My son and I rode our bikes down the former MILW mainline(now a trail)east from Highway 13 2.5 miles one way.When was this torn out?Does anyone have info on the makeup of the MILW in this area prior to it’s abandonment? I’d like to see some diagrams of track and info on freight trains thru this area from about that time.Thanks.
Bill
Marion,Iowa
I remembered this topic-heres a link to some photos,etc
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=2&TOPIC_ID=62923
Oh my God, someone on the forum who must practically be a neighbor! Do you live anywhere near Bowman Woods, Bill? I’ve lived in various homes in both NE CR and Marion over the last 32 years, and have many fond memories of watching MILW freights roll through Marion. In fact, one of my first railroad memories from this town was when I came down from Minnesota to start work at Collins- they put us up in the Longbranch Motel until we could find an apartment, which at that time was located where the Granite City restaurant is located now. During the evenings while I was there, the Marion to CR transfer run would crawl past on the branch line that used to run northeast/southwest behind it, pulled by some old high-hood unit belching quite a bit of smoke and noise.
As far as the mainline is concerned, the last through freights before abandonment were in 1977, IIRC. The track east of Marion was pulled up not long after that, and the portion of the line from Marion to I-380 was rerouted to join the CNIC line and used as an industrial spur. Sometime around 1998 or 1999, the spur was further reduced, dropping the service to Katz Auto Salvage and a couple of other Marion businesses and ending where those pictures show it in the thread that wallyworld linked to. Now the only businesses left are the Holcim cement distributor across from Super Target and a carboard box manufacturer further west.
At the time of MILW’s demise, I was living in the Five Seasons Mobile Home Park out west of Wal-Mart, and would frequently walk the ROW out sometimes as far as the Cedar River bridge. The track used to run pretty much the same alignment as Highway 100 west of I-380 now runs.
Anything else you’d like to know, drop me an e-mail- there’s also a local Railfan Association that meets every third Monday in a church near CR Wash HS, I can point you to the particulars.
Brian,I was hoping to see you get on here.I just read your thread,thanks to wallyworld for the link.I’ve lived in Marion for 6 years now and have lived in the CR area for about 15.I’ve been somewhat curious as to the makeup of the MILW in this area for a while.I had the issue that the MILW historical society did on the CR area a while back.Good issue and I’d like to find a replacement as mine has disappeared since I moved into this house(Heck,no telling what’s in my basement! 
).
I saw the work crews tearing up the track in Marion.Sad to see that happen.Not much exists concerning the MILW’s freight operations in the area.I’ll have to check out the Marion Museum and see if they have anything on hand concerning tracks and businesses.I had heard that the MILW delivered to Menards at one time and then there is the Kings cement plant in Marion as well(not used by Kings too much anymore).
I work at the Menards in Marion in the mornings until 9am.Drop in sometime.
Bill
Marion,Iowa
I’ll have to do that! Yeah, the Marion Museum should be an exellent source of info- it’s been a couple of years since I visited there, but was impressed when I did. Also, if you hit the Marion Library, find the two volumes of The History of Marion, Iowa, which was compiled by the Marion High School students between 1994 and 1998- the second volume even has my son in the bottom class picture shown on Page 7. These books have alot of great anecdotes, pictures, and historical documentation of all the aspects of life in Marion, and the MILW is certainly mentioned alot.
I too remember Kings as being one of the last businesses to be served, along with an occasional tanker for the Co-op just east of 35th St. I don’t think there was much else in the way of business.
Olie’s Ham H’ Egger
Olies was the greatest place to soak up excess spirits at 3:00 in the morning within 70 miles of Marion. It sat just accross the drive way from the huge early 20th century Milwaukee depot. As a student at Cornell College in nearby Mt. Vernon with no such attraction, many an early morning ended with a road trip to Marion for breakfast.
Olies was where the Milwaukee crews ate. Weekend crowds may have made them seem trivial, but though the week they were the heart and soul of Olies. The third shift cook and waitresses knew the railroaders on a first name basis.
A switch engine in the depot siding was good indicator the crew was in Olies. Sometimes, to go orders were readied for through freights which slowed to pick up their order on the fly from a yardman.
Being a member of Cornell’s class of 1976, I saw the swan song of the Milwaukee in Marion. While massive numbers of Union Pacific freights now roar past Cornell’s football field in Mt. Vernon, the Milwaukee Road in Linn County is mostly old maps and memories.
Even Olies is gone. It was part of the block ripped out along with the old Milwaukee depot to make a cookie cutter design strip mall.
I have yet to find a place that can top the cheese omlets the week night cook used to make Olies. No fake plants and neon can match the honest atmosphere of cold men coming in from the bite of a -20 night in mid January to refill their thermoses with hot coffee for the next bunch of cars to sort.
I remember seeing Olies before the place was demolished, but I never took the opportunity to stop in and try the food. One of my big regrets…
Just checked the history books that I have for Marion- they don’t even mention Olie’s in them. I’m very surprised.
