M&StL / CNW
In Eldora
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Help build this page!
If you have some of your own photos or know of some please let me know. Anyone interested in adding stories or memories of anything related to railroading is welcome to add to this page. Email: mstl@eldora.net I can also arrange a video tape interview to have available at the Eldora Welcome Center & Railroad Museum.
M&StL Depot Eldora, Iowa
This depot is unique for Iowa and appears to be similar in detail to some
C&O depots I've seen. My suspicion is that
Edwin Hawley, president of
the road from 1896-1912, had some influence on this. The C&O was one
of the roads he had management experience from before coming to the Iowa
Central.
Modelers now have a very close replica of this building available. Blair Line has produced a laser cut replica of the C&O Railway Standard No. 1 Depot design http://www.blairline.com/codepot/
C&NW Depot in Eldora, Iowa. Originally C.&I.D.
C.I.&D. R.R.
C.I.&D. R.R. 1893 in Eldora. The Chicago Iowa and Dakota was
one of first railroads to connect Eldora with the rest of the world. Top
of map is west. North is to right. This became C&NW property later.
Depot is pictured in center above. The east-west street next to the depot
is now HWY 175. The current elementary school is just west of the
turntable. The map shows a grain elevator where the school is now. The
building in the lower left corner says Eldora Elec. Light Co. and states
that there are 5 dynamos in operation.
D. E. Holmes Collection
The Chicago, Iowa and Dakota Railway (locally known as the Slippery Elm)
was a short track that connected Alden, Iowa Falls and Eldora. For many
years there were two trains a day, one in the morning and one in the
evening. This provided access to the county seat, and the line did a good
business until the automobile became the favored mode of transportation.
From: http://www.iafalls.com/historic/railroad_era.html
This comes from the Nov. 4, 1897 Eldora Ledger:
Chicago, Iowa & Dakota TT No 21
North and West
No. 5 11:10 am
No. 7 7:00 pm
South and East
No. 4 9:45 a.m.
No. 6 5:40 p.m
C.H. Gyger Agent Eldora and H.C. Stuart GPA
CI&D R'y "The Home Road"
24 hours from Chicago on all freight via C&NW and CI&D Fast
Freight Line.
Rates quoted and shipments received for all points in the U.S. and Canada.
Through bills lading issued by all CI&D agents. Refrigerator service
Tuesdays and Thursdays from Chicago & Tuesday and Fridays to that
point..
For particulars call on C.H. Gyger, Eldora Agent.
Chicago Great Western "Maple Leaf Route"
Trains leave Marshalltown South
No. 1 Daily for Des Moines, St. Joe and Kansas City 4:46 a.m.
No. 5 Daily for same points 10:43 a.m.
No. 3 Except Sunday for same points (after arrival of IaC No 2 5:18 p.m.
East
No. 6 Daily for Waterloo, Cedar Falls, St. Paul and Mpls 5;40 am
No. 4 except Sunday for same points (also Dubuque & Chgo) 10:43 a.m.
No. 2 Daily lijmited for all above points has thru sleepers
and fine chair cars 11:03 p.m.
Iowa Central Railway
South and East
No. 2 Daily for St. Louis and Kansas City 4:15 p.m.
No. 6 Peoria Express daily to Oskaloosa 8:33 a.m.
No. 10 Local to Marshalltown 3:00 p.m.
No. 4 Peoria Express , daily 12:40 p.m.
No. 90 freight 0 pm.
West and North
No. 1 Daily to St Paul and Mpls 10:43 a.m
No. 5 Mason City Express , daily 7:28 p.m.
No. 9 Local to Mason City 9:30 a.m
No. 3 St Paul Express, daily 2:43 a.m.
Trains Nos 1,2,3,4 daily. All other trains daily except Sunday
All above trains carry passengers when provided with tickets.
L.M. Martin, Gen Mgr. T.P. Barry GPA J.S. Davis , Agent Eldora
There are also ads for the Milwaukee nd the Big Four
Photos of historic C&NW steam engine 1385 in Eldora and other CNW photos shot in Eldora are on the CNW Photo Page.
photo of C&NW Eldora depot agent, Oscar Hassman by D.L.Owens circa
early 1970's Eldora, Iowa CNW depot
1999 - Oscar recently donated the Eldora depot sign and a baggage scale to the Eldora Welcome Center/RR Museum.
12/26/2003 from the Iowa Falls Times Citizen
February 5, 1919-December 21, 2003 ELDORA - Oscar "O.T."
