I'll be going through Iowa in a few weeks and may make a detour to Oelwein. I know it used to be a major hub for CNW. Anything worth seeing there now?
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Oelwein IA question
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Well, it depends on what your expectations are. I visited Oelwein a couple times in the last few years & it's frankly very depressing. At the time there were a lot of old CNW units stored, as well as a yard full of cars in for repair. The yard is still there, as well as the old shop buildings - very impressive place, but it's more like a graveyard now. I have heard that since Iowa Northern took over the remaining track in from Waterloo that a customer or two in Oelwein is back to using rail, and there's been an increase in business with the new ethanol plant at Fairbank (if I've got the correct town). Some grain business out there too. I went north to the end of the line where the rail was hanging over a creek without anything underneath.
there is some neat things to see there though. The CGW F7 the old RI Caboose. The yard tower.I do believe thats a museum but I am not sure if it is open.Hardees has pictures of "the good old days"
On the way up if you come through Independence you will see a caboose and steam engine at the restored depot there. Very cool place to stop.
Also South side of Oelwein there is a guy with signals and a small train set up in his yard. Worth a stop just to look over the fence.
Hope you have fun.Check out the INRR site at yahoo groups for info on their schedules.
On the way up if you come through Independence you will see a caboose and steam engine at the restored depot there. Very cool place to stop.
Also South side of Oelwein there is a guy with signals and a small train set up in his yard. Worth a stop just to look over the fence.
Hope you have fun.Check out the INRR site at yahoo groups for info on their schedules.
It's worth noting that the railroad which put Oelwein on the map was not the C&NW, but the Chicago Great Western, which was absorbed by the North Western in the spring of 1968.
The Great Western ran to a lot of places that counted, but almost all of them were served by paralell competitors. Under President William Deramus, who ran the CGW during the "lean-and -mean" 1950's, freight service was contracted down to one often-very-long freight in each direction daily along most CGW lines.
Oelwein was the hub where most of those lines met, but it lost almost all of its usefulness once C&NW offered a better alternative in most cases.
Here are a couple of relevant links:
http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/index.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cgw/
The Great Western ran to a lot of places that counted, but almost all of them were served by paralell competitors. Under President William Deramus, who ran the CGW during the "lean-and -mean" 1950's, freight service was contracted down to one often-very-long freight in each direction daily along most CGW lines.
Oelwein was the hub where most of those lines met, but it lost almost all of its usefulness once C&NW offered a better alternative in most cases.
Here are a couple of relevant links:
http://www.trainweb.org/cgw/index.html
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cgw/
What a revoltin' development this is! (William Bendix)
