Was just wondering if anybody knew if there was significant damage to CN’s former IC/ICG/CC Iowa Division mainline at either Parkersburg or New Hartford where that monstrous tornado struck. Anybody have any info?
Nothing’s been mentioned on the local news about any impact to the RR. In Parkersburg, which I’ve been through a few times, the monster took out the south side of town, and the RR runs across the north side, so I would assume that it’s OK there. I don’t know the lay of the land at New Hartford, so I can’t make any assumptions in that case.
My wife and I are headed up to Minnesota in two weeks- I think I’m going to revisit an old route we used to take (through Parkersburg) and get some pictures if possible.
It’s been a while since I was through either of those towns and couldn’t remember exactly where the mainline goes through in both. From what I could gather, it’s almost like the thing got touched down just east of Aplington and followed the mainline and U.S. 20 all the way to New Hartford and finally died out before hitting Cedar Falls and Waterloo. So I wondered if there might have been any damage or if CN may have shut it down for a little while.
Didn’t the CC&P re-open a segment of the old M&StL that ran south out of Parkersburg?
I think you’re think you’re thinking of Ackley which is further west.
Had me cornfuzed as well, as I don’t recall seeing anything resembling a ROW heading south out of Parkersburg.
Yes, that’s it - Ackley.
THe C&NW abandoned the Dike-Parkersburg-Kelsey line in 1975.
Is there a tourist railroad (NCRA?) operating from Ackley south to Steamboat Rock?
Not that I’m aware of- I thought the only current tourist operation we had in the state was the B&SV.
Thanks Brian,
I see it is the Iowa River Railroad that should be operating from Ackley south to Marshalltown (with a GP30?).
The CNW depot in Dike was still there as late as last summer, albeit in decrepit condition. I stopped at the co-op near there and they said they weren’t sure who owned it. I snooped it up and managed to push a door far enough open to peek inside. It’s crammed full of really old farm junk, but no treasure-trove of railroadiana from what I saw.
On a slightly different note, I hiked the former CGW’s Mason City-Clarion main two weeks ago, about 15 miles south of Mason City. It’s being scrapped northeast of Thornton (probably further southwest from Thornton too - I didn’t go that far). The rails are gone, and northeast of I-35 the ties remain but no rail. I found the following items left behind by the scrappers:
2 UP flanger signs
1 CNW milepost marker (15)
2 Hemmingway 42-style glass insulators
Is that the same line that US-18 crosses over just north of the new gas-fired power plant south of Mason City? Sometimes UP likes to store a long string of cars north of the highway, but the line under the bridge is pretty well overgrown.
Yes I believe that is the good old CGW.
NCRA was a shipper’s group that owned that section and I think they contracted out to CC&P/IC/CN to provide service. The lastest IDOT shows CN north of Ackley instead of NCRA.
The Iowa River Railroad came about fairly recently when the UP abandoned the remainder of the exM&StL north of Marshalltown. There is an ethanol plant up north of Steamboat Rock. I think they are the ones behind the IARR. They wanted a connection with a second railroad and bought the line to Marshalltown.
I’m not sure if they still have the GP-30. They have used a couple of different engines since start up. I’m on the IARR yahoo group, but there hasn’t been any postings for quite a while now. I think the owner of the list was an IARR employee who went to work for another railroad, so info has kind of dried up.
Jeff
Thanks Jeff.
The only IARR picture on RRpicturearchives is of the GP30.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locoPicture.aspx?id=80442
Dale, that is the current engine. We took a little trip to find it today. It was parked near a country grade crossing between the plant (just north of US 20) and Ackley.
They used to have an ex-WC GP-30 and I knew that one had been replaced by a SW type switcher. It seems most interchange is still done with the CN.
Jeff
Also got to see video on the KWWL (Waterloo) website of the tornado that hit Fairbank (plus Hazleton and Aurora). My God, what a freaking monster. Again, I’m not aware of any actual damage to the UP/IANR line (ex-CGW) up to Oelwein but any info would be appreciated as always. While it’s hard for me to imagine even an EF5 being able to rip rail and ties I do wonder if there was roadbed damage at Parkersburg, New Hartford, and in between there; certainly signal and sign damage would be possible on the CN mainline.
If Sherman’s troops could bend rail around trees in Georgia, believe me, an EF5 could rip rail, ties, tie plates, spikes, ballast and everything else up and toos it around like a swizel stick. I’ve seen photos of tornado-damaged ROWs before. Hideous.
Still nothing about it on the Yahoo Iowa RR lists.
This was on the Illinois Central list-
Nothing with the railroad was damaged in Parkersburg. I live in
Michigan but came back to Parkersburg (My hometown) to help with the
cleanup. The railroad in Sinclair may have had some damage from the
collapse and destruction of the grain elevator next to the ROW, but I
couldn’t see anything apparent Monday night when I went through there.
It may have already been cleaned up. As a matter of fact, coal was
being hauled EB and I had to wait for it to clear before heading north
from Sinclair. The damage in Parkersburg is rrestricted to the
southern 1/3 of town about 4 blocks from ROW and 5 blocks from the
depot. New Hartford’s damage is north of the ROW about 4 blocks.