Hey Dale, check out this map that an acqaintance found on-line!!!
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
I just fixed it. If you notice that with any of Dale's other Trackside guides, please send me a Private Message and let me know.
Thanks,Erik
First of all, thanks Bergie and your website gurus for fixing the Mississippi River Crossings first post. Now, could you perform the same resurrection on the first post here? Looks like the same problem...
Semper Vaporo wrote: Los Angeles Rams Guy wrote: No, this baby was a banjo-type signal, I swear. It was probably removed by '65, '66 or maybe even as late as '67 but it was there on 13th Street. Wish I'd have been smart enough to have a camera back when I was a tyke. But what memories I have of the MILW mainline through Marion from the long freights with pigs and autoracks to the Cities streamliners. And Marion Yard would be CHOKED with all types of cars. What used to be and never will be again.Can you describe a "banjo-type signal"? What does it look like? How does it operate? I have lived here since 66 and I don't remember anything that I would describe as a "banjo".
Los Angeles Rams Guy wrote: No, this baby was a banjo-type signal, I swear. It was probably removed by '65, '66 or maybe even as late as '67 but it was there on 13th Street. Wish I'd have been smart enough to have a camera back when I was a tyke. But what memories I have of the MILW mainline through Marion from the long freights with pigs and autoracks to the Cities streamliners. And Marion Yard would be CHOKED with all types of cars. What used to be and never will be again.
No, this baby was a banjo-type signal, I swear. It was probably removed by '65, '66 or maybe even as late as '67 but it was there on 13th Street. Wish I'd have been smart enough to have a camera back when I was a tyke. But what memories I have of the MILW mainline through Marion from the long freights with pigs and autoracks to the Cities streamliners. And Marion Yard would be CHOKED with all types of cars.
What used to be and never will be again.
Can you describe a "banjo-type signal"? What does it look like? How does it operate? I have lived here since 66 and I don't remember anything that I would describe as a "banjo".
The funny thing of it is, the way I recollect it is that I remember these crossing signals on 13th Street looking A LOT like the Lionel Banjo crossing signal (yeah, I know, laugh if you want but that's how I remember it). It was mostly black, too. Like I said, the MILW probably replaced these crossing signals by '65 or '66 anyway so it may be extremely difficult to find any photo confirmation for sure. If anyone out there has something I'd sure LOVE to see it.
The official name for a banjo signal is Hall Disc signal.
If you go to http://mysite.du.edu/~etuttle/rail/sigs.htm and scroll down the page, on the left is a drawing of one. They were used for early block signals. There also was crossing signals of this type. The only picture of crossing signals of this type I have found so far are in the book Train Wrecks by Robert C. Reed. On page 152, the beginning of the chapter on crossing accidents there is a picture of a railroad crossing equipped with banjo crossing signals.
I think these are the type that he is referring to.
Jeff
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Funny I have not checked out this side of the forums until tonight and found this thread on my home state. To borrow a quote from Brian Hanel of good ol' Cedar Rapids - "HOLY SH**!" - is right! FREAKING GREAT WORK, Nanaimo, just freaking awesome! I'm not sure where to start but I'll take a crack.....
1. First, the pictures provided at Lansing on "My Mainline" (between River Junction, MN. and Sabula) just simply knocked me out of my chair; especially the shots of MILW 261 doing the street running through town. Christ, how I WISH I could have caught that. Of all the shots I have taken between Sabula and St. Paul I have NEVER got anything like that; not even the shot of that DME hospitality train at Clayton. All I can ask is when will the MILW 261 be making another trip on "my mainline"!?
2. I was a bit too young to remember Union Station in downtown Cedar Rapids as it was torn down (sadly) sometime in the early 60's. I was not aware that CNW used Beverly as its station stop in the remaining years of passenger service on the "Overland Route". But my Dad definitely remembers passenger trains of the CNW stopping there. And I most vividly remember the Cities streamliners when they were on the Milwaukee Road up until 1971; stopping at Marion on several occasions. Yeah, without question, Cedar Rapids and Marion really had it "goin' on" at one time. BTW, as a little kid in the 60's, I can vaguely remember banjo-type crossing signals on the MILW mainline at the crossing just east of the Marion depot (what the heck street is that?). Anybody else remember that?
nanaimo73 wrote: So Dubuque is used for Boston (Field of Dreams), and then Wilmington NC and Clinton SC were used for Cedar Rapids (Sleeping). That means that the Iowa railroad scenes in The Natural were filmed somewhere outside the Hawkeye State. Fredonia, New York???Several miles south of Iowa City is Riverside, where James T Kirk will be born in 225 years.
So Dubuque is used for Boston (Field of Dreams), and then Wilmington NC and Clinton SC were used for Cedar Rapids (Sleeping). That means that the Iowa railroad scenes in The Natural were filmed somewhere outside the Hawkeye State. Fredonia, New York???
Several miles south of Iowa City is Riverside, where James T Kirk will be born in 225 years.
The Sleeping with the Enemy town is Cedar Falls. The author of the book had ties to the University of Northern Iowa up their.
