Getting to Know the Territory

As of July 2018, electric traction still rules the rails on the southern fringes of Mason City, Iowa

Earlier this summer, I was again blessed with an opportunity to witness an unusual railroad that I have wanted to see in action for many years: the Iowa Traction Railway in Mason City, Iowa.

When I told friends I was making a trip to Iowa, most of them looked at me funny (like they usually do), so I tried to explain. The Iowa Traction Ry. (IATR) is, to my knowledge, the last electric-powered freight railroad in the US. It was originally built as a passenger-carrying "interurban railroad" linking Mason City (a.k.a "River City" to fans of the musical The Music Man) with nearby Clear Lake, Iowa. Today, we would call this a "light rail system."

Interurbans first became popular about 1900. They were cheap to build and operate, and they were fast and clean compared to steam-powered railroads. However, when automobiles became increasingly popular and affordable in the years following World War One, the masses soon flocked to roads and highways, leaving the interurbans under-patronized, especially those connecting smaller communities. Most soon went broke; their wires were torn down, and their tracks pulled up.

IATR motor 50 heads east from the small yard near its shops at a place called Emory, near the southwest corner of Mason City.

The few rural interurbans that survived did so only if there was sufficient freight traffic for them to at least break even financially, and their ranks dwindled quickly until there were only a handful left. One freight-hauling former interurban, the Chicago, South Shore & South Bend, still runs electric commuter trains, but its freight ops are all handled with diesel locomotives. For various reasons, the Mason City & Clear Lake Railroad stayed active, even through a couple name changes, until today as the Iowa Traction Ry., it is the sole survivor still moving freight using electric "motors."

Electric locomotives are "motors," not "engines". Diesels have engines, steam locomotives have engines, but electrics do not, so don't call them engines - they are motors. And the "engineer" is a "motorman," who will look at you funny if you call his motor anything else. The IATR's motors in particular motors are nearly all Baldwin-Westinghouse 50-ton "B" motors, very similar in function and appearance to motors that operated in the Palouse region earlier in the last century.

Electric locomotives are know for their longevity, as there is no "engine" to wear out over time. The youngest of the IATR's group is 90 (that's right, N-I-N-E-T-Y) years old this year!! These are, without question, the oldest locomotives still in regular service in the US. That's kind of a big deal.

I had very little up-to-date intel about the line and its operations, other than a knowledgeable friend telling me it was a Mon-Fri operation only, the crew gets an early start in the mornings, and depending on their workload, they could be done already by 9 a.m.  Oh yeah, she also told me sometimes they don't run on Fridays at all. Suspense!

The only way the trip would work for me was to squeeze it into a Friday-Saturday time window, meaning I would have to fly out of Pasco on a late Thursday afternoon and hope to arrive at Minneapolis in time to make the 2-hour drive south to Mason City, and be there just as the sun came up on Friday. My friend had suggested a couple other rail operations I could check out if the IATR wasn't running at all that Friday, but they would only be consolation prizes.

So on my chosen Thursday, I hit the ground at MSP right about 8 p.m. CDT and got my rental car with no problems. Driving south on I-35 as the sky darkened, I realized it had been a long time since I had been in the Midwest. A couple times during my visit, after concentrating on some aspect of the railroads, I would look up and have to remind myself where I was. At Albert Lea, Minnesota, I got off the Interstate and started investigating the railroad scene for real, despite the darkness.

I could've done a lot more homework prior to my trip, but I did bring a few maps and magazines with me hoping they would show where the tracks were, where they went, and which railroad used to own them. However, it turned out some of these were pretty out of date (no surprise) or incomplete, so I had to do some guessing. At Albert Lea, there was a closed up, brick interlocking tower that used to guard the crossing of the Rock Island "Spine Line" and a secondary Milwaukee Road route. I hoped I could use that tower as a photo prop sometime during my stay.

