Passenger Trains > Progress On Amtrak Changing Stations In Fort Madison Iowa?

No dates are given, but this seems like progress. http://www.thehawkeye.com/news/20171107/fort-madison-moves-ahead-with-amtrak-depot-project


Sneebly

Thanks for this post. I had wondered if it had died. Good news.

Really happy this article was posted on TO. I'm a rail tour operator who has some passengers that use Ft. Madison for their boarding point. It will be a definite 'treat' for them to board and return to such a fine historic building, a building that makes a statement: This is Ft. Madison, a community that embraces and cares about our historic places. Just up the river is another community that is really doing the same with their historic station, Burlington, IA.
Mike -Zephyr Route Rail Tours www.zephyrroute.com

What was the reason for Santa Fe's moving to a new station in the 1960s?

While I don't know why the ATSF moved to the yard station, I would suspect it had to do with flooding. The old depot was low enough that it would flood somewhat regularly when the Mississippi rose in the spring. I believe the Fort Madison yard is high enough that it doesn't flood, though I've ridden through when the water's pretty close. A few years back they jacked up the old depot and raised the surrounding ground by a few feet - presumably enough to make this a rather rare event in the future.

NDHolmes Wrote:
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> While I don't know why the ATSF moved to the yard
> station, I would suspect it had to do with
> flooding. The old depot was low enough that it
> would flood somewhat regularly when the
> Mississippi rose in the spring. I believe the
> Fort Madison yard is high enough that it doesn't
> flood, though I've ridden through when the water's
> pretty close. A few years back they jacked up the
> old depot and raised the surrounding ground by a
> few feet - presumably enough to make this a rather
> rare event in the future.

Flooding was a big issue as was the fact that the trains had to stop on the mainline (I'm still not sure how BNSF agreed to allow that again), versus the current situation where there's a siding in the yard for the train to stop at. I am not a big fan of this move, while the building is nice, it is significantly less convenient and less secure for parking to catch an LD train.

First I would like to say that at Fort Madison number three and number four do not always use the siding. If there is a person getting on at Fort Madison who is disabled or elderly the Station agent will call the dispatcher and request that they use the siding.

The reason why they moved the depot from downtown Fort Madison to what was known as Shopton, was that the Santa Fe had made an contract with Union Electric company to withhold a certain amount of water at the dam at Keokuk, for electric generating purposes. Well Union Electric withheld more water at the dam therefore violating the contract, subsequently the Santa Fe railroad sued Union Electric sometime in the mid 1960's and won. As part of the agreement Union Electric company built the new depot at Shopton and raised the mains going past the old depot by around 3 ft. this did not eliminate all flooding dangers but did take out of the equation Union Electric's dam at Keokuk. I do not have any documentation of this, but it was told to me by Bob Hayes who was an Amtrak/ATSF ticket agent at Fort Madison to sometime in the late 80's early 90's. I do not know if Mr. Hayes is still living but I consider him to be a an excellent resource for this issue. My memory may not exactly be true, but I think I've got the gist of the story right. The current station is located where the icehouse was originally. Bob told me that he was the saddest man in the station when they moved to the current location because it does so hard to get to from the town. There was one advantage to moving to this new station in 1968 or whenever it opened, passenger trains did not have to stop twice in Fort Madison. Some crews changed at the old station and at Shopton. Also Shopton was used as a servicing stop for at least passenger trains.

Sneebly

Sneebly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> First I would like to say that at Fort Madison
> number three and number four do not always use the
> siding. If there is a person getting on at Fort
> Madison who is disabled or elderly the Station
> agent will call the dispatcher and request that
> they use the siding.
>
> The reason why they moved the depot from downtown
> Fort Madison to what was known as Shopton, was
> that the Santa Fe had made an contract with Union
> Electric company to withhold a certain amount of
> water at the dam at Keokuk, for electric
> generating purposes. Well Union Electric withheld
> more water at the dam therefore violating the
> contract, subsequently the Santa Fe railroad sued
> Union Electric sometime in the mid 1960's and won.
> As part of the agreement Union Electric company
> built the new depot at Shopton and raised the
> mains going past the old depot by around 3 ft.
> this did not eliminate all flooding dangers but
> did take out of the equation Union Electric's dam
> at Keokuk. I do not have any documentation of
> this, but it was told to me by Bob Hayes who was
> an Amtrak/ATSF ticket agent at Fort Madison to
> sometime in the late 80's early 90's. I do not
> know if Mr. Hayes is still living but I consider
> him to be a an excellent resource for this issue.
> My memory may not exactly be true, but I think
> I've got the gist of the story right. The current
> station is located where the icehouse was
> originally. Bob told me that he was the saddest
> man in the station when they moved to the current
> location because it does so hard to get to from
> the town. There was one advantage to moving to
> this new station in 1968 or whenever it opened,
> passenger trains did not have to stop twice in
> Fort Madison. Some crews changed at the old
> station and at Shopton. Also Shopton was used as a
> servicing stop for at least passenger trains.
>
> Sneebly

Interesting info.! In the 1970's, I always enjoyed seeing all the ATSF power sitting there.
Mostly just stack trains in the yard now. Always had plenty of automobile parking.
That may be an issue at the old depot.

When??