Nostalgia & History > CNW in Iowa, Part I: ex-CGW around Des Moines, 1973-74

Continuing my retrospective of Iowa Lines in the 1970s, I’d like to turn to the CNW. After all the acquisitions in the 1960s, the CNW of the 1970s in Iowa was as big a show as the rest of the Iowa Lines put together. While traffic levels were dropping on all the other Iowa Lines, CNW’s traffic was booming in the 1970s. The Northwestern scrambled to acquire enough power to keep up with it. Second-hand power, including attractions such as high-nose C628s and ex-passenger F units, was obtained from various roads and from the dealer Precision National.

I think most of us remember CNW as an east-west railroad, but the Northwestern handled considerable north-south traffic as well, especially Midwest grain moving to the Gulf for export. Before purchase of the Rock’s Spine Line, CNW’s north-south traffic was spread over multiple routes that came together at Marshalltown. North of Marshalltown, there were two daily trains each way over the ex-CGW line Marshalltown – Oelwein – South St. Paul – East Minneapolis, and two daily trains each way over the ex-M&StL Marshalltown – Albert Lea – Cedar Lake Yard (Minneapolis). South of Marshalltown, there were four daily trains each way Marshalltown – Kansas City over the ex-CG&W (two each way to/from Chicago, the other two each way continuing as, or connecting with, the north-south trains operating north of Marshalltown). And there were three daily trains each way between Boone or Marshalltown and Peoria or St. Louis routed via Clinton and Nelson.

In this thread I post my favorite shots of 1973-74 CNW action on the ex-CGW main line passing through Des Moines. Corrections and additions to my captions are welcome.

The CNW Kansas City Subdivision extended 218 miles over the ex-CGW main line from Bell Yard in Des Moines to Kansas City. The first 74 miles from Bell Yard to Diagonal, Iowa was ABS train-order territory. The next 82 miles to St. Joseph was dark territory. Through St. Joseph the ex-CGW line utilized 10 miles of trackage rights over CTC or double-track lines of BN, the St. Joseph Terminal and ATSF to BC Jct., where passage over home rails resumed for 28 more miles of dark territory to Leavenworth. The final 24 miles into Kansas City was via trackage rights over MoPac’s CTC-equipped Omaha Line. On the 156-mile stretch from St. Joseph to Des Moines, there were only six places where long trains could pass. And on the 28-mile stretch between BC Jct. and Leavenworth, there were only two places where long trains could pass. North from Bell Yard, ABS territory extended 56 miles from Short Line Jct. (the crossing of the Rock Island in Des Moines) to Marshalltown. There was only one long siding en route, at Bondurant. This dearth of sidings made for some major dispatching delays on a railroad rife with slow orders hosting eight big trains per day.

We’ll start our tour at Bell Yard; typically, it was my starting location for Saturdays devoted to chasing trains over the ex-CGW.

1. Graffito on an F unit still in CGW paint at Bell Yard in Des Moines, 9/22/73.

2. Late in the morning of 8/26/73, Kansas City – Marshalltown manifest #166 stands on the, ahem, main line at Bell Yard in Des Moines, preparing to depart for Marshalltown. Teams of F units, such as this ABAABA lash-up, were common on road trains over the ex-CGW in the early 70s, carrying on a fine CGW tradition into the CNW era. The crew will make a turn, bringing Marshalltown – Kansas City manifest #165 back to Bell Yard. The scale track lies in the weeds in the foreground. (Note the scale house.) Behind that, a cow-calf set, still in CGW paint, works the lead.

3. An hour or so later, the six Fs put on a great show bringing the 150+ cars of #166 up the 1% grade out of the Des Moines River Valley and over the hill to Bondurant. With sand flying, the exhaust stands straight up and the chant of wide-open 567s carries across the corn fields. (8/26/73)

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4. When #166 reaches the top of the hill, it encounters an immediate drop down into a sag approaching the small town of Bondurant. (8/26/73)

5. – 6. #166 eases down the hill to a stop short of the south switch at Bondurant, obeying train orders to “wait at Bondurant until 1230pm”. But after waiting until the appointed time, the block still shows clear, and #166 is off again. (8/26/73)

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7. On 3/9/74, late-running Kansas City – Chicago priority freight #144 descends into the Bondurant sag behind SD45 943 (no dynamics) and an SD40-2. This power will go through to Proviso; the interdivisional crew will go as far as Clinton.