Taken the following morning, this UP local has just gotten a clear signal to roll south out of the siding at Manly, IA.

Driving south, I found that US Hwy 65 closely parallels the former Rock Island (now Union Pacific) line all the way to Mason City. This is a signaled line, but it appeared some signals were "approach lit" and dispatcher-controlled, while others were constantly lit and only displayed either green or amber unless one of the blocks were occupied. This led to at least one false alarm, because back home a green signal means the dispatcher has it lined that way for a quickly approaching train. Dead ends like that were OK, I had some time to follow them.

Approaching midnight, I arrived at Manly, Iowa. I know now this was a much more important junction point on the Rock Island than its current appearance would suggest. However, I understood that the Iowa Northern, a newer shortline, terminated here for interchange with UP. Off in the shadows, I could detect the presence of two IANR locomotives, so I logged this as another secondary location to check out sometime during daylight. Also while looking around here, I encountered my first train of the trip, a northbound UP manifest.

Finally, just at midnight I made my triumphal entry into Mason City, disappointed but not surprised at the lack of cheering crowds. Again, despite the darkness, I nosed around town to get a feel for where the tracks were and the easiest locations to view trains from. Along 19th Street, which parallels the IATR for its full length, I could see two of the motors, one on a spur track and another parked on the main and coupled to several cars. If I didn't see them running, I would at least see them.

With the short train continuing east in the early morning, and with little traffic on the highway, this photo could almost have been taken sixty or seventy years ago. If I cropped out that minivan, very few would be able to say this was taken in 2018.

Approaching the Emory shops at sunrise after snoozing in my rental car for a couple hours, I could see a lit headlamp indicating one of the motors was already at work. The crew of IATR number 50 shuffled a few cars in the yard, and then began rolling east with a single empty tank car. Interurbans, especially those in the Midwest, often closely paralleled early highways between towns, so even on this short run it was easy to imagine this was all taking place 40, 50, 60 or even 70 years earlier. Only the single mini-van on the highway spoiled the illusion.

The train made another stop about a mile east of the shops to retrieve two more tank cars from a lineside industry - possibly an ethanol plant. It appears that plant is served both by the IATR on the south and by Canadian Pacific (a former Milwaukee Road line) on the north. I also noted the plant had its own "trackmobile" to move cars around the facility and out to the IATR siding for pickup. Another mile or so of eastward travel brought the IATR train into Mason City proper.

The eastward Iowa Traction train passes a classic Iowa schoolhouse, now re-purposed as a community center. Get rid of that compact SUV on the highway, and this could have been taken in 1980. Remove the pontoon boat and the Ford Ranchero in the background and we could go back as far as 1940 perhaps.

Before the train could continue any further, its way was blocked by a string of  covered hoppers coupled to another one of IATR's motors, number 54. Easy peasy, the crew uncoupled from their three tank cars, rolled forward with the 50 to couple onto the soybean hoppers and uncouple them from the 54. They then hauled the hoppers back onto a siding, set the brakes, and pulled down the trolley pole on number 50. Then, hopping on the 54, they rolled west to grab the tank cars before proceeding east again to work the Union Pacific (former Rock Island) interchange.

I took this opportunity to make another run out to Manly, hoping to catch some action on the Iowa Northern. I didn't know how much longer the IATR crew would be working, but I didn't want to miss out on anything else interesting. As I approached Manly, I could see a locomotive headlight on the IANR tracks. Perfect timing, I thought as I parked and looked for a good location to photograph the departing train. However, the train then shoved backward into the yard and it became clear this was not a departing train, but only a switching crew at work. I still hoped for a good photo, but the engines were soon so deep in the yard that became impossible.

Dejected, I headed back to Mason City and found the IATR crew still at work. Now they were switching the CP interchange yard, which yielded some cool photos. When that work was done, the crew now headed west a short distance past the local Budweiser distributor, then "tied down" motor 54 and the motorman climbed back onto motor 51 for the final act of the day, working the AGP soybean plant across 19th Street from the IATR "mainline."

