Here's good material for those who haven't read this yet. Or if you have and would like to re-visit.
https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/umsl/islandora/object/umsl%3A262674#page/1/mode/2up
Thanks for the link. I read the first portion which outlines the rationale for the service change...namely to reverse the negetive trend on the Iowa division and be proactive thru increased service frequency. Obviously the big concern here is the loss of UP eastbound traffic, but also the erosion of meat business. The proposed Rock Island merger and the subsequent movement of their traffic to CNW was a real threat, the writing was on the wall, but at least ICG had a plan.
I am a big IC fan, growing up on a branch line in Southern Illinois and had little contact with the Iowa line until the 90s when my sales career took me to Dubuque frequently. Seldom saw a train on the line during my trips.
Was a bit puzzled when IC bought the line back in the mid 90s, I was a shareholder at that time and received the prospectus, but unfortunately discarded it. I still do not understand how it fits into the CN map, other than a good source of agribusiness, perhaps ethanol also. Would like some comments.
Greyhound hopefully will comment on this fine document and how (if?) it was executed.
Will continue to read and comment.
Ed
Yep I hope he does too he'd have some good details. I emailed him a few weeks back hope everything is ok.
I read the introduction describing the plan, but I didn't see in the table of contents a section on results. Is there another publication on the results?
MP173 Was a bit puzzled when IC bought the line back in the mid 90s, I was a shareholder at that time and received the prospectus, but unfortunately discarded it. I still do not understand how it fits into the CN map, other than a good source of agribusiness, perhaps ethanol also. Would like some comments. Ed
MidlandMike I read the introduction describing the plan, but I didn't see in the table of contents a section on results. Is there another publication on the results?
I noticed that too. I don't think this experiment ever got off the ground. However we shall find out once Greyhounds shows up.
These days the line sees one usually very big through freight each way daily, at least on its east end, plus frequent ethanol trains and maybe a few additional extra unit trains. Seems to be hanging in there. Will be interesting to see how CPKC affects traffic flows.
I'm OK guys. Just getting older and tired of arguing with the "It won't work" people such as Backshop and Balt.
There weren't any results because the unions rejected the plan.
It was before my time. But I knew of the plan and talked to people at the railroad about it. They told me the main objection came from a union leader named Stuckey. He had been the top guy for the brakeman/flagman's union at the IC prior to the formation of the UTU. He still held some post regarding those employees. The plan called for a reduction to one brakeman/flagman per train and Stuckey didn't like that. (IIRC, the IC/ICG called the rear brakeman a flagman.)
The good thing about the "Iowa Experiment" was that it recognized a problem and proposed an innovative plan to deal with that problem. The bad thing was that it focused on taking business from other railroads. The low hanging fruit was the UP interchange with the weaker railroads competing in the market. (Rock Island, Milwaukee Road, CGW.) If the unions agreed to the IC plan and it took rail traffic from these railroads those roads would have sought similar agreements with their unions. Between Stuckey and this reality the union rejected the plan.
The plan should have focused on truck competition. Iowa and eastern Nebraska are all about producing food. Those two states produce 25% of the red meat in the US. If you've got a railroad through Iowa you need to haul what is produced and consumed in Iowa.
At least the IC had a plan. Cetainly an imperfect plan, but a plan. To this day the CN has an underutilized railroad across Iowa, and no idea how to get that long haul meat business.
Pages 141 to 143 discuss short/long trains and their comparative safety. Seems pertinent to other forum topics.
Rick
rixflix aka Captain Video. Blessed be Jean Shepherd and all His works!!! Hooray for 1939, the all time movie year!!! I took that ride on the Reading but my Baby caught the Katy and left me a mule to ride.
The operating plan that a railroad implements has to fit the physical characteristics of the plant that the plan is to be implemented upon. Short, Fast, Frequent on a single track line would require short closley spaced passing sidings. Implement the SFF plan on a territory that only has one or two widely spaced siding and you end up with horse droppings. If the plan doesn't fit the plant all you have is problems, costly problems.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD The operating plan that a railroad implements has to fit the physical characteristics of the plant that the plan is to be implemented upon. Short, Fast, Frequent on a single track line would require short closley spaced passing sidings. Implement the SFF plan on a territory that only has one or two widely spaced siding and you end up with horse droppings. If the plan doesn't fit the plant all you have is problems, costly problems.
