HAWKEYE STATE VARI ETY
Iowa’s Scenic Line
BY JEFF TERRY/PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR
ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS YEAR’S National Railway Historical Society convention is a trip to Iowa’s Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad, perhaps best known for purchasing the final steam locomotive built at China’s Datong Lo- comotive Works — 2-8-2 8419, in 1989. But the Chinese engine is just small part of the B&SV story; over the past three decades the Iowa Railroad His- torical Society, which operates the tourist train, has assembled an impres- sive collection of steam, diesel, and electric power, and this year will cele- brate the opening of a world-class rail- road museum. It’s the latest chapter in what has become a remarkable story of railroad preservation in the Hawkeye State.
A Railroad Town
On any given day, the sound of diesel locomotive air horns can be heard re- verberating throughout Boone. This quiet town, population 13,000, is inter- sected by Union Pacific’s busy Chicago- Omaha double track main line, and a seemingly nonstop parade of freight trains roar through the business dis- trict at all hours of the day and night. Rather than being seen as an annoy- ance, the railroad is embraced — after all, it’s provided job security to Boone’s citizens for nearly 150 years, and many
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of its residents are former and current railroad employees. A downtown mural honors the Chicago & North Western, and a retired caboose serves as the towns’ visitor’s center. The Cedar Rapids & Missouri River,
on its quest to link Cedar Rapids with Council Bluffs, was the first railroad to build into Boone in 1865. It provided a vital link with the Union Pacific’s transcontinental main line at Omaha, and was eventually leased by the Gale- na & Chicago Union, which became part of the fledgling Chicago & North Western in 1864. In 1881, 15-year-old Kate Shelley be-
came a national hero when she crawled across C&NW’s bridge spanning the Des Moines River during a fierce storm, in order to warn an oncoming passen- ger train that the Honey Creek Bridge had collapsed. C&NW honored her deed in 1901 when it opened the Kate Shelley Memorial High Bridge three miles west of town, which towers 185 feet over the Des Moines River. A new concrete and steel span, the largest and highest double track railroad bridge in the world at 2813 feet long and 190 feet high, was opened by Union Pacific alongside the original bridge in 2009.
A Rich History The rails used by the Boone & Scenic
Valley between Boone, Fraser, and Wolf were once part of a vast interur- ban network operated by the Fort Dodge, Des Moines, & Southern. The tracks in Fraser were put down by a steam road, the Boone Valley Coal & Railway Company, which was char- tered in 1893 to run from the coal fields near Fraser to a connection with the Minneapolis & St. Louis at Fraser Junction (now Wolf). Seizing an opportunity for expan-
sion, in 1899 the owners of the BVC&RC started a new railroad, the Marshalltown & Dakota, and began building northwest towards Sibley, Iowa. The road was reorganized in 1901 as the Boone, Rockwell City & Northwestern, and again the following year as the Newton & Northwestern. In 1902, N&NW began building southeast from Fraser up the rugged Des Moines River Valley towards Boone. At the spot where tiny Bass Point Creek trick- led down from the hillside, the railroad built a massive wooden bridge to span the ravine, 156 feet high and 784 feet long. The first Newton & Northwestern train entered Boone on January 3, 1904, and by 1905 the railroad was over 100 miles in length, operating between Newton and Rockwell City. In 1906 the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern was formed to link its
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