Pulling cars out of the Canadian Pacific (ex-Milwaukee Road) interchange yard.

Westbound past the local Anheuser-Busch distributor

As had been the case since sunup, the skies were perfectly blue and clear, and the angle of the AGP spur relative to the sun made for several near-perfect photos, including the shot seen at the beginning of this blog entry and the image below.

Working the AGP soybean plant

For the rest of the day, I checked out a few other photo opportunities. I spied a CP train on their ex-Milwaukee line and spent an hour or two shooting their bright red GP20C-ECO at several locations. This was my first time faced with this model, a nearly new locomotive built by EMD but with enough parts from retired locomotives for it to count as a rebuilt locomotive for tax purposes.

Unfortunately, I shot photos at enough different locations that the CP crew called me in to the city police as a "suspicious person." The officer I spoke with took me at my word that this was simply a recreational pursuit. He said the crew claimed they'd never seen someone so interested in their work. Either they're total newbies who've never seen a "foamer," or they know enough about rail enthusiasts to cause me a little grief as a prank.

Crossing Chelsea Creek in Mason City

After a few more passes around Mason City and its surrounding rail lines (six separate railroads once served Mason City, down to only three now), with a few other interesting photos "in the can," the sun began to sink and I looked for a place to eat. I found a restaurant in Clear Lake, right across the highway from the CP line, and hoped I'd get a crack at a train heading west, but no luck. Of course, after my meal as I headed to my AirBnB, I saw a westbound train on the CP line getting ready to depart Mason City, but it was too dark and I was too tired to do anything about it.

The next morning, I checked out a few artifacts I'd seen the day before, but where better photos would be obtained in the morning sun rather than the afternoon. These included the former Milwaukee Road depot, which may not be around much longer, and a very well-restored and well-presented Minneapolis & St. Louis RR locomotive on display in East Park (both seen below).

I also went back over to Clear Lake to pay my respects to Buddy Holly and his fellow early-rock-and -roll immortals at the site where their plane crashed on Feb 3rd, 1959, a.k.a. "The Day the Music Died." Rolling north back up US 65, I bagged a southbound UP train on the Spine Line at two locations, one on each side of the IA/MN border. Hoping for similar opportunities as I continued north toward the Twin Cities, I got "skunked" at the Albert Lea interlocking tower and at a really cool river crossing just south of Owatonna, MN, giving me additional reasons to come back to the area sometime.

Doing the Rock Island proud - Southbound UP freight on the Spine Line approaching Northwood, IA

In St. Paul, I tried to check out the Minnesota Commercial RR, and even saw a train at work. But, I had placed myself at an overhead vantage point, and when the train headed down the line, it took me too long to get back to my rental car and I missed what would've been some much better ground-level photos. I did spot a former Green Bay & Western RR Alco C-424 resting near the MCRR's enginehouse, which was kind of a big deal for me. Finally, with only an hour or so until I had to be at the airport, I checked out the rail lines along the Mississippi River between downtown St. Paul and the former CB&Q Dayton's Bluff yard and former Milwaukee Road's Pig's Eye yard, which yielded a couple more images of GP20C-ECOs.

So overall, it was a very good trip. I met my primary objective and saw a bunch of other cool things. Despite the IATR's electric locomotives having had exceptionally long careers already, I have a reasonable hope to see those motors still at work, even if it may be a very long time before I return to Mason City.

P.S: Mason City maintains a very close association with The Music Man, which was written by one of the city's favorite sons. The city promotes that connection heavily to boost what would probably be otherwise meager tourism spending. Although I can appreciate their civic pride, I also found it particularly annoying to find 76 Trombones blaring inside my head the whole time I was there! Curse you, Meredith Willson!!! At least I wasn't chasing trains in Gary, Indiana - that song is even worse.