Trains.com

UP buys railroad depot in Clinton, Iowa.

8394 views
27 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,826 posts
UP buys railroad depot in Clinton, Iowa.
Posted by jeffhergert on Sunday, May 28, 2017 9:12 AM

http://www.clintonherald.com/news/local_news/former-depot-sold-to-union-pacific/article_c2ffe3da-1d48-50a0-a457-895e202cdcf9.html

The article says the railroad bought it as part of it's future bridge project.  I'm guessing the depot is not long for this world.

Jeff

  • Member since
    March 2002
  • 9,265 posts
Posted by edblysard on Sunday, May 28, 2017 10:21 AM

Shame to see a nice looking building like that go....

23 17 46 11

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Sunday, May 28, 2017 10:55 AM

Three-Four years ago that place was a hideous shade of rust red with green trim. They sandblasted it and cleaned it up. Must have been interesting place when MILW, CB&Q, DRI&NW, CRIP were all crammed in there with CNW. (I believe there was at least one other depot( DRI&NW or CB&Q) there in town...A BNSF signal building sits on that now)

Any new bridge will be a challenge on the alignment there for UP, which is not great to start with and will also affect CP.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: California - moved to North Carolina 2018
  • 4,422 posts
Posted by DSchmitt on Sunday, May 28, 2017 11:51 AM

Article on other properties UP aquiring 

http://www.clintonherald.com/archives/up-eyes-south-clinton-land/article_75547a1b-1130-5107-a64e-69427b7058a2.html

Looking a properties purchased, It appear the new bridge will be south of the existing bridge approximately on the alignment of existing industrial tracks. 

 clinton ia by Donald Schmitt, on Flickr

I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

  • Member since
    February 2005
  • From: Cordes Jct Ariz.
  • 1,305 posts
Posted by switch7frg on Sunday, May 28, 2017 4:51 PM

Smile[;)It would appear that time and change of the Railroads buildings design says out with the old and in with the new century.

Y6bs evergreen in my mind

  • Member since
    September 2013
  • 6,199 posts
Posted by Miningman on Sunday, May 28, 2017 5:29 PM

$300,000 for that building is one heck of a BarGoon!

 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Monday, May 29, 2017 9:51 AM

Miningman

$300,000 for that building is one heck of a BarGoon!

 

 

After the last big flood, the entire US-30 corridor from the bridge to the SW was destroyed and re-developed. Recovery has been slow.

Much of that alignment purchased ironically was CRIP owned at one point. The buildings in there were vacant and in poor shape acct. water damage. Used to make an awful lot of buttons there from river clams and mussels.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    September 2003
  • From: California - moved to North Carolina 2018
  • 4,422 posts
Posted by DSchmitt on Monday, May 29, 2017 11:05 AM

Miningman

$300,000 for that building is one heck of a BarGoon!

 

 

Location Location  Location

It's 6 times any other property in the vicinity and twice most other properties in town. 

 

 

I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.

I don't have a leg to stand on.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Allentown, PA
  • 9,810 posts
Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Monday, May 29, 2017 11:12 AM

mudchicken
. . . Used to make an awful lot of buttons there from river clams and mussels.

Wasn't this the subject of an article (or column) in Trains some years back ? (or maybe even a thread here, etc.)  I remember the "buttons from clams" part, maybe in the context of how old or historic names for tracks and yards persist long after their owner, use, or the local reference are gone.

I don't think that was in the Muscantine, Iowa article, but maybe it was:

Culver Tower, Muscatine, Iowa
from Trains April 1986  p. 26

Perhaps this one (though I'm still not too sure about that):

one of the busiest railroad towns in Iowa
from Trains February 1995  p. 74

- PDN. 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
  • Member since
    March 2003
  • From: Central Iowa
  • 6,826 posts
Posted by jeffhergert on Monday, May 29, 2017 11:30 AM

Paul_D_North_Jr

 

 
mudchicken
. . . Used to make an awful lot of buttons there from river clams and mussels.

 

Wasn't this the subject of an article (or column) in Trains some years back ? (or maybe even a thread here, etc.)  I remember the "buttons from clams" part, maybe in the context of how old or historic names for tracks and yards persist long after their owner, use, or the local reference are gone.

 

I don't think that was in the Muscantine, Iowa article, but maybe it was:

Culver Tower, Muscatine, Iowa
from Trains April 1986  p. 26

- PDN. 

 

I don't know if it was in that article either, but Muscatine was well known for it's button industry from shells.

I don't know what's going on with the bridge.  The plan was to move the yard out to Low Moor.  Once it's moved, the land where the current yard sits becomes ADM property for expansion, etc.  I hear guys going east that every so often survey stakes pop up there and in other locations and are said to be part of the bridge project.  First they want a tall, fixed bridge.  For that it is said they have to start the approach grade at Mill Creek at the west end of the current yard.  Then, because of  circumstances, they talk about a lift bridge.  There was talk, and survey stakes I was told, for a grade turning southward somewhere between MP 5 or 6 and Low Moor and crossing the river around Commanche. 

I think I'll be lucky to see it before I retire.

Jeff 

 

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Monday, May 29, 2017 4:21 PM

With all the stakes I put on the ground from Camanche north to the Junction (Industrial Park where the connecting track is/ Hawker Chemical/Clysar Film)in the past 10 years, I think the whole place is supported by little 2x2x18" stilts with pointy ends. Just like the bridge and the yard, nothing's even close to being/ been built. Broken Dreams Central? Skeeter & tick preserve.

