusher on his tail.
A very short local tr
Brian, the signal pole was south of the diamond. It must be gone if you didn’t see it. You used to be able to see it from the road, but the last time I went past (by car, not train) I couldn’t see it. I didn’t know if it had been removed or just overgrown by trees.
You’re right about the interlocking being gone. Somewhere I should have pictures with it in place. All the Absolute signals were semaphores. The C&NW were their unique upper quadrant style. (The MILW crossing at Tama also had those, while the MILW there had searchlight signals. There might be one left at Eagle Grove, IA used as a distant signal.) The MILW were more of a “normal” upper quadrant type.
The distant signal, a semaphore permanently at approach, for northward MILW trains was located east of Edgewood road. It lasted a long time after the others had been removed, until that spur was put in for loading sand/gravel.
Jeff
I did see this standing about 50 yards off the road…
Brian,
Some nice shots there, man. Funny on the timing of this thread as I’m planning to come back down to Iowa this weekend and should be in C.R. on Saturday. What I can’t get over is that when I was a small kid (uh, late 60’s into the 70’s), you had 4 class I’s going thru downtown (MILW, CNW, IC, and RI) plus the Crandic. I was just a toddler when Union Station was torn down (man, was THAT a spectacular mistake or what?) and never did get to see any passenger trains in downtown Cedar Rapids. But that would have been cool to see the Cities Streamliners coming into downtown on the Otis-Beverly cutoff. Fortunately, I did get to catch a fairly decent dose of the Cities action on the MILW thru Marion up until 1971.
Needless to say, at one time, Cedar Rapids and Marion really had it goin’ on.
You’re forgetting the Waterloo Railroad, formerly the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern, that also went into Cedar Rapids. Their little yard was over there by the Weyerhauser plant off I-380 - over near the former IC yard (careful with my directions here). When the IC (after they bought-back the CC&P) finally scrapped that yard, I stopped-by and snagged a very old but clearly legible blue CARMEN WORKING metal sign off the scrap pile.