Remarks: The ex-Rock Island mainline through Cedar Falls, Iowa, now reduced to a spur operated by the Iowa Northern Railway, contains a few blocks of street running. Here, a cut of coal empties from Cedar Falls Utilities (the only active customer on the line) is pulled back out to the mainline.
There's a second surprising bit of street running in north Cedar Falls as this railroad very gently crosses from right to left for about a block on Iowa Street in an area of small houses. The picture I've seen of that narrow residential street showed this line going literally at the end of people's driveways, with one house leaving their trash out for pickup where the receptacle would be knocked over by the locomotive's stairwell guardrail. What fascinating railroading, though probably nettlesome at times for residents of homes like these, the CRI & P mainline (that went between St. Louis and Minneapolis!) must have once been.
- Post a Comment - (Registration is not required to post photo comments, but is encouraged.)