Iowa Northwestern

Hello,

I am planning on visiting the Iowa Northwestern in a couple of weeks. Can anyone tell me where they keep there power and what they have?

Thanks in advance,
Craig Levine
Sioux City, IA

http://www.ianwrr.com/ here is their website if any are interested.

Everyone needs to know this-IANW tore up 10 miles of their line between Allendorf and Harris without every getting abandonment authority from STB. This action left the line's only shipper, the unit train elevator in Ocheyedan, without rail service. The shipper has filed protest with STB but to date no action has happened. Word has it that tearing up the rail, which was sold for scrap, was done to pay off the large debt incurred by operating the passenger and dinner trains.

well what a hell of a way etc etc. Is this what happens when non railroaders run a rail line?I cant believe they would take rail from their one shipper(!) who pays the bills leaving them no online industry.Unless this is a ploy to say we have no industry let us abandon which would be supid as the shipper is protesting.Methinks UP will be asking for credentials from now on if they sell portions of their system to operators who are supposed to know what they are doing.I know this sounds harsh but facts are facts.

fglk wrote:know what Conrail did the same thing when it started. They had the money. They just felt that the little guys were not loading and unloading enough cars so they pulled the switches to save on taxes. Its a nasty thing to do and I would protest as well.

What Conrail actually did (and I know this because I worked in the office that handled this process) was to charge inactive customers with a main line switch an annual switch maintenance fee -- since as you would know, being a real former maintenance inspector, it costs more to maintain a switch than it does track without a switch.

If these inactive customers did not pay the maintenance charge, the switch was removed (after giving proper notice and allowing ample time to respond). These parties were told exactly what replacing a switch would cost them if they chose to use rail access in the future after the switch was pulled.

Talk about off the subject......

On the subject, IANW is being sued by the customer they denied service to when they tore up the rail. Elevator lost tons of money by being forced to truck all their grain and fertilizer. No specifics yet, but this little saga is still unfolding.

Sorry if this sounds like i'm yelling but thats not exactly right. The ocheydan elevator switched to a different "overflow" system in which they ground the grain for feed. There were not enough carloads coming from the elevator thus they quit service there. Not sure about the whole lawsuit. Second ripping up the rail is not illegal because the IANW did not completly abandon the track. Yes the rail is gone but the rail bed is still there. The STB was involved with the IANW because UP would not interchange or lease cars to them or in otherwords an Embargo (ban on trade). The president of the IANW did not file a lawsuit as it was then not worth it.
If you have any other questions i will try to answer

Adding to what i had previously said. Route Rock your comments are ubsurd.
The owner of the IANW has been in the railroad industry for a long time and saved a few railroads over the years get the facts before you post. Second of all not all of the rail is actually ripped up. And third of all not all or even maybe NONE of it was scrapped. Yes the railbed looks abandoned but its not some of it is still there and the rail is not scrapped. Now to prove my point the IANW is tryin to keep the railroad going not bring it down with "non railroads" False Accusations...

All right heres the deal. When you get a story saying they ripped up rail to their one and only customer what are you supposed to think?
Before you go off on me lets talk facts. If he is the second coming of John Barriger why havent we heard of him? And just a buisness lesson for you, Dont rip out the rail to a company that wants service. If you want to store rail cars fine. Rails up for the next point wow a whole ten miles of roadbed but we are trying to save the line? Have you ever laid rail?Do you know the cost?10 miles with a short lines budget and rescources is a long way and too time consuming. If they are trying to save it then why did UP embargo them?Plus I didnt say all the rail was ripped up. Listen I am sorry if I offended your rail line too bad. Point is if you have something to post post it. Make corrections dont make a lot of waves and finally its absurd

First of all shortline railroading is not a high income business unless you have a good amount of industry or a good passenger service in place that allows a good solid source of income. Now the middle part of your post makes no sense at all. "Rails up for the next point wow a whole ten miles of roadbed but we are trying to save the line?" When the elevator is another 10-15 miles to the west of the IANW main yard and you get just about less than half the carloads you need to make any money then why the heck wouldnt you take the line out there. If in fact another industry or some source of income would come in for the railroad then yes the railbed is still there to put rail back down. I'm just tryin to tell a story not go off on ya.

Works for me the whole 10 miles deal is it takes time to put it all back in place and more money to replace it then rip it up. Shortline railroading is a pain in the rear yes. But there are ways around that to a point kind of a double edged sword I guess. Your never going to get rich off a shortline of this length IMHO One way in and out with only one connection is a tough deal. Even if the line extends to the next line west its still UP. So what to do?

I got a big kick out of reading the posts on this page. This would all be real nice if any of it was actually true.

If you boys want to learn the truth on what happened on IANW, you need to go to the Yahoo groups shortline page and scroll thru the archives over the last few months. I'm not going to repeat the posts here, but they came from guys who were actually involved with IANW at the time all the bad stuff went down. No armchair quaterback stuff here. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/S ... =217754359

BTW I also got a big kick out of the "The owner of the IANW has been in the railroad industry for a long time and saved a few railroads over the years get the facts before you post." Except for MO Central, there was no other railroads. Don't believe me-go to http://www.rrb.gov/bcd/bcd00-64.pdf and check it out yourself. And MO Central is only operating what UP was operating, so I'm not real sure this qualifies as 'saved'.

Have Fun!