BTW, I got to ride the last west bound Central Iowa Railway train thru Riverside to Kalona. The line's SW-1 (exBN) and two empty RI 40' box cars. My father and I were part of a group of volunteers who were trying to reopen the railroad. The two cars had derailed a few days earlier south of Hills, Iowa. That derailment was the last straw for the railroad. Once the cars were loaded (with turkey feathers!) they, the SW-1 and their caboose were taken over to the RI interchange at Hills. IIRC, the engine went to California and the caboose to South Dakota, or the other way around. That would've been about 30 years ago now. Before James T. Kirk's ancestors ever thought of settling there.
Hmmm... did alittle search through IMDB's database on that one. If it's the movie filmed in 1991 with Julia Roberts that you're referring to, it does mention that she moves to a small town in Iowa in the movie, but it was filmed in Abbeyville, SC. The closest we've come to hosting a movie-making venture around here, IIRC, is for The Final Season, which was just recently released to a few theaters. It was filmed on-location in Norway, IA, just southwest of us, and is about the last baseball season of their small-town high school team before the district consolidated with another.
We do have a few home-grown actors in the business- Ron Livingston of Office Space and Band Of Brothers fame hails from Marion; in fact, his parents are good friends of ours. Ashton Kutcher hails from the Amana area, and there are a couple of others that I can't think of their names right now.
No, I didn't get over there to Dyersville. Kind of forgot about it.
Didn't make it over to Cedar Rapids/Marion either. I think Sleeping With the Enemy takes place there.
As for living on this Island, W. P. Kinsella (Shoeless Joe) did it for several years.
Now that you mention that great line from the movie, did you check out the Field of Dreams on that trip, Dale? This year was the last one for the "Ghost Players", who annually come out of the corn in left field to entertain visitors.
I bet living on a big island on the Pacific coast can seem like heaven at times as well...
I really enjoyed the drive I took several years ago down the river from St. Paul to Dubuque. I can't remember stopping in Clayton. Dyersville is not to far from there.
Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.
nanaimo73 wrote:I'm starting to think it's time for Trains to do an article on Marion and Cedar Rapids.
The Milwaukee Road Historical Society did an excellant two part article on Iowa with one part concentrating on the Cedar Rapids/Marion area.I'll have to look up the issue numbers and dates as I no longer have those issues myself.
Thanks to Brian for pointing out this thread.
Have a good one.
Bill B
QUOTE: Originally posted by jeffhergert QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 QUOTE: Originally posted by blhanel If you're referring to the spur that curls north from the right edge, that's still there- not used for much, other than to park an occasional low-priority UP train on, such as this one. It's my understanding that all of the C&NW passenger trains used that line, so they must have had their station closer to downtown. The Kate Shelly 400 last served your city in October 1957, so that's a passenger spur without passenger trains for almost 50 years. I wonder if Amtrak had started that Chicago-Seattle Pioneer passenger/fast freight train a few years ago where it would have stopped.QUOTE: That little parking lot on the right center edge of the terraserver picture, just west of the interlocking, is my favorite railfan hangout. Alot of my UP shots are taken from there. Perhaps they could put a hiking-biking trail on the former Rock Island line on the west side of the river with a bridge over the tracks. That would be a great place for photos. That CNW passenger line is the remains of the original CNW main line. Once in a while they will stick a Quaker Oats grain train in on the east end (Otis) and send a yard engine down and pull cuts up to the North Yard as needed. At one time, it was also double track. The present route was built around 1900-1901 time frame and was called the Linn County Railway. You lose about 3.5 miles in mileage. The mileage equation point is at the crossing under US 30 east of Edgewood Road. Where the MILW used to cross. I believe the CNW used the Union Station that was at 4th Avenue, torn down in early 60s'. Before the end of CNW passenger service, they had moved the Cedar Rapids stop out to Beverly. Jeff
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 QUOTE: Originally posted by blhanel If you're referring to the spur that curls north from the right edge, that's still there- not used for much, other than to park an occasional low-priority UP train on, such as this one. It's my understanding that all of the C&NW passenger trains used that line, so they must have had their station closer to downtown. The Kate Shelly 400 last served your city in October 1957, so that's a passenger spur without passenger trains for almost 50 years. I wonder if Amtrak had started that Chicago-Seattle Pioneer passenger/fast freight train a few years ago where it would have stopped.QUOTE: That little parking lot on the right center edge of the terraserver picture, just west of the interlocking, is my favorite railfan hangout. Alot of my UP shots are taken from there. Perhaps they could put a hiking-biking trail on the former Rock Island line on the west side of the river with a bridge over the tracks. That would be a great place for photos.
QUOTE: Originally posted by blhanel If you're referring to the spur that curls north from the right edge, that's still there- not used for much, other than to park an occasional low-priority UP train on, such as this one.
QUOTE: That little parking lot on the right center edge of the terraserver picture, just west of the interlocking, is my favorite railfan hangout. Alot of my UP shots are taken from there.
QUOTE: Originally posted by nanaimo73 Hey Brian. I was wondering if I could fini***his before you found it. I should be done Arpil 25th. Do you have the April 1986 Trains ? 20 years later and it is still one of the best.
QUOTE: Originally posted by Murphy Siding From what I see in Brian's pics, Cedar Rapids has a lot more scenerey. Our landscape consists of bean and corn, corn and beans.[xx(]
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