ABOVE: B&SV 6540 rolls over the Des Moines River Bridge with an afternoon Picnic Train on October 3, 2010. The normal consist of the Dinner Trains are two streamlined passenger cars. Union Pacific lightweight diner No. 4810, City of Los Angeles, was built by ACF in 1949 and was acquired from the Friends of 261. Southern Pacific streamline observation car No. 9044 was built in 1950 by Pullman as a 10/6 bedroom sleeper for service the City of San Francisco. Retired in 1968, it was recon- figured as an observation car prior to coming to Boone in 1985. LEFT: B&SV 6540 has a short two car train in tow at YMCA Camp Riveria on October 3, 2010.
signed to the B&SV dinner train. One unit that always draws atten-
tion (you might say it’s a “fan” favorite) is ex- US Army 45-tonner 1858, a 1944 GE centercab. After being declared sur- plus, it was acquired by Iowa State University and used to switch the Iowa State Power Plant at Ames. Today it serves as the Boone switcher, and wears colorful ISU cardinal and gold along with the collage’s Iowa State Cy- clones logo. The newest addition to the locomo-
tive roster is Union Pacific 2921, an SD40T-2 constructed by EMD in 1941 as Southern Pacific 8535. It’s a good representative of the modern power that’s frequented Boone in the past two decades following UP’s acquisition of D&RGW, SP, and C&NW. “Around
2009 we heard that [Union Pacific] was going to be retiring a number of SD40- 2s,” Stevenson recalls. “We requested one, and four or five months later [in March, 2010] the 2921 showed up — we were just thrilled to get it.” The unit is in excellent mechanical condition, and last year made a test run to the High Bridge; Stevenson hopes to use it more often in 2012. “UP took it to North Lit- tle Rock before it was given to us, and the shop went through it — we found that it has a lot of new parts on it and is in fantastic shape.”
Electric Power Since 1988, electric interurbans have
operated over a restored section of FDDM&S trackage running east from the main depot into downtown Boone, today
known as the East End Traction Com- pany. Along the route is the wooden FDDM&S depot from Napier, Iowa which was brought to Boone and restored in the mid-1990s. According to Fenner Stevenson, it’s the last Fort Dodge Line passenger depot in existence. The first car put into service was Chicago, South Shore & South Bend in- terurban 106, one of five ex-South Shore cars acquired in 1984 that are mainly used as passenger coaches. Then in 1987 the railroad purchased in- terurban combine 50, built by McGuire- Cummings in 1915. It operated on the Charles City Western, a 21 mile in- terurban in northeast Iowa, from the time it was built until the end of pas- senger service in 1952. Stored indoors its entire life, it was found to be in like- new condition when acquired by the B&SV. Nevertheless, volunteers spent eight years stripping away old paint and refinishing both its interior and ex- terior, returning it to service in 1995. In stark contrast to the vintage col-
lection are six modern MA3A “Highlin- 47
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