Good theoretical points. Here's a link to an IC Iowa Division employee timetable from 1959: https://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/1_habegger/1959-10-25IC_IowaDiv_Freeport-Albert%20Lea24-Jon%20Habegger.pdf
Take a look thru it and give us your thoughts on the viability of the physical plant. Based on my knowledge of the line, things wouldn't have changed too much in the intervening 10+ years. IC was still running passenger trains on the Iowa Division right up until Amtrak. Former Railfan and Railroad editor Jim Boyd worked on this line out of Wallace Yard in the late 1960's. He discussed its operations in depth in his excellent book Monday Morning Rails.
I remember as a kid growing up in Rockford seeing those morning IC meat trains hustle through the South Main St. crossing, how the melodic air horns would echo.
http://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/2-Moore/020/1975-04-27ICG_Iowa3-Moore.pdf This ETT is a few years after the proposal's date, but covers the entire Iowa Division.
Many years ago I talked with a guy who had done some consulting work for business and cities along what was then the CC&P. It was shortly after the IC and bought it back. He said the CC, like most regionals and short lines, was easier to do business with for smaller volume customers. The CC was more open to serving them. He said the IC was slowly reverting back to the class one mentality.
I think the IC saw that the CC was making money with the large on-line agricultural business and reconsidered. At one time, the UP considered spinning off the northwest Iowa grain lines that came with the CNW acquisition. Then someone figured out there was money to be made there.
Of course regionals or short lines, being more receptive to smaller volume business, might develope more traffic from on-line sources.
A coworker from Ft. Dodge lives next to a CN employee. He said his neighbor says working west of Ft Dodge feels like working for a class 3, not so much working east of there.
Jeff
The Iowa Division lines these days are just a long series of branches. Traffic builds to the east as the various branches come together at Ft. Dodge, Cedar Falls/Waterloo, and Manchester. I've always wondered what would have happened if the original EHH, Edward Harriman, had been able to integrate the IC more tightly with the UP system similiar to what James Hill did with the GN/NP and the CB&Q. Definitely would have hamstrung or killed all of the other non-aligned grangers.
Back in the early-mid 1990's with no merger partners on the horizon, the revamped IC under Ed Moyers and Hunter Harrison tried to expand. They bought the Chicago Central, then got outbid by KCS in 1993 when they attempted to repurchase fellow ICG-spinoff MidSouth. IC then tried to buy KCS in 1994, but low-balled the bid. KCS rejected the deal and then hired Mike Haverty as CEO in 1995. The rest, as they say, is history.
Was there a passenger train better named than "Land 'o Corn"?
That stretch of railroad from Scales Mound thru Council Hill (a great little general store/restaurant located there) thru Galena then to East Dubuque thru the curved tunnel and across the Mississippi into Dubuque is very spectacular Midwestern scenery.
MP173 Was there a passenger train better named than "Land 'o Corn"? That stretch of railroad from Scales Mound thru Council Hill (a great little general store/restaurant located there) thru Galena then to East Dubuque thru the curved tunnel and across the Mississippi into Dubuque is very spectacular Midwestern scenery. Ed
Yes, it is. I recently came across this gorgeous photo on Flickr of a CN meet taken at Scales Mound: https://www.flickr.com/photos/35317901@N02/52716396339/in/faves-49885117@N06/
Quite a photo.
Years ago, on one of my trips to Dubuque, I had a couple of hours and headed off of US 20 to follow the old IC - it would have been CN at that time. Went north on Il 78 and ended up eating lunch at a coffee shop in Warren. There were photos on the wall of the Land o' Corn passenger train. What a great place for lunch. Unfortunately there were no trains during my brief stop.
Looking back at my 1956 Official Guide, both the "Land" and the Hawkeye made stops in Warren. What a convenient method of transportation into Chicago, or Omaha.
Looking further at the document, the IC was not expecting a massive upturn in business. Most of the trains were projected to have between 20 and 80 cars per train.
Further question...looking at Waterloo Google satellite view, CN (former IC) has a sizeable yard in the city. Is there quite a bit if local business in the area? Is it mainly agricultural? I also posted a new thread regarding John Deere tractors, is it possible these are loaded in or near Waterloo? UP seems to have a line also.
ed
At one time the Rath Packing Company in Waterloo used to be the largest packing plant in the country. A big shipper. Was liquidated in the early 80's.
I found a John Deere tractor loading facility at 42.511032,-92.262457 in Waterloo. Its on the Iowa Northern's ex-Chicago Great Western branch to Oelwein, IA. Right to the south is a Tyson Fresh Meats plant, with large white reefer boxcars spotted for what I assume must be meat loading.
ns145 I found a John Deere tractor loading facility at 42.511032,-92.262457 in Waterloo. Its on the Iowa Northern's ex-Chicago Great Western branch to Oelwein, IA. Right to the south is a Tyson Fresh Meats plant, with large white reefer boxcars spotted for what I assume must be meat loading.