[quote user=“Victrola1”]
Olie’s Ham H’ Egger
Olies was the greatest place to soak up excess spirits at 3:00 in the morning within 70 miles of Marion. It sat just accross the drive way from the huge early 20th century Milwaukee depot. As a student at Cornell College in nearby Mt. Vernon with no such attraction, many an early morning ended with a road trip
Talk about pouring salt in an old wound…Vividly remember as a very young boy when the UP-MILW “Cities” trains would stop in Marion and, of course, all the mainline freight trains with UP power on them filled out with autoracks and intermodal. I was lucky enough to actually interview with the last MILW Trainmaster in Marion back in May, 1978 (Merle VanSickle). Helluva nice guy and even though he couldn’t offer me a job, he really took a liking to me and appreciated my enthusiasm and love for the Milwaukee Road. An absolute travesty that a once-79 mph passenger mainline was allowed to deteriorate the way it did and later get abandoned.
Marion was probably even more of an important point for the Milwaukee Road until the early years of the 20th Century. Until then, the Milwaukee’s route from Chicago to Kansas City ran southwest from Marion to Ottumwa.
That all changed with rights to Muscatine and a new route being laid from there to hook into the existing route north of Ottumwa.
The only thing approaching a “travesty” was when the Milwaukee poured in millions of dollars to upgrade this line with CTC, more sidings, and addition main tracks to be able to handle the UP “Cities” passenger trains between Council Bluffs and Chicago with the hope that the majority of freight traffic in this lane would follow. It didn’t. The C&NW route with the much greater online traffic and the C&NW’s bypass between Missouri Valley and Fremont around the Omaha/Council Bluffs terminal never put into doubt which would be the primary freight route. The money used to upgrade the line and subsequent loses handling these “new” passenger trains could certainly have been put to better use just about anywhere else on a railroad that always was short of money.
The line across Iowa had been straightened and double tracked in 1912/13 era. (Also in the hope of attracting UP traffic,) In the 30s they started single tracking it, something that continued into the 1970s and abandonment of it. Leaving short sections of double track and some long sidings. CTC was added in the 50s along with other track upgrades to handle the Cities’ trains.
The hope was that more freight traffic would follow, which it didn’t. Even so, the MILW had a run through freight with the UP. It lasted beyond the MILW’s retrenchment, the UP agreeing to receive it through the Kansas City gateway instead of Council Bluffs. One of the reasons that went into the decis
I agree. I take it some of the RoW is a bike path now. If a High(er) Speed Rail corridor were ever comtemplated across Iowa to Omaha, that could perhaps be reconfigured.
While I don’t argue your point about CNW having been a long-time partner of UP and getting the lion’s share of UP overhead traffic at the Council Bluffs-Omaha and Fremont gateways, the truth of the matter is that the MILW was SUPPOSED to have received the majority of UP traffic at Council Bluffs and its President at the time (John P. Kiley) was badly misled by UP. Whether or not you blame questionable judgement of MILW management or greedy UP objectives, the fact of the matter is that the MILW’s Iowa Division mainline was an important piece of infrastructure to the state of Iowa and its untimely demise should never have been allowed to happen.
All for naught.
http://milwaukeeroadarchives.com/PostWar/Capacityfor15MoreTrainsFast,RailwayAge01131958.pdf
Mind numbing. Such a forward looking railroad and so diverse in its functions. They had no idea of what was in store for them. As did many others in 1955. I’ve never been able to get my head around any of it. The more I read, the more that comes out, the more facts, the more opinions, I feel I’m getting further away from any of it making even a stick of sense.
If this was really the “truth” there would specific documentation of this or a contract. The C&NW was smart enough to figure out they weren’t getting a lot out of running these trains and the UP was dissatisfied with their operation over the C&NW. In the mid-1950s, long distance passenger trains were still considered something that was desirable, so it would logical that UP would embellish the benefits of taking on the extra traffic because they had to get the trains to Chicago somehow (CB&Q denied the request to handle the streamliners over its route, for example.) Prior to getting the “Cities” trains, the only reserved-coach train on the Milwaukee Road was the Olympian Hiawatha; the addition of the Cities trains required that the Milwaukee add 15 more reservation clerks to handle the business in and out of Chicago. Another huge added expense.
This type of passenger-related expenditure on the part of the Milwaukee was not unique. In the 1920s, it built the Gallatin Gateway Inn as its gateway to Yellowstone Park: off the main line and pretty much out on the prairie, this one-quarter of a million dollar expenditure was hardly what anyone (else) would consider a “gateway” to anywhere. The Milwaukee paid to put in automatic block signals on its branch line between Plummer, Idaho, and Manito, Washington and on the UP from Manito through Spokane to Marengo Washington to afford its passenger trains the safety of ABS. But the Milwaukee’s main line didn’t run through Spokane - it bypassed it to the south on a route (Plummer to Marengo via Malden) that remained dark territory right up until the route was abandoned in 1980. (The Milwaukee’s passenger train
I’ve read somewhere and will have to search to find it, that the MILW considered keeping the Council Bluffs line and abandoning the KC line. That sentiment changed, probably due to the shut down of the RI (including it’s own Chicago/KC route) and the willingness of UP to receive run through traffic at KC instead of CB.
For a few years after the RI shutdown, the MILW operated the exRI between the Quad Cities and Iowa City. They looked at extending that operation west to Des Moines and possibly to Council Bluffs. A MILW executive stopped that idea with, “If we wanted to go to Council Bluffs, we would’ve kept our own line.”
Jeff
I guess Mark judges the correctness of propert and/or decisions only by the bottom line impact.
Who knows? If the Hyperloop or some type of east-west bullet train ever comes to fruition, the route might become attractive again.