Still more Tuesday rail news in brief:
— About 40 homes were evacuated as a precautionary measure when a Buffalo & Pittsburgh train derailed in East Aurora, N.Y., Monday night. The Buffalo News reports that a locomotive and 15 of the train’s 98 cars derailed. The manifest freight included some petroleum products, police said, leading to the evacuation of the homes in a roughly four-block area. The only spill that resulted was of some fuel from the locomotive. No injuries were reported; site cleanup may take a couple of days and could require some road closures.
— Iowa Northern Railway has filed a notice of exemption with the Surface Transportation Board to acquire 23 miles of former Union Pacific rail line between Dewar and Oelwein, Iowa, from D&W Railroad, Inc. Iowa Northern has operated over the line, a former Chicago Great Western route, since 2003 and plans no change in operations as a result of the purchase, the railroad says in its STB filing. Iowa Northern, based in Waterloo, Iowa, operates approximately 160 miles between Cedar Rapids and Manly, Iowa.
For some reason…all of the details failed to post. When Union Pacific proposed to abandon the line to Oelwein, Transco Railway Products created the D&W Railroad in 2002 to acquire the line and preserve its service. In 2003, the Iowa Northern Railway reached an agreement to lease the operating rights on the D&W Railroad.In 2006, Hawkeye Renewables became part owner of the line from Dewer to just outside Fairbank. When Hawkeye sold out to Flint Hills Resources Renewables on February 17, 2011, the part ownership was relinquished back to Transco.
When Union Pacific proposed to abandon the line to Oelwein, Transco Railway Products created the D&W Railroad in 2002 to acquire the line and preserve its service. Most of this came from the 2012 NRHS guide book that I wrote that was part of the Iowa convention. I’m updating the material and hope to release it as a book next year.
Thanks all for the responses on the old CGW shops at Oelwein below. I think the Iowa Northern RR has operated the Waterloo-to-Oelwein portion of the old CGW route for many years after the UP merged the C&NW. I think the old CGW line north (?) out of Oelwein was abandoned by the C&NW many, many years ago (1981?)
The former CGW shops at Oelwein are owned and are being used by TransCo Railway Products, a freight car rebuilding company. UP maintained service over the line to Waterloo, a stub of the former CGW Oelwein-Des Moines-Kansas City main line, after the CNW merger, but has had others operate it, as it’s kind of isolated from the rest of their system, and not exactly a core line.
I always thought the Mt. Rainier Scenic was mismanaged by American Heritage once they purchased it. They had the oddest operating schedule I could think of when I tried to pre-plan a visit in the summer of 2018, not operating over the entire 4th of July weekend had me baffled when trying to figure out what to do for my short 4 day trip up the Coast from California. Needless to say it didn’t fit into my plans but Oregon Coastal did.
Mr. Noyes: According to the below link (article from June 2019), a small portion of the CGW shops still remains. https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/archive/time-machine/time-machine-the-hub-city-oelwein-took-its-nickname-from-huge-locomotive-repair-shops-20190608
My question in the below comment somehow got deleted: I was simply wondering if any of the old C&NW/CGW locomotive shop facility buildings in Oelwein, Iowa are still there? (And in some sort of rail/industrial use?). Thanks!
RE: The Iowa Northern RR Dewar-to-Oelwein, IA line acquisition article: I know the C&NW shut it down shortly before the Union Pacific merger in April 1995(closed in 1994 or thereabouts?). Thanks.