Steamboat Rock 'Intermodal Extra'

As the traffic slowly dwindles on the old M&St.L Main from Marshalltown to Steamboat Rock, it is growing harder to deny that the line's days are limited.  Imagine our surprise when we heard that an empty intermodal train was heading up the line for storage.  We join the train at Marshalltown, IA.

EAST MARSHALLTOWN

Three units still in yellow and green paint were running around a "bare table" train of between 100 and 110 cars near East Marshalltown.  We didn't know if this would be the power for the train or not, so we stayed close and listened to the scanner.

The train wasted no time getting a new crew and was northbound through Marshalltown not too much later.  Here is UPY 705 leading the train through town.

The line snakes through Marshalltown in people's back yards much like the Jewell Sub does in Ames.  Here, the five units lug the 110 cars up a slight grade.

The consist is almost out of town now, crossing a bridge that was evidently painted by the local school kids at Marshalltown.  Here is a photo from a little over a year ago of CNW 6931 crossing the same bridge.

Just south of Albion, the bare table train ducks under Hwy 330 at milepost 237.  At this point, UPY 705 was still in the lead.

The train soon passed by the sad old siding north of Albion.  There was a short cut of very sorry looking railroad cars resting on the side track.  Our train rocked violently back and forth on this part of the line. It looked like the units had dumped to the ground on one occasion...

After rounding the curve, the train was passing through the town of Liscomb.  We had to wait for it to pass by here, and without stopping, it took almost fifteen minutes for the train to clear.  That is a lot of empty tables!

At Union, the train stopped and the two lead UP units were put in the side track.  The three remaining units (still in CNW yellow and green)  pulled forward.  The two UP GP15's then tacked on to the back.  The train looked like it was DPU for the next ten miles.  (It was certainly long enough to be DPU!)

With new lead power, the train passes over a dry trestle just north of Union.  There are many great spots for photo opps along the route.  This must remind people of the days when cuts of six yellow and green GP38-2's used to travel the line.

Not long after, the train had made its way near Eldora.  The train ducks under an old overpass and runs along side the Eldora Municipal Airport, which looked even more abandoned than the track.  We happened to notice a tank car set out nearby as well.

The extra passes through the heart of Eldora.  At this site, if the depot still existed, we would be looking right at it in this view.  Instead, the water tower and retro-HyVee sign can be seen.

With the sun setting fast, the crew from Marshalltown stopped the train right in the middle of town, cutting off all east-west automobile traffic.  They left the three yellow and green engines on the siding, and the two GP15's shoved ahead northbound!  Here are the shoving GP15's passing the ex-CNW units in the clear at Eldora.

After about five miles of shoving the 110 car train, the two UP units stopped at this overpass south of Steamboat Rock.  In town, at the highway crossing, some very "old" style crossing flashers remained in place, with a white "exempt" sign in between the lights. A very sad sight to see, but at least the rails are still in place.  It was getting too dark to take pictures, so we left shortly after.  We gassed up at Caseys, and saw that the engines had coupled back up to the three ex-CNW GP38's and was getting ready to leave.