That industrial area is still owned by UP. They have contracted the switching out to IANR who leases (maybe owns now) the rest of the line to Oelwein.
The contracting out was a PSR move a few years ago.
All this talk about the old IC and look what shows up the next day in Springfield, IL?
What does CN run thru Springfield? Is there a daily Chicago - EStL train plus a local?
Great photo!
MP173 What does CN run thru Springfield? Is there a daily Chicago - EStL train plus a local? Great photo!
Thanks! There's only one very irregular local out of Clinton, Illinois. It has been running at night. The KCS came into town Wednesday for their once a week car swap with the Illinois & Midland, then I heard this guy get a track authority from Mt. Pulaski to Springfield. The day job usually goes north to work Gibson City and Gilman.
I finished reading the Iowa report/experiment. Very interesting to look back 50 years.
This was all about grabbing a little bit of Union Pacific traffic in order to rebuild the Iowa Division and hopefully (IMO) be prepared for a possible Rock Island failure to merge (which occurred) with UP.
The entire proposal was years ahead of itself by proposing reduced crew size in exchange for increased train frequency. As stated above the union rejected it, buying the brotherhood another decade before crew size was whittled down.
The addition of four trains (2 each way) out of Council Bluffs was for a projected 52 carloads per day from UP. Not 52 cars per train, but 52 cars daily eastbound. Revenue per car was projected at $358. Over 90% of additional growth was projected to be eastbound. Very little westbound traffic, nor online business increase. All UP, mostly eastbound.
The report provided some interesting views of IC/Iowa Division in the early 1970s. Carloads and trains had dropped dramatically over the previous 15-20 years. The report indicated the division was "break-even" at the time the report was generated. The revenue for the division was $33m. The new plan would result in 58 cars per day (52 eastbound from UP) and would provide $7.7m in added revenue. That new revenue would result in a 29% margin with about $2.2m in profit to the division.
That revenue would be consumed with capex in order to achieve a modern line. The report estimated $2.7m yearly for several years to replace 112 lb. rail with 115 lb rail and also replace ties and surfacing. The old 112 lb rail would go to Amboy and Albert Lea branches to replace 90 lb rail. The plan called for 25 miles per year of new rail installation. Further capex would be required to install CTC.
The train volume would be 6 each way east of Waterloo plus an Amtrak which was running at the time. Short trains would probably be required as the sidings were fairly short.
While the Rock Island merger did fall apart, the IC Iowa line was not nearly as efficient as the CNW line across Iowa...which eventually merged into UP.
One wonders how IC would have handled just a fraction of the PRB coal which was on the horizon. The coal would have chewed the 115 rail up, but might have provided the needed motivation and revenue to bulk up.
Two winners resulted in the Omaha - Chicago route - CBQ (BN) and CNW. CNW featured a bypass of Omaha, probably saving hours in transit time. Both BN and CNW were in a great position to handle the explosive coal growth...CNW even held a chip with having access to the Wyoming coal fields.
I still do not comprehend the Iowa Division role in today's CN, but obvious it provides benefits. It appears that CN and Iowa RR serve similar roles, gathering all that Iowa corn and moving it to market, either as raw corn or ethanol.
Great report, well worth reading (if one enjoys such analysis)...thanks for the link.
Is Ridgely Tower razed? I know it closed about 10 years ago. I was fortunate enough to stop there a couple of times and was invited upstairs by the operator. This was in April, 2010. I would have stayed all day but had an appointment in Mt. Sterling, an 1.5 drive to the west.
It seems like Springfield has quite a few rail lines, but not too many trains, other than the Amtraks.
I wonder how much traffic the IC could've actually have won from UP. Around the same time as this UP's Kenefick approached the RI about becoming "best friends" at KC and Council Bluffs while the merger dragged on. Nothing came of that, but CNW's Provo met with Kenefick to rebuild bridges that Heineman had burned in the 1960s.
That did result in UP and CNW becoming best friends, with CNW ultimately receiving all most all of UP's traffic. And eventually CNW disappearing into UP.
What's kind of ironic is that when Jack Haley's Chicago Central got into trouble, consultants said CC was running too many train starts for the business it was handling. That with 2 and 3 man crews.
