Nostalgia & History > F Unit Friday on the CNW

CNW 401 leads a passenger special for My Watrlloo(IA) Days back in the early 1980s. Old RI Depot to the right. All of this is all gone now thanks to the US 218 project in the late 80's.

W.V. St Peter Photo. 

MILW86A 
 

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I remember Phil Hastings night photo at the station.  Great little book.

Bob

It has been a few years since I have been up that way, but last I knew, the Waterloo
RI depot was still there.  It is a bank or something now.
zr190

Yes Dave I should have stated depot IS still there. The track however is gone.
Did you ever work there during your time on the Rock?
 

The large building behind the train looking down the tracks is part of the old John Deere tractor works. The tracks and all the businesses to the left are gone and a elevated freeway runs there. It really FUBARED the west side of Waterloo. Work on the freeway really got started about 89/90. Nice picture of the Waterloo I grew up with.

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MILW86A Wrote:
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> Yes Dave I should have stated depot IS still
> there. The track however is gone.
> Did you ever work there during your time on the
> Rock?
> No.  The only time I was ever in that depot was when I was a student opr down at Vinton. 
They had a rules class for all of the Agents/opr in the area and thought it would be a "good experience"!
They spent about a half hour on "what is an eng & what is a trains". (and it went down hill from there!
zr190

Back around 1960 I took a special run by John Deere from Elburn to Waterloo to tour the tractor factory. It was a really nice trip.

Bruce Stikkers
St. Joseph, IL

I believe this shot is from the first "My Waterloo Days" celebration which was 83 or 84, I'll have to check.  It was kind of a Chinese fire drill with the Butterworth cars.  I chased
a trip out to Reinbeck and back, I think on Saturday.  This was the only year they ran a train.  MILW86A is correct, the depot still stands, it was a lawyer's office the last I heard. 
The train order signal visible eventually fell over and it took some five years before it was finally removed.  The four lane elevated freeway may have "fubared" the west side of
Waterloo, but it sure made getting through town easier!  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/20 18:45 by ntharalson.

Hey if you basically level a quarter of the west side of downtown Waterloo and get rid of the business and industry that brought people there then you really solved a lot of the “getting through town problems”.😝

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