The article says the railroad bought it as part of it’s future bridge project. I’m guessing the depot is not long for this world.
Jeff
Shame to see a nice looking building like that go…
Three-Four years ago that place was a hideous shade of rust red with green trim. They sandblasted it and cleaned it up. Must have been interesting place when MILW, CB&Q, DRI&NW, CRIP were all crammed in there with CNW. (I believe there was at least one other depot( DRI&NW or CB&Q) there in town…A BNSF signal building sits on that now)
Any new bridge will be a challenge on the alignment there for UP, which is not great to start with and will also affect CP.
Article on other properties UP aquiring
Looking a properties purchased, It appear the new bridge will be south of the existing bridge approximately on the alignment of existing industrial tracks.
clinton ia by Donald Schmitt, on Flickr
[:)][;)It would appear that time and change of the Railroads buildings design says out with the old and in with the new century.
$300,000 for that building is one heck of a BarGoon!
After the last big flood, the entire US-30 corridor from the bridge to the SW was destroyed and re-developed. Recovery has been slow.
Much of that alignment purchased ironically was CRIP owned at one point. The buildings in there were vacant and in poor shape acct. water damage. Used to make an awful lot of buttons there from river clams and mussels.
Location Location Location
It’s 6 times any other property in the vicinity and twice most other properties in town.
Wasn’t this the subject of an article (or column) in Trains some years back ? (or maybe even a thread here, etc.) I remember the “buttons from clams” part, maybe in the context of how old or historic names for tracks and yards persist long after their owner, use, or the local reference are gone.
I don’t think that was in the Muscantine, Iowa article, but maybe it was:
R.I.P., DY
Culver Tower, Muscatine, Iowa
by Brunner, Edward J.
from Trains April 1986
[quote user=“Paul_D_North_Jr”]
mudchicken
. . . Used to make an awful lot of buttons there from river clams and mussels.
Wasn’t this the subject of an article (or column) in Trains some years back ? (or maybe even a thread here, etc.) I remember the “buttons from clams” part, maybe in the context of how old or historic names for tracks and yards persist long after their owner, use, or the local reference are gone.
I don’t think that was in the Muscantine, Iowa article, but maybe it was:
R.I.P., DY
Culver Tower, Muscatine, Iowa
by Brunner, Edward J.
With all the stakes I put on the ground from Camanche north to the Junction (Industrial Park where the connecting track is/ Hawker Chemical/Clysar Film)in the past 10 years, I think the whole place is supported by little 2x2x18" stilts with pointy ends. Just like the bridge and the yard, nothing’s even close to being/ been built. Broken Dreams Central? Skeeter & tick preserve.
[:-,] So vampires are unlikely to be seen around there - use any PK nails as well ? [swg]
- PDN.
Any PK or Mag nails wouldn’t have lasted in that crummy asphalt. (old US-67, might have been an improvement, if nailing the asphalt chunks to the subgrade is an improvement?)
Vampires? in Iowa? (all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering About[D)]) Garlic anyone? Vampire skeeters?
Hey, I resemble that remark… 
An Iowan taught me that…(sorry, the cat is over on another thread doing strange things and it’s bleeding over. Must be the eclipse.)
OT: For those who don’t know, “PK” (Parker Kalon) nails are cadmium plated that have a silver color . . . [:-^]
Mag nails are magnetic nails, much easier to find with a magnetic ‘pin finder’ that surveyors use (instead of the disc-shaped metal detector often used on beaches, etc.).
- PDN.
Both types of nails are beefier than your typical wood nail.The mag nails are distributed out of Cincinnati (CrisNick) and they are really hard to destroy.
We prefer to refer to them as Iowowegians.[:-^]
When I moved to Iowa from Indiana my brother-in-law asked, “In Indiana we are known as Hoosiers… what do they call people from Iowa? … Ioweenies?”
The name stuck, so thus in my family, that is THE term for us “Hawkeyes”.
And, there was the Hawkeye who was talking with someone back east, and mentioned that he was from Iowa–and the Easterner said, “We pronouce it O Hi O.”