8. – 9. The Bondurant sag also was an interesting shot for westbound trains. On 12/9/73, Chicago – Kansas City priority freight #143 charges through the sag. The CNW had a very fine tradition of giving names to many of its through trains, in addition to numbering them, and this practice was extended to certain trains operating over the ex-CGW lines. In this case, #143 also was known as The Cannonball. On this day, a torpedo-boat GP35 slug set has escaped from its normal western assignment on The Cowboy to make a Proviso – Kansas City round trip. An SD45 trails the slug set. Back in the train, descending the other side of the sag, are 8-10 racks of Chryslers from the Belvidere, IL, assembly plant that will connect to ATSF 308 to LA as well as to MKT 1 and ATSF 195 trains to Texas.

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10. On the morning of 9/22/73, five F units leading #166 clump across the diamonds over the BN, Des Moines Union, and both east-west and north-south Rock Island main lines at Short Line Jct. In the distance, the huge train extends across the CGW’s Des Moines River Bridge back towards Bell Yard.

11. Another view of Kansas City – Marshalltown manifest #166 on 9/22/73, this time from the highway overpass just northeast of Bondurant. Chicken-wire F3 #202 leads the way. The piggyback loads are part of the 40th Street – Chicago block that will connect to #258 (AKA The Packer) at Marshalltown. With the climb out of the Des Moines River Valley behind them, the five Fs now have a good roll on the train. Looks like it is about time to harvest those soybean and corn fields.

12. There also was a tough grade going south out of Bell Yard towards Kansas City. No sooner had the caboose cleared the yard switch than the engineer on #165 of 12/2/73 put the power in Run 8. Power on this day was a GP35 leading 5 F B units. Although passenger trains had been gone for more than a decade at the time of this photograph, superelevation enabling speed around the curves was still in place.

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13. The top of the southbound hill out of Bell Yard was reached just before the north switch of Cumming. Five F units leading #165 have crested the summit on 9/22/73. Volunteer corn is overtaking the siding, a mocking reminder of the CGW’s slogan advertising itself as “The Corn Belt Route”. Note the classic CGW black-stand, searchlight ABS signal. CNW was gradually painting them silver, but in 1973-74 a number of black ones remained.

14. Towards the south end of Cumming we have 6 F units barreling down grade with Minneapolis – Kansas City train #161 on the morning of 9/16/73. On the point of the train is the Waterloo pick-up, including two flats of John Deere tractors followed by an insulated box car, perhaps containing a load of canned hams from Rath.

15. Another 15 or so miles down the line near Hanley Spur, we have this grim scene of #161 power-braking in preparation to crawl pass the site of a recent derailment. Rails, ties and ballast are back in place, but the underlying drainage and sub-grade weaknesses have not been addressed. Derailments on the Kansas City mains of CNW, Milwaukee and the Rock were much too common in the early 70s. My grandfather, a rail customer in Des Moines, was deeply disturbed by a quote from Ben Heineman appearing in the newspaper at the time to the effect that “It’s cheaper to clean up the derailments than it is to fix the track.” To Granddad, something was terribly wrong with the economics in the American freight transportation system when this was the case. It just didn’t seem right that an important transportation service lacked a high degree of reliability and safety. (9/16/73)

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16. Arriving at Bell Yard on the afternoon of 12/9/73 is Kansas City – Chicago time freight #142. Power today is SD45 958 (no dynamics) and a new SD40-2, plus a couple of F units included in the power consist to help power the heavy train over the roller-coaster profile of the ex-CGW line.

17. Four months later, winter has passed and the same location is transformed. Arriving at Bell Yard on the fine spring morning of 4/4/74 is Kansas City – Minneapolis manifest #164 (AKA The North Star), powered this day by ABA F units. On the point is ex-FEC FP7 240, one of 30 Fs purchased from Precision National in 1970. The former passenger unit is equipped with a 5-chime horn.

18. We’ll close out our look at the ex-CGW around Des Moines with this view of five F units and a GP9 wheeling Marshalltown – Kansas City manifest #165 around the corner at Mingo siding on 9/21/74. The weeds have turned to rust colors, and the tree behind F7A 227 is showing yellow. The change in seasons is underway, reminding me that before the snow flies I will be leaving the Midwest to return to school in California.