Hassman, 84, of Eldora died at his home Sunday, Dec. 21, 2003. Following
cremation, memorial services will be Monday, Dec. 29, at 11 a.m. at the
First United Methodist Church in Eldora with Pastor Anne Lippincott
officiating. Private family interment will follow at the Eldora City
Cemetery. O.T. was born Feb. 5, 1919, in Seaton, Ill., to Emil and Mary
(Rush) Hassman. He was raised in Albia, where he graduated from high
school in 1937. O.T. was involved in track, running the hurdles. He was a
veteran of the U.S. Army, serving in the Middle East between 1941 and
1945, based in Iran. On May 15, 1950, he was united in marriage to Pauline
Dressen at Marshalltown. In 1953, he moved to Eldora where he worked as a
railroad depot agent for M & St. L Railroad and then for the Chicago
North Western Railroad. O.T. enjoyed whittling and was recognized by
having several pictures of his hand carvings featured in a national
whittling magazine called "Chip Chat." He played the saxophone
and violin throughout his life. O.T. had been a member of the Masonic
Lodge for over 50 years. Survivors include three daughters, Jill Street
and husband David of Rockford, Mich., Carol Strait and Susan Hassman and
husband Mark Johnson, all of Eldora; one son, Joe and wife Gerry of
Duncomb; two brothers, Philip of Geneseo, N.Y., and Louis of Chaska,
Minn.; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Preceding him in
death were his wife, Pauline; a son, Billy; a grandson, Ben; and a sister,
Libby Shoeman. Creps-Abels Funeral Home in Eldora is in charge of the
arrangements.
I don't remember meeting Oscar as an adult but as
noted elsewhere on this page I did meet him when I was a child. Oscar's
son-in-law, Mark Johnson, worked in my printing business for some time in
the 1990's. During that time we printed the newsletter for the mortorcycle
rights group A.B.A.T.E. of Iowa. One month we needed artwork for an event
called "Steam" and Mark enlisted his wife, Susan Hassman, to do
a drawing of a steam locomotive. I was very excited to see the detail in
the drawing she provided us with. It would have made any railroad parent
proud. I hope I still have a copy in my boxes of stuff. If anyone from the
family would like to add to this I would be happy to post whatever you
would like. Cash 12/31/2003
1870? map of Eldora and Steamboat Rock
The following is provided by Dennis Owings (Eldora High School class of
1966) dowings@mn.rr.com
David L. Myers was quite a railroad buff from the Eldora High School
class of 1965. He went on to work for the CNW in Chicago and after he
passed away had a locomotive named after him. The Herald-Index did
something on him I believe. He and I both worked as switchmen out of
Marshalltown in the summer of 1966. C&NW locomotive 8700 is dedicated
in the memory of the late David L. Myers, Director of Engineer Training at
West Chicago, IL. The unit has commemorative plaques built into the sides
of the cab. 
Photo by Bryan Jones
Many years ago, the section 4man at Eldora was evidently a proficient
telegrapher. This was told to me by the section 4man in Parkersburg, Iowa,
ca. 1953. As I recall, the Eldora 4man was on the job when the Parkersburg
fellow worked the Eldora area as a section laborer.
LaVerne Andreessen LWAndreessen@kca.net
3/30/2001
From the 1920 Annual Report: 3.3 miles of main track were relaid with 85# steel rail replacing 80# between Eldora and Gifford.
From the 1922 Annual Report: 85# steel was laid between Steamboat Rock and Abbott a distance of 5.73 miles replacing 80#,also 2.72 miles between Eldora and Steamboat Rock.
From the 1953 Annual Report: Electrically-locked crossing gates and signals were installed at crossing wih C&NW at Eldora, Ia, replacing mechanical dwarf signals.
Some information from a couple of long time businessmen in town that is interesting.
Beecher Crosley owned a coal business and feed mill from the 30's until the 90's. Their business was located just north of where the CNW depot was in Eldora. The coal shed which was later turned into a grain mill is on the site of the very old CI&D turntable pit and roundhouse shown in the map above. This is the area just east of the current elementary school. There is a building there that was once an ice house. He said the walls were insulated with thick cork. Mike Crosser's brother (I can't remember his first name) told me he and a friend used to play underneath the ice house as children.
One year all of the rail lines into town were closed due to snow and the only coal the town had for several weeks was two carloads of coal owned by the M&StL. That coal was stuck in a snowdrift outside of town. The mayor arranged to buy it and then rationed the coal until the rail lines could be reopened.