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Allentown, PA
  • 9,810 posts
Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Monday, May 29, 2017 8:33 PM

Mischief So vampires are unlikely to be seen around there - use any PK nails as well ?  Smile, Wink & Grin 

- PDN. 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Monday, May 29, 2017 10:59 PM

Any PK or Mag nails wouldn't have lasted in that crummy asphalt. (old US-67, might have been an improvement, if nailing the asphalt chunks to the subgrade is an improvement?)

Vampires? in Iowa? (all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering AboutDunce) Garlic anyone? Vampire skeeters?

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Cedar Rapids, IA
  • 4,212 posts
Posted by blhanel on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 7:42 AM

mudchicken

all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering About 

Hey, I resemble that remark... ;-)

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 7:55 AM

An Iowan taught me that...(sorry, the cat is over on another thread doing strange things and it's bleeding over. Must be the eclipse.)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Allentown, PA
  • 9,810 posts
Posted by Paul_D_North_Jr on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 8:52 PM

OT: For those who don't know, "PK" (Parker Kalon) nails are cadmium plated that have a silver color . . . Whistling

Mag nails are magnetic nails, much easier to find with a magnetic 'pin finder' that surveyors use (instead of the disc-shaped metal detector often used on beaches, etc.).  

- PDN. 

"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 9:36 PM

Both types of nails are beefier than your typical wood nail.The mag nails are distributed out of Cincinnati (CrisNick) and they are really hard to destroy. 

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: S.E. South Dakota
  • 13,567 posts
Posted by Murphy Siding on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 10:23 PM

blhanel

 

 
mudchicken

all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering About 

 

 

Hey, I resemble that remark... ;-)

 

We prefer to refer to them as Iowowegians.Whistling

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 10:38 PM

Murphy Siding
blhanel
mudchicken

all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering About 

 

Hey, I resemble that remark... ;-)

We prefer to refer to them as Iowowegians.Whistling 

When I moved to Iowa from Indiana my brother-in-law asked, "In Indiana we are known as Hoosiers... what do they call people from Iowa? ... Ioweenies?"

The name stuck, so thus in my family, that is THE term for us "Hawkeyes".

 

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Thursday, June 1, 2017 8:09 AM

And, there was the Hawkeye who was talking with someone back east, and mentioned that he was from Iowa--and the Easterner said, "We pronouce it O Hi O."

Johnny

  • Member since
    January 2015
  • 2,623 posts
Posted by kgbw49 on Thursday, June 1, 2017 10:55 AM

There are also Cyclones in Iowa and I learned quickly that there are a lot of Iowegians that definitely do not want to have anything to do with the term "Hawkeye"!

  • Member since
    April 2007
  • From: Iowa
  • 3,293 posts
Posted by Semper Vaporo on Thursday, June 1, 2017 11:11 AM

Not to mention the "University of Iowa, Idaho City, Ohio".  That sure rolls off the tongue so easily!

Semper Vaporo

Pkgs.

  • Member since
    March 2016
  • From: Burbank IL (near Clearing)
  • 13,479 posts
Posted by CSSHEGEWISCH on Thursday, June 1, 2017 12:02 PM

kgbw49

There are also Cyclones in Iowa and I learned quickly that there are a lot of Iowegians than definitely do not want to have anything to do with the term "Hawkeye"!

 
Iowa Interstate is quite neutral in this matter, their locomotives are painted black (for Iowa Hawkeyes), red (for Iowa State Cyclones) and yellow trim (for both).
The daily commute is part of everyday life but I get two rides a day out of it. Paul
  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Denver / La Junta
  • 10,785 posts
Posted by mudchicken on Thursday, June 1, 2017 3:16 PM

Round on the end and HI in the middle - resemble that remark. (and went to the school with a nut for a mascotEmbarrassed)

Mudchicken Nothing is worth taking the risk of losing a life over. Come home tonight in the same condition that you left home this morning in. Safety begins with ME.... cinscocom-west
  • Member since
    May 2005
  • From: S.E. South Dakota
  • 13,567 posts
Posted by Murphy Siding on Friday, June 2, 2017 7:46 PM

Semper Vaporo

 

 
Murphy Siding
blhanel
mudchicken

all this time I thought IOWA meant Idiots Out Wandering About 

 

Hey, I resemble that remark... ;-)

We prefer to refer to them as Iowowegians.Whistling 

 

 

When I moved to Iowa from Indiana my brother-in-law asked, "In Indiana we are known as Hoosiers... what do they call people from Iowa? ... Ioweenies?"

The name stuck, so thus in my family, that is THE term for us "Hawkeyes".

 

 

We went to Indiana once. My wife was reading roadside signs and such. Out of the blue she asked "What's a hoser?". 

Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Friday, June 2, 2017 7:52 PM

Back when I was a boy, I read that the people in Indiana were curious about new people in their neighborhoods; when someone moved in, a resident would go to the new resident's house and ask, "Who's here?"

Johnny

  • Member since
    June 2001
  • From: Lombard (west of Chicago), Illinois
  • 13,681 posts
Posted by CShaveRR on Friday, June 2, 2017 11:08 PM

Hoosier lady friend?

That would be Pat--she was born in Indianapolis.

Carl

Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)

CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)

  • Member since
    August 2005
  • From: At the Crossroads of the West
  • 11,013 posts
Posted by Deggesty on Saturday, June 3, 2017 7:22 AM

CShaveRR

Hoosier lady friend?

That would be Pat--she was born in Indianapolis.

 

Big Smile

Johnny

Join our Community!

Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.

Search the Community

Newsletter Sign-Up

By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our privacy policy