I became interested in Iowa’s railroad network 20 years ago, while reading the April 1986 issue of Trains magazine. This special issue was dedicated to the Hawkeye State, and is still one of my favorites. (And may have the first mention of “Regional Railroads” in Trains.)
The decision to start the Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha resulted in seven railroads building lines from Chicago to Council Bluffs. From the north these were the Chicago Great Western, the Illinois Central, the Chicago and North Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Wabash.
Excellent soil and a good climate results in some of the best farmland in the world, especially around Waterloo and Fort Dodge. The branchline network to serve these farms put Iowa’s rail mileage over 10,000, giving it 4th place in the United States.
More on the history of Iowa’s railroads can be found at this website.
Early Iowa Railmaps 1948Map
All of Iowa’s 99 Counties had rail service until 1980. Since then half of the network has been abandoned, and now 9 Counties do not have rail service. Jones County (62) lost service during 1980 when the Milwaukee Road pulled out, followed by Van Buren
County (94) later during 1980 which had a Burlington Northern branch. Next came Decatur County (82) during 1981 when Burlington Northern abandoned anoth
It never ceases to amaze me the amount of research you are willing to do.
Thanks for everything you add to this forum. How do you get all this information? I always thought I was interested in facts, but you just keep rolling.
My favorite drive in Iowa is along the Mississippi from Davenport to Muscatine on Route 22. The old CRIP mainline parallels the river and it is a very pretty route.
ed
Thanks Ed,
The Iowa DOT has an excellent website-
http://www.iowarail.com/industry/index.asp
The AAR site is helpful,
http://www.aar.org/AboutTheIndustry/StateInformation.asp
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/
has an excellent traffic density map for members (free)
I’ll be using the terrific April 1986 Trains and my 1928 and 1985 Handy Railroad Atlases as well.
That is quite the website for the Iowa DOT. I wish Indiana had that…perhaps they do and I havent found it.
Did you check out the traffic density map at the Iowa DOT? That is detailed.
If you ever run across other traffic density maps, primarily the midwest, let me know.
ed
I always thought that I was an ace when it came to research, but you’ve definitely put me in the minor leagues. More power to you for an incredible of digging and then sharing it with the rest of us.
Thanks Paul.
I am glad I did not try to do this with your State. Three more Counties, 2,000 miles more track and twice as many railroads. You certainly live at the center of it all.
Wow! A lot of info. Thanks for this info.
Dale:
I’ve opined that Clearing Yard is the heart of North American railroading, so maybe I am at the center of it all. Even if you limited your range to the RTA’s service area (Cook, DuPage, Will, Kane, McHenry and Lake Counties), you would be working on it for a very long time, what with terminal roads, shortlines, interurbans, etc. It would be almost as bad as sorting out the renumberings of Santa Fe’s FT’s.
Oh come on Dale…do Illinois!
You have conquered the Mississippi River, Iowa, Amtrak routings…what is next?
I am in Chicago probably 3x a week and it is truly an amazing railroad center.
Paul, I would tend to agree that Clearing may be the center of the universe for railroading, at least in North America. I always enjoy driving on Cicero Avenue. Also, there is an interesting place south of the yard in the Industrial park where you can sit in your car (not trespassing) and watch the hump.
Has Clearing remained as busy as always, or has it slowed down with the mergers, etc?
ed
I don’t even think I could do the Calumet area of Chicago, with CRL, CSL, LSBC, ect.
The Peru area is / was almost as bad.
LSBC was one mysterious railroad, and not only with boxcars.
Dale:
One more thing…I am a traffic density geek. Like to know how much is on rail lines and I have looked at the Iowa map and also the rrpictures site.
Do you have any other web sources for tonnage? I believe you responded on my traffic density thread with Trains issues, but was just wondering if you found anything else.
Thanks.
ed
In the early 1990’s, Clearing had all but shut down, but has since recovered quite nicely. There was a lead-off news article in TRAINS about how BRC managed to pull off this recovery. The C424’s and cow-calf sets are long gone, but I still sneak a peek regularly from near the Wal-Mart when I’m running errands. The SD40-slug sets on the hump are a good replacement for the cow-calf sets.
There are several legal spots around the fringes that I check out depending on where I’m going and how much time I have available. There is a public road along the north edge of the west departure yard that I check periodically and the grade crossing at 65th and Harlem is also pretty good.
HOLY SH**!!! Looks like I need to visit this side of the forum more often!
Dale, you really need to get a life.[:D]
Seriously, wow, excellent breakdown.
Hey Brian. I was wondering if I could finish this before you found it.
I should be done Arpil 25th.
Do you have the April 1986 Trains ? 20 years later and it is still one of the best.
I decided the CR&MC was a streetcar line and left it off.
http://www.cedar-rapids.org/documents/cr&mc_carbarn.pdf
Ed-
The only other tonnage map I have seen on line is Georgia. Some day I’m going to search for them.
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/DOT/plan-prog/intermodal/rail/railmaps.shtml
Dale:
I talked to the map guy at Iowa DOT…Craig O’Reily today. Quite a map. I asked him about the data and how they got it. He indicated the class 1’s are required in Iowa to submit the data on their routes. They either do this on a line by line segment or they give him the system data (sure would like to get that info, but he didnt bite when I asked about “public system data”).
I am piecing together info, as I get it, unfortunately two of the Trains issues you referenced are not in my office. Hmmm.
ed
I talked to the Iowa DOT map guy…Craig O’Reilly today and thanked him for the great detail on the map.
He said the class 1’s are required to provide the info to him and the smaller lines must fill out an annual report including density.
I thought the Iowa map was great til I caught site of the Georgia stuff. WOW.
ed
I’m not sure, but I don’t think my stash goes back that far. I will check when I get home tonight. As far as the CR&MC is concerned, yep, it was just a streetcar operation, but I think it ran on the same line as the MILW spur between Marion and CR. Our local railfan club has photos of the streetcars as their banner shots.
Finally remembered to check- the oldest issue of Trains in my stash is March of 93.
Oh, and here’s the local railfan site-
http://hometown.aol.com/cedarrapidsrail/CRARA.html
Thanks for the link Brian.
I think you would enjoy the Iowa issue if you could get it. Perhaps some day you’ll see it for sale at a model train show or something.
I believe the CR&MC had their own line to Marion, beside that IC line on this link along the west side of Indian Creek.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=2&S=14&Z=15&X=192&Y=1453&W=1&qs=|marion||
Now that I think about it, I believe you’re right. The MILW spur didn’t veer off the main east-west line until it was several hundred yards west of Indian Creek, and the main crossed Indian Creek north of Marion Boulevard. The pictures on the club’s website show the interurban line as paralleling Marion Boulevard on the south side where it crossed Indian Creek, as far as I can tell from looking at them, anyway. They sure look like they’re shots of the same bridge from opposite sides, and the lay of the road is nearly identical to today’s Marion Boulevard. The location of the interurban would then be the wrong side relative to the MILW. I’ll have to ask the old hats and the history buffs at the club next time I make it to a meeting.