Hope you enjoyed the show, and thanks for looking.

Previously, I posted some CNW 1974 action over the ex-CGW and ex-M&StL lines in Southern Minnesota. If you missed that one and you want to see more, go to

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1673329 .

I have also posted threads on the ICG in Iowa; see

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1659192

and

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1661996.

For Milwaukee Road in Iowa, see

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1653113

and

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1663500.

For N&W in Des Moines, see

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1656640.

And for Rock Island in Western Iowa, see

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,1583356,page=1.

Best regards,

Rob L.

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AAA+ photos and documentation. THANKS!

Bob Jordan

You da best, Rob - Thank you for these wonderful high-quality photographic tours of the midwest in the '70's. I have enjoyed all of your photographic essays, and none more than this time on the C&NW that I was just a few years late in seeing. When I was in engine training in St. Paul for BN in 1979, I would zoom around the Twin Cities in a rental car on weekends for photos. I went to the still-existing Cedar Lake yard, and at the decrepit engine terminal sat the same chicken-wire F-3 202. I never thought I would ever see a chicken-wire F-3, especially running, and I walked right up and gave it a kiss! In my photograph of it, you can see my footsteps leading up to the grimy nose. As it turned out, I saw it again a couple years later in a long deadline at Oelwein, but by then it was out of service. I never did get to see the cool covered-wagon consists that you did, not even on my own BN, before I knew it, the great engine purges of the late '70's and early '80's occured, and so much that was old and dear was lost then. Anyway, love your stuff.

Great scans, too, what are you using to scan your photos? I want to buy one!!! --- --- - --- JLH

Yea nice is a understatement!

Rob, thank you for posting this great series of photos and captions. The C&NW was an amazing railroad in the early 1970s; the variety of motive power was hard to beat. During the 1970’s, I took several rail fan trips to Iowa from my home in Wisconsin but never saw the railroad south of Marshalltown. Your photos provide a good look at that area.

The GP35 B-unit slugs were built around 1971, and were common on the Wisconsin Division. If I remember correctly, the GP35 slug sets were assigned to the Proviso pool for a few years until they were moved to the Western Division.

Thanks again for posting an excellent series of photos!

Dennis

The photographs and the descriptions are magnificent, among the best postings I've ever seen on trainorders.com. You cover the subject comprehensively, and your writing skills are matched by your photography. Thanks so much for taking the time and huge effort necessary to put this and the other presentations together.

Art House

Well done and thank you for your efforts.

Great stuff; I enjoy the description of operating conditions as much as the photos.

Awesome stuff Rob. Today, the CGW survives only to Bondurant. North of there is a bike trail.

Bell Ave when I moved to Des Moines in 1999 was used for car storage but now thats all ripped out as well and also a bike trail from Park Ave in Des Moines south.

MILW86A

Great photos and you are right the ex CGW railroad was in terrible shape back then. Bad track and few sidings it was no brainer that the C&NW wanted the spine line into KC.
JC

What can I say that hasn't already been said. You have absolutely excellent stuff from a wonderful period of time. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of your Iowa shots from all your postings. You've captured the '70's era of railroading in Iowa very well. I'd like to see your stuff in a book as I'd buy the very first copy. Keep up the great work!

Amazing stuff as usual. The track may survive to Bondurant, but the track is out of service and red boarded right by where it goes under I-80. The last customer up there was the Iowa DOT. They opened a bulk salt terminal just beyond the overpass east of town that saved the line from abandonment for a couple years. Now they have stopped using the facility and the line is soon to be abandoned. There are actually 5 or 6 tank cars at the end of the line. Not sure if they plan to retrieve them or cut them up on site. As Dave said, Bell Yard is gone. It went from a weedy open area with tracks to just a weedy open area. The Des Moines area would sure be a lot more interesting with the CGW still in place, but unfortunately it is/was redundant trackage.

-Justin

There were a few tanks still sitting out at Bondurant when I came back from Marion a week ago.

Rob,

Most amazing images from Iowa's railroading past. I can't get enough from this time period. Hope to see more from the upper midwest.

Great photos and information. Posts like these makes Trainorders so worth the $.