Ottumwa Conecting railroad

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I have heard of a railroad called Ottumwa Connecting in a book. I looked it up but found no results. It is not existing today. What happened to Ottumwa Connecting? Was its sucsessor Burlington Junction railway?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

2

Ottumwa Connecting abandoned 1985. Some pieces bought by Ottumwa Terminal which is now IAIS. (created from WAB/N&W remnants in 1984 and never did much. Power was ex BN NW-2 # 152)

Somebody needs to learn how to research. No satisfaction for buttonpushers in doing railroad research.[:-,]

3

Thanks for the information.

4

Des Moines Register, July 1, 1984 https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/130698914/ Pat Johnson has a one-track mind and it’s on the railroad. The Ottumwa Connecting Railroad isn’t your typical railroad. When it came to life on June 11 and rolled quietly into town, it carried with it the distinction of being Iowa’s shortest railroad and one of the smallest in the United States. The railroad gives new meaning to the word “small.” It has just 3.25 miles of track, one locomotive, one customer, and just one employee besides Johnson, who doubles for now as the company’s president and its principal train engineer. “I tell people that we’re not as long as other railroads, but we’re just as wide,” Johnson said. “We’re not much for show; we’re strictly a little, working railroad.” The Ottumwa Connecting Railroad links two of the city’s principal industries, the John Deere Ottumwa Works and the Ralston Purina Co.‘s feed plant, with the main line of the Milwaukee Road. The companies’ rail connection with the outside world was severed 28 months ago when the Norfolk and Western Railway abandoned its branch line between Ottumwa and Moulton. That decision forced the Ottumwa businesses to rely solely on trucks for all of their transportation needs. The Norfolk and Western, part of the Norfolk Southern Corp., one of the nation’s largest rail companies, pleaded poor economics for deciding to pull out of Ottumwa. The company said it was losing money on the branch line.

5

http://johnmarvigbridges.org/Ottumwa%20Wabash%20Bridge.html

This is the Ottumwa Connecting bridge Mr. Johnson had expected to paint.

6

Also explains the short lived history of the railroad (Colorado & Eastern/ Gary Flanders)

7

Thanks a lot!!

8

Thanks for all the information!!

9

Thanks.

10

What is the Colorado & Eastern rr?

thank you.

11

Colorado & Eastern/ Colorado Springs & Eastern (both owned by Flanders, HQ in Colorado Springs) were former Rock Island lines purchased by Flanders on promissary notes in the Denver and Colorado Springs areas (at one point operating as far east as Belleville KS) under an ICC directed service order. He also operated Northern Railcar, a fly-by-night railcar repair and inspection outfit. Locomotive fleet was a gaggle of F units, NW-2’s, SW-1’s and NW-5’s from BN and a small number of GP-7’s from UP. Most of his holdings including other railroads in Council Bluffs, Ottumwa, Arkansas and Chicago were all shoestring operations on shaky ground. The railroads, locomotives and related equipment wound up being repossessed by creditors and the railroads. Much equipment had been stripped for parts or otherwise sold off.The railroad version of a ponzi scheme eventually collapsed. Rail lines leased by Flanders to other small railroads found themselves holding the bag at the end with obligations they knew nothing about.

12

Thank you.