MP173 Is Ridgely Tower razed? I know it closed about 10 years ago. I was fortunate enough to stop there a couple of times and was invited upstairs by the operator. This was in April, 2010. I would have stayed all day but had an appointment in Mt. Sterling, an 1.5 drive to the west. It seems like Springfield has quite a few rail lines, but not too many trains, other than the Amtraks. Ed
Ridgely Tower lasted about a year after it was shutdown in 2010. Main problem was getting rid of all the asbestos, then getting a UP flagman to show up on demolition day. I think it got spared at least twice. I ended up missing the real finale.
NS used to push 20-25 train movements a day thru Springfield prior to 2008. There were close to 35-40 total train movements a day at one time on the joint NS-UP-CN-KCS trackage on the south end of town. All down hill now thanks to PSR.
I recently ran across George W. Hilton's 1971 Trains magazine piece "Please, no hero for the North Western". Mr. Hilton was a smart guy, but, seriously it was obvious that the C&NW was by far the best route for the UP east of Omaha. UP got lucky that the Rock Island merger got killed off by the ICC. And that dead end line to Lander, WY that passed by the Powder River Basin ended up being a huge asset, even if the coal had to move over UP thru most of Nebraska. A person with some vision should have seen that in 1971.
MP173 I still do not comprehend the Iowa Division role in today's CN, but obvious it provides benefits. It appears that CN and Iowa RR serve similar roles, gathering all that Iowa corn and moving it to market, either as raw corn or ethanol. Ed
Without a friendly western connection, an eastern/midwestern railroad is forced into running a long branchline to collect online traffic. NS' line to Kansas City has only handful of trains that deliver traffic to UP, BNSF, and KCS. And UP and BNSF don't want to give NS anything at KC except empty autoracks (can't make $$$ moving them). Everything else is either going to or from the online Ford plant or NS' own KC intermodal terminal at Voltz, Missouri. CN's done the same thing with online agri-business in Iowa.
CN's operating model has worked well for them on a lot of marginal properties. They kept the light density WC lines in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Wisconsin until very recently. CN still operates the B&LE, a line that is completely isolated from rest of the CN system. Love him or hate him, Hunter Harrison expanded CN's rail empire considerably under his watch (WC, BC Rail, DM&IR, EJ&E, and B&LE). That's one of the reasons their traffic growth numbers have been higher than their US counterparts. Seems that a few other Class I's are starting to follow his example. I wonder how much longer large regionals like FEC and IAIS can stay independant? Both would be nice additions to NS' system to counter CSX's recent move with Pan Am. NS still operates some isolated Wabash trackage in Des Moines and they interchange a lot of intermodal traffic with FEC in Jacksonville, FL.
Having grown up just north of Manchester (Edgewood; about 15 miles north of the Iowa Division), I got to spend a lot more time on the Iowa Division as I got into high school in the mid/late 70s and was lucky enough to become good friends with the ICG signal maintainer (Bill Heitter) who was responsible for the territory from East Cabin to Hilltop along with the secondary mainline to Cedar Rapids and really learned a lot from him about not only the Iowa Division itself but the IC/ICG as a whole. I also became good friends with the crew on the 6-day a week 477/478 train between Cedar Rapids and Manchester.
While I remember things still being pretty decent on the ICG Iowa Division in the mid-70s and even when I was getting ready to graduate from HS in 1979. But, I noticed things started going downhill quickly by 1981 and progressively got worse up until the sale to Jack Haley's Chicago, Central & Pacific in late 1985. As someone who has loved RRs since I was a young boy and the ICG in particular, it was painful to watch. I did hear rumors circulating in 1982-83 that BN was taking a hard look at the ICG Iowa Division (would have been a perfect fit for them, IMHO) as was SOO after they lost out on the "Spine Line" war with CNW in the summer of '83.
Absolutely inexcusable how CN is not trying to go after more business on the Iowa Division and instead is seemingly satisfied with the low-hanging fruit (grain and ethanol). There is so much potential for meat and meat products traffic in central and western Iowa and as someone who has a Marketing Degree from the U of Iowa, I know I'd sure as hell be knocking on doors trying like hell to get it.
Los Angeles Rams Guy I did hear rumors circulating in 1982-83 that BN was taking a hard look at the ICG Iowa Division (would have been a perfect fit for them, IMHO) as was SOO after they lost out on the "Spine Line" war with CNW in the summer of '83.
I did hear rumors circulating in 1982-83 that BN was taking a hard look at the ICG Iowa Division (would have been a perfect fit for them, IMHO) as was SOO after they lost out on the "Spine Line" war with CNW in the summer of '83.
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