Western Railroad Discussion > Iowa Interstate Fall Update

It's been a while since I've uploaded, so here's some local happenings around my hometown of Wilton IA.

1.  Wilton Local is on the siding at N. Star ready to head east, Oct. 30th.

2.  Interesting car to see on the local.  This is actually an empty from Stutsman's in Hills that the crew picked up in Iowa City.

3.  Nov. 4th, the Wilton Local is eastbound on the main with a group of covered coil gons from SSAB (on the CP in Montpelier) that had been stored at West Liberty.

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4.  Nov. 4th Wilton Local is inbound from Iowa City this time, with a single tank crossing the Cedar River at Moscow.

5.  Still Nov. 4th, shoving cars up the hill to the JM plastic pipe plant in Wilton.

6.  Spotting JM.

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7.  Nov. 5th, road freights meet at N. Star siding just west of Wilton.

8.  Double heritage units on the westbound Nov. 5th, crossing the Cedar River at Moscow.

9.  IAIS bought 25 new gons from Freight Car America in Mexico.  We see a lot of gons in Wilton with the Gerdau Steel mill in town.

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10.  Nov. 14th the Wilton Local is working the Twin States Engineering plant (fertilizer manuf.) west of Durant.

11.  We have sun!  Nov. 15th the Wilton Local is westbound on the siding at N. Star.

12.  From the road crossing it looked like Gerdau's old blue switcher was sitting in two pieces perpendicular to the track, so I walked back for a closer look.  Not 2 pieces, but missing some important stuff!

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13.  And this morning, Nov. 27th, westbound BICB is clearing up at N. Star to meet the eastbound.

14.  N. Star meet and crew swap.

15.  Properly pointed pusher on the westbound in the siding.

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16.  The Wilton Local followed the westbound out from Rock Island.  After the westbound freight cleared its warrant the Local crew got one to follow them into the siding at N. Star, and here the cond. is opening the inside crossover switch so they can grab cars off the "pocket" to spot at Gerdau.

17.  I've been waiting to get 516 pointed west on the main to do this "then and now" shot.  I've posted this before but the train was in the siding.  Still need to get it with sun though...

18.  Rock Island football special is westbound running wrong main at the Wilton overpass circa 1974 in the Rich Wilson view.

Thanks for looking!

Andy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/24 10:18 by AndyBrown.

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Great bunch, lots of cool shots of nuts-and-bolts railroading serving the customers. And the mainline shots make them look like they're another class 1 with nice power and a great looking ROW...

JG

Gerdau was always an interesting call, they weren't spending much money but it was still
interesting in terms of "projected" projects. Love the shots, there are days when I do miss
the Midwest. But there were the days when you were staying on I-80 because the snow on
the offramps made it impossible to exit.

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/24 19:19 by callum_out.

Great series and very nice commentary on real world railroading!

Great series! Really like shot #4, I need to shoot that bridge one of these days.

SP8595 Wrote:
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> Great series! Really like shot #4, I need to shoot
> that bridge one of these days.

Summer mornings are your best bet; getting that morning eastbound while sun is on the north side is like shooting fish in a barrel.  During the Fall/Winter, light is better for broadsides from the south bank, but can't always get a train when you need it.

Of course in November when the sun never shines you don't have to worry about where it is!

Andy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/28/24 08:12 by AndyBrown.

Good stuff Andy 
MILW86A 

Very nice series of shots, thanks for sharing them!