Western Railroad Discussion > Railfanning in Cedar Rapids

I am a recent emigre from the U.K. On Thursday I will visit Cedar Rapids for the first time. Can anyone suggest the best place for railfanning?
Many thanks in advance, Steve Andrews

Steve Andrews
Ames, IA

Well it kind of depends on what you're after. Cedar Rapids has a lot to offer but you need to move around to catch it all. The UP East west main is easily accessible in several spots, probably the most popular being around C street on the east side of town near the Cedar River bridge. There is a bike path bridge over the tracks (old RI right of way) that you can shoot from or from street level. There are grade crossings on both ends of Beverly yard on the west side of town, plus Beverly has a switch job that will make itself apparent too. Just south of Beverly yard is Crandic's Smith Dows yard which will host Crandic switchers and one or two trips per day by Iowa Interstate out of their South Amana yard near Amana.

The large ADM plant adjacent to Hwy 30 on the south side of town has 2 switch engines that are often close enough to the road for photos.

Crandic is visible in various areas around town. Their home office and yard area is located on 16th Ave SW, and they have switch jobs working there and going down to ADM and Smith Dows yard, also north/east to Penford closer to downton. Also UP has the old RI "north yard" which may be a little hard to photograph, but there is street access to the south end near the Quaker Oats plant downtown; lots of switching activity here by UP and you may catch CN here on their branch from Manchester.

Iowa Northern operates from Waterloo into North Yard also but can be hard to catch in daytime; not sure what they're current CR schedule is but seems like early mornings are your best bet for them to be in town.

Most definitely bring a map and study Google Maps ahead of time; with all the angled streets and tracks in CR, plus the Cedar River and its bridges, it can get confusing, especially for a newcomer.

Andy

Andy's got it mostly correct. I would add that the grade crossings near Beverly Yard can be difficult to access without a map.
One is on the west end of the yard on Old Bridge Road which you have to wander through some back streets to get to. The other
is at the former Beverly Tower location, MP86, about a quarter mile east of the yard. This is 26th Street SW which you get to
off 33rd Avenue SW, east from Edgewood Road SW. The former grade crossing of Edgewood Road was replaced a couple of years ago
with an overpass. There's a bike lane along the east side with a separate right-of-way, but there are also fences on both the
bike and road overpasses. I have not shot this, and probably need to do that. Parking is questionable.

Send me a PM if you want more information.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/18 08:10 by ntharalson.

Thank you both for the excellent info. Very useful for a future trip.

Thanks from me, too. Much appreciated.

Steve Andrews
Ames, IA

Iowa Northern is mostly a nocturnal/early morning operation in Cedar Rapids. Last Monday 4/2 when I was leaving for Des Moines they were in UP's North Yard going north lite power to make up their train.

CN usually departs sometime in the morning north for Manchester after they switch Cargill and a couple of other industries. There are occasional unit grain trains for ADM that come out of NW Iowa as well.

Andy and Nick have the CIC and UP pretty well covered. If you go to the old Beverly Tower crossing, I would park on the east side of the road south of the main. UP in the last few years can get testy about people on their property. Use common sense and you should be good.

MILW86A

steveandrews Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am a recent emigre from the U.K. On Thursday I
> will visit Cedar Rapids for the first time. Can
> anyone suggest the best place for railfanning?
> Many thanks in advance, Steve Andrews


I'll be doing two weeks of rail fanning from this Saturday, flying in from the UK. I'll be going through Ames on 17th or 18th, following US30.

Rugby
UK

Excellent news! If you want, give me a ring on 5152902885 and we can meet up for a while.

Posted from iPhone

Steve Andrews
Ames, IA