Assorted Excursions
May 19, 21, 22, 23

May 19

On Tuesday afternoon, Jan and I set out on a mission to see if we could find the remains of Plato, Iowa, in Cedar county. We drove to Newton in order to follow the Iowa Interstate line eastward. While we had a picnic lunch by the restored Rock Island depot there, an IAIS westbound train came through behind units 625, 626 and 406.

Our next stop along the IAIS was CRANDIC Jct., where a couple of loads of pipe had been set out for interchange.

In Iowa City, we went to the engine house and found IAIS switcher 250 being worked on east of the shop.

After quite a bit of driving around on gravel county roads, we finally located the area where Plato had been, took a few pictures to send to a friend and then started for home. On the way back, we stopped in Downey and got some images of the grain elevator, with a "Supersweet Feed" sign on the side, and of a bank just across the tracks from the elevator.

We stopped again in Hills for another elevator picture. The sky was getting pretty dark by now, and it appeared that we'd be in for another evening thunderstorm.

We next went south and followed Hwy. 92. I stopped in Oskaloosa to get a picture of the deteriorating Rock Island depot.

May 21

Jan's chemotherapy schedule requires five days of visits to a clinic in Des Moines, so we've been dropping by Short Line Junction pretty much daily this week. On Thursday, we arrived to find the MDMEA waiting to go on the northeast leg of the wye, with CNW 6877, SSW 9643, UP 6317 and UP 5049 on the point. Near the head of the train, I spotted an old ROCK boxcar.

Things were congested as usual, and a southbound was waiting on the Ft. Dodge line. This train had CNW 6878 and WC 6628, with a string of grain hoppers. Meanwhile, south of the junction at the BN diamond, a stacker was waiting to take off with UP 9482 and NS 9069. We also saw the Avon elevator switcher, 1269, at work today.

May 22

Job 1, with engines UP 1911 and CNW 4624, was hard at work with a very long cut when we arrived on Friday around 10:45. We watched the switching for a while and then went south to Carlisle to catch a meet there. When we arrived at 11:16, UP 3041 and CR 523 were near the south end of the siding and rolling. We drove back up to the north end to watch SP 8700 and CR 6724 continue toward Short Line at 11:20.

May 23

We were back in Des Moines again on Saturday, this time so that I could deliver some Galesburg Railroad Days posters to area hobby shops. Afterward, we headed for the Junction once again. As we neared the area, around 2:30, we heard on the radio that an IAIS westbound was just leaving the yard, so I drove over to the west end of the RI's old Des Moines River bridge to get a picture. On the head end were IAIS 401, 601, 407, and 900. I spotted a block of intermodal on the rear of the train with IAIS semi-trailers. From the radio we also learned that the eastbound IAIS train was in town.

Back at Short Line, things were busy. At 3:25, the northbound MKSIT came across the diamond with UP 3609 and SP 8660. This train had some passengers sitting on one end of a grain hopper. One waved a can of beer at us as they came by the Jeep and wanted his picture taken.

The next train was southbound at 3:42, and was called the ORPSY, "ore train", on the radio. It had two Wisconsin Central units on the point, 6503 and 7502, with CNW 6885 and UP 646 trailing. It had quite a mixture of beat-up hoppers, mostly mid to late 70s build dates. Jan recorded the following reporting marks: DRGW, UP CNW, CHTT, MOPAC, RG, MKT, CTRN, NS, BN and HMJX. The HJMX car was lettered for the Upper Merion and Plymouth.

The IAIS eastbound waited for quite a while at East 18th street, but finally got the go-ahead at 3:50. It had IAIS SDs 101 and 100 in charge.

That's It!