Close

100 YEARS OLD
CENTENNIAL 1855-1955

THE RAILROAD SAYS GOOD-BYE

There is no doubt that the automobile brought the demise of passenger service on the railroad. A bit later truck lines greatly cut into the freight business of the railroads. 

 

Passenger service was discontinued all together in May of 1958. Many parents and grandparents for-saw this as an end of an era, and took their children and grandchildren for a last train ride from Steamboat Rock to Ackley in its final week of operation. My great uncle Antone Luiken took his grandson Arnold Luiken, another nephew Jim Rose and myself on the trip. I recall my trip as a boy of 11 very clearly. I’m not sure that I was grateful at the time, but I know I am very grateful today to have had the experience. 

 

I also recall as a small boy Arthur Frerichs delivered the mail to and from the train each morning and afternoon. On the rare occasion when he was not able to, my aunt Marie Eilers who was postmaster would make the delivery and pick-up.

For a period of time when my parents were building a new home in the north part of town, we live near the railroad trestle across the Iowa River. I recall laying in my bed in the middle of the night while freights switched cars at the nearby grain elevator. It was sometimes a haunting sound but one that is special in my memories from childhood. 

 

I also recall watching the “Toonerville” click along the tracks to the depot. Being a gas-electric train, it made little sound other than the click-it-e-click as it spead along. 

 

Once again I will quote from Dennis Holmes’ article in the Fall 1992 North Western Lines as he describes the end of the railroad era in Steamboat Rock. 

 

“Passenger service and depot were history by 1960–the end of a romantic era. Gone too, was the M&StL section gang which in earlier days received five dollars per month extra pay because of the hills and curves on the track in either direction from Steamboat Rock. In fact, the M&StL several times surveyed a different route including a high bridge over the Iowa River north of town. Peter Jansen, a native of Denmark utilizing skills learned in the old country, never used a track gauge and kept a first class section of rail. His grade crossings were the smoothest of any on the pike. The 115-pound rails are still in place and one might turn up a brick from the platform, but the speed limit dropped to 10 mph soon after the C&NW purchased the parallel Rock Island spine line.” 

 

“At the first rumor of abandonment, there was a flurry of speculation that a wellknown short line entrepreneur was interested in purchasing the line from Marshalltown to Mason City. That brought an abrupt halt to abandonment talk for a time. When abandonment between Hampton and Steamboat Rock did come, a shipper’s organization purchased the track and continues to own it in 1992. The elevator in Geneva and industries in Ackley are served by the Chicago Central. Service is still provided by the C&NW between Steamboat Rock and Marshalltown on an as-needed basis. Using way-car, trains and back from Eldora to Steamboat Rock to serve the grain elevator there.” 

 

“As recently as the late 1970’s, regularly scheduled trains, in addition to a local freight, burnished the rails on that portion of the track between Marshalltown and Minneapolis, but in 1992, the future appears to be gloomy and ignominious for what was once a major rail link between the Twin Cities and the cities of the east via the Peoria Gateway.”