Nostalgia & History > Some Milwaukee Road Iowa Division from Marion Iowa

I grew up in Marion Iowa. While I was too young to remember the glory days of the Iowa Division I was in grade school at its end. And I was lucky to live across the street from the main west of the depot. A couple of Bill Kuba photos from the last 15 months of the mainline after the Council Bluffs Trains went to the CNW From Clinton to Tama. 

1. Train 107 at Marion Yard December 22, 1978. This train ran with A-B-A sets of F's most of the time, but this day there are 3 SD24's from PNC(ex SOU) for power. 

2. Train 107 from Highway 13 east of Marion Iowa May 12 1979.  The 560 I remember hung around Marion as the yard engine that summer. Obviously the Savanna crew preffered to have that leading instead of the SD24. Dove was the east end of two main tracks in Marion where this is located. It was named after former Chief Dispatcher Lawrence Dove. 

Thank you for looking! 

MILW86A 

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Love those high nose SD24's, Great consist in #2! Thanks for posting these gems!

I appreciate any coverage on that now abandoned Milwaukee Road line through Iowa!

Good stuff, thanks for sharing!

Erik

Great shots of a line I really admired and miss dearly.  Nice look back though on better times.

Of course this is all gone now.  The IA13 bridge was filled in several years ago, then they made a walking trail out of the
right of way east from there and put parking on the west side, so they had to replace the bridge!  You can't make this
stuff up!  Most of the right of way has vanished although some is left as a bike/waling trail west of downtown.  The
former right-of-way west of Blairs Ferry Road in Cedar Rapids is being removed for some reason I haven't determined.
The former Holcim Cement Distribution facility is gone, along with the Nash Finch food distribution center.  The only
customer left on the old Milwaukee is the former Longview Fiber plant, now Kapstone Container, and they only get
service once a week or so.  West of the interstate, what's left of the right of way is being obliterated by a highway
construction project.  I'll save the sermonizing for another time.

Just some additional information.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA