Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday: Prairie City, IA

As a kid I can remember seeing occasional Cotton Belt & SP engines through my hometown of Manhattan, KS on the Rock Island’s McFarland ~ Belleville line. But as a high school teenager I don’t recall ever seeing this D&RGW paint scheme. Probably too busy gawking at all the girls!

My friend Jim Watson shot this lonely geep in Prairie City, IA east of Des Moines in 1974. Looks like that could be the depot up yonder on the right. Perhaps our friend Nick can provide some local details concerning this scene…

1. CRI&P 4209, patched but still in D&RGW paint is seen in Prairie City, IA on September 27, 1974.
(Photo by James W. Watson)

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Watson (UP6900)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/22 21:23 by santafe199.

---

On a line presently on the endangered list, great shot, though a head scratcher as we've gone from needing
local power to nothing. Power may have looked like crap but the Rock did their best to scare up local traffic.

Out

That was a good job for the ex-DRGW units. The brakes they were
equipped with did not MU well with RI units.
I am pretty sure that is the PC depot in the background.
Friend of mine was Agt there in the late '60's. He saved a stack
of Official Guides for me. On the RI, Official Guides usually were
forwarded about 4 times. PC was the end of the line.
zr190

Actually the line went quite a bit South of PC and in fact at one point went all the way to Oskaloosa. You would
have thought at least the part to Pella would have generated sufficient traffic but obviously not. In recent years
the last few miles South of PC has been used for car storage.

Out

> CRI&P 4209, patched but still in D&RGW paint is
> seen in Prairie City, IA on September 27, 1974.


Hello,

He was working train 156 that day. That job worked daily except Sunday from Short Line yard (Des Moines) down the KD line and back. He was assigned to work as far south as Evans Jct but would turn back north short of that point if there wasn't any work to do at those "south-end" stations. Heaviest work was always at Pella, mainly switching the Rollscreen plant there. The guy in your photo was called for 7am at Short Line, departed 820am with 12 loads, 20 empties, arrived back at Short Line at 330pm. They were using those x-DRGW engines regularly on that job around that time - the previous day they used the 4206, the next day the 4209 again...

Thanks for including the photo date so I could look up the info.

Take care,

Mark

> Actually the line went quite a bit South of PC and
> in fact at one point went all the way to Oskaloosa.

Hello,

As of the mid-1970s, RI was still operating all in-service portions of the KD line. Job 170 handled the southern end (south of Eldon), job 157 based at Eldon handled Eldon-Oskaloosa and job 156 based in Des Moines handled Evans Jct (north end of Osky) to Altoona. All segments were handled by those regular jobs but they'd only run to stations on an "as-needed" basis, such as 156 often turning back north at Pella and 157 running up only to Ottumwa in many cases.

> You would have thought at least the part to Pella would have
> generated sufficient traffic but obviously not. In
> recent years the last few miles South of PC has been used for
> car storage.

RI served the KD line until shutdown in 1980. After the RI closed up shop, CNW, IRRC and IAIS served only the Altoona-Pella segment of the line. Pella was a destination for a considerable number of high revenue lumber carloads which is the main reason that portion of the line stayed active into the early 1990s. IAIS continued to serve Pella until the window plant stopped receiving lumber by rail due to a restructuring of operations in the 1990s.

Take care,

Mark



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/10/17 06:55 by mamfahr.

mamfahr Wrote: > ...  Thanks for including the photo date ...
That is something that was hammered into my railfan psyche very soon after I first picked a camera and started shooting trains. More than one of my railfan photography mentors, including Jim Watson here, stressed the importance of recording photo dates while shooting. And your fantastic retrieval of operating details 43 years old -matched to the photo- are the delightful fruits of that effort!

Lance/199

This simple photo is a real classic. Thanks for showing.

Mark-
Pella Rollscreen did not close. Two things happened at Pella.
One of the big moves was car loads of sawdust from Rollscreen
to a plant across the tracks who did something with the sawdust
(don't remember what). They finally figured out they could install
a pipe and blow it that far.
The other thing was the UP/CNW merger. Instead of splitting revenue
with IAIS over CBLUF, UP put in a rate to Des Moines and transload
to Pella via truck.
That left a few loads of sawdust that moved to turkey farms for
bedding. Very low rate.
zr190

Thanks for the comments, I edited my post accordingly.

zr190 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Mark-
> Pella Rollscreen did not close. Two things
> happened at Pella.
> One of the big moves was car loads of sawdust from
> Rollscreen
> to a plant across the tracks who did something
> with the sawdust
> (don't remember what). They finally figured out
> they could install
> a pipe and blow it that far.
> The other thing was the UP/CNW merger. Instead of
> splitting revenue
> with IAIS over CBLUF, UP put in a rate to Des
> Moines and transload
> to Pella via truck.
> That left a few loads of sawdust that moved to
> turkey farms for
> bedding. Very low rate.
> zr190

santafe199 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps our friend Nick can provide some
> local details concerning this scene…
>
Well, if I had any, I would certainly have provided them. However, this area was long off my radar
as I was living in south Dakota at the time. Mark and others, however, filled in nicely, so thanks
for that, and the nice photo too.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA