Nostalgia & History > Shortline Saturday - Iowa Railroad 25

Gary Powell caught Iowa Railroad 25 in Moline, Illinois on March 6, 1983.
Bob

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I'm always confused by the operations/history of the Iowa Railroad Company which I believe was the first to take over the former CRIP Quad Cities-Council Bluffs mainline. Didn't the MILW take over operations of the eastern portion of that line at some point in 1983?

Davenport, Rock Island & Northwestern (DRI Line)  took over from Missouri Division Jct (Davenport) to Iowa City
as a Directed Rail Carrier.  They leased engs/caboose(s) from Milw.  BN as half owner of the DRI forced the DRI to give
it up as BN was not getting any benefit from it.  At that point, Milw took over operation until Iowa Interstate
started up.  Iowa Railroad had overhead trackage rights from 7pm to 7 am (I tjhink, could be wrong on the hours).
zr190 

An Interesting photo from a transitional phase in railroading.
Thanks for another nice photo posting.
ALLEN

Excellent!  The U30Bs were junky units by all accounts.  I always wished the GP28s (2nd unit) would've ended up on IAIS.  And look at that crappy track!  My how things have changed on the old RI.

Andy

zr190 Wrote:
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> Davenport, Rock Island & Northwestern (DRI Line) 
> took over from Missouri Division Jct (Davenport)
> to Iowa City
> as a Directed Rail Carrier.  They leased
> engs/caboose(s) from Milw.  BN as half owner of
> the DRI forced the DRI to give
> it up as BN was not getting any benefit from it. 
> At that point, Milw took over operation until Iowa
> Interstate
> started up.  Iowa Railroad had overhead trackage
> rights from 7pm to 7 am (I tjhink, could be wrong
> on the hours).
> zr190 

At first, the DRI line only went as far as the steel mill at Wilton.  The extension to Iowa City came a few months later.

AndyBrown Wrote:
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> Excellent!  The U30Bs were junky units by all
> accounts.  I always wished the GP28s (2nd unit)
> would've ended up on IAIS.  And look at that
> crappy track!  My how things have changed on the
> old RI.
>
> Andy

That's right, and probably why the IC got rid of them!  Of course, in those days, the IC(G) was seriously downsizing its railroad.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA