Does anyone know the schedule for the Iowa Traction Railroad? Do they even operate in the winter? I have not seen any pictures from the winter so I was just curious. Making a railfan trip to Winona in a few days and thought a side trip to Mason City might be in order.
These might be some sites that would rprove helpful:
and this from UPRR’s site:
http://www.uprr.com/customers/shortline/lines/iat.shtml
Web site of IDOT with maps and statistics of IOWA’s various railroads:
http://www.iowadot.gov/railplan/appendix_a.htm
and this site has ahistory:
???
You mean you didn’t see the December 2010 issue of Trains???[:O]
The one with the article about the Iowa Traction. In winter, too!
Seriously, I imagine they operate according to their customer’s needs. I don’t get up to Mason City too often. I’ve only seen them working once. That’s not a fair representation though. I only get to see a bit of them down around Clear Lake Jct. Also some of the times I’m arriving or leaving can be in the wee hours of the day. I wouldn’t expect to see them then. Still, they keep some of their electric motors in advantageous spots to help make switching moves, so you can see them even when they aren’t working at that specific location.
Jeff
Here’s a bird’s eye shot of two Iowa Traction locomotives on two tracks. They interchange with UP south and with CP to the west.
http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#/h3rkphrt5z84msw1
Here’s the Clear Lake shop with what appears to be a test track. Looks like a model railroad loop.
They operate as demand dictates at the AGP soybean plant in Mason City. The usual plan of action is for the two man crew to drive the truck to the AGP plant around 8-9 am on weekdays. They will pull the cars out of the plant first and take them over to the ICE interchange just a couple of blocks to the northeast of the AGP facility. They usually won’t pull more than 3 loads at a time, so if they have more than that they will make multiple trips.
After shoving those cars on one track, they will pull the empties from the ICE interchange and spot them in the AGP plant. On most days, this will be the only work they will do and be done by 10-11 am. Don’t go chasing an ICE eastbound out of Mason City at 7:30 am, come back to town and find that all the locos and cars have moved and they’re done for the day.
The only other traffic is the scrap gondolas from the Behr Recycling yard locate just north of their shops at Emery. They will move scrap loads out of there and usually take them to the UP interchange in Mason City. They will sometimes do that in the afternoon, but they only do that a few times a week.
Find the recent issue of Trains magazine for the excellent article by Joel Jensen–covering the Iowa Traction running in the winter. It will answer the basic question; yes, they do operate in the winter.
Lance
You cannot miss their horns every morning at about 8 to 9 am. And they sure do pull more than 3 loads at a time from the plant, and shove as many as possible up the ICE interchange.
I am sure this time of year they cut crossings first with the locos before shoving cars around, especially over 8th street SW crossing.
The share Behr with the ICE, so one is never for sure what will go where on any particular day from Emery. All one really has to do is hang out on 19th Street SW in the morning by Pierce Avenue, and sooner or later they will show up.
Some of the cuts west of town will be filling up, so I imagine sooner or later the plow will have to come out. There is no reason right now for them to go west of Emery in the winter, nor east of Federal (US 65).
Checking out a college, or chasing a girl on Christmas break? [:-^]
About 10-years ago I noticed that Iowa Traction had an active customer way at the west end of the line. It was a fertilizer sales yard that took inbound shipments of anhydrous ammonia by tank car. The facility was located on the south side of the mainline, immediately east of I-35.
QUESTION: Is that customer still active?