Orv Gatton owned the Phillips 66 gas station in town. The M&StL
had spur on the north side of town that is still there. That spur was
called "the oil track". As other gas stations went out of
business Orv ended up owning most of the oil tanks there. I think he said
there were at least 4 stations who had facilities there. I got some of the
last of them photographed a few years ago before they were torn down. I
will try to show some of the photos here in the future.
"The Oil Track" and crossing diamond located on the north side
of Eldora 1975. Photo by D. L. Owings.
When the Eldora water tower (as seen above) was repainted in the early
1990's my printing business, Groth Printing, did the typesetting for text
that the painters used for the "home of Pine Lake" lettering
that is currently there. I'm not sure how they scaled it up to the
finished size. I remember enlarging it as much as we could on our
photocopier.
CNW #220 heading north to Steamboat Rock in 1975. Photo by D. L. Owings.
The author of this site (me) helped his dad unload car loads of Moorman's Feed and new furniture from boxcars spotted in the same location as the boxcar in the picture above. It was during the same time period too. Who knows maybe the car there was one of them. I remember being sent on my bike to ask the agent (probably Oscar Hassman) if our car had been spotted yet. I remember my dad saying that the agent would probably tell me it was striped. As an adult I had the opportunity to operate a locomotive over this stretch of track. I was grinning like a little kid when we rolled to a stop near where the M&StL depot was by the Hy-Vee store on HWY 175. I have a pretty good story about this but probably won't post it for several years so as to avoid any trouble for the engineer.
Photo by D. L. Owings.
One of my Train stories
10/11/99 Lyndon Groth
This is what I wrote to former CNW Mason City Dispatcher Larry Kirstein when I found out he held that position. His reply follows.
Just the other day I was thinking of something that involved the Mason City Dispatcher. It's an event that happened about '79-'80 and I thought it would be neat to ask one of the Mason City Dispatchers about it if I ever had the opportunity to meet one. So I guess this is my opportunity.
In the fall of '79 or '80 I was driving on a gravel road between Steamboat Rock and Eldora late at night. I had some friends with me and as we crossed the CNW tracks the shock of the bumps snapped both u-joints on the drive shaft of my van. We had just begun to walk to town when a train began to climb the grade out of Steamboat Rock at a very slow pace. We thought that if the train crew would let us hitch a ride that would be an awful lot easier than walking to town.
We had a spot light in the van and tried to draw attention with that. As the engines ground uphill we tried yelling our request to the crew, but they passed us by. (thinking about it now as an adult now, I realize the crew probably feared some kind of vandalism or harm.) As kids I know that we were frustrated that such a slow moving train seemed oblivious to our predicament.
Anyway shortly after two of us had begun walking a police car rolled up. He said that the Mason City dispatcher had called the Sheriff's office with a report of a group of teens throwing rocks at a train. He asked if we knew anything about it. Uh oh! This wasn't looking good. We related our story and predicament. After swearing on scouts honor that we had only used the light, he gave me a ride home to get another truck to pull the van home with.
Since I was positive that we hadn't tried to thrown anything at the train (I've always liked them) I always felt bad about what the policeman told us. I've always wondered if the cop made up the rock bit to worry us or if we scared the train crew or if a it was the case of what happens when a story gets passed down the line through about 4 or 5 people.
I really was thinking of this only a few days ago so you can't picture the surprise I felt when I read your email. Do you ever remember hearing about that incident? Maybe it used to happen all the time.
Recollections of a CNW dispatcher. In response to the previous email message
I worked as a dispatcher in Mason City from 1979 to 1985, then in Boone from 1986 to 1989, now with the UP.
Sorry, don't recall the incident you talked about. Yes, it does happen frequently. I'm no longer a dispatcher, but a dispatcher's supervisor (chief or assistant chief dispatcher in old terms, corridor manager on the U.P.) But as a dispr. I made many a call to local police and sheriff's offices for all kinds of things, but rarely heard back on how things turned out.
I made my 3rd student road trip on the Alden wayfreight, which went thru Eldora. It was 5/27/81, we started in Iowa Falls, went to Alden to work the cement plant, picked up some grain at Iowa Falls, at Eldora, we picked up 25 more grain. I think we had somewhere around 8000 or 9000 tons with 3 GP38-2's (6000 horsepower). Just south of Eldora is a 1.0% grade (Liscomb hill?????), engr didn't think we'd make the hill, so we got permission from the dispr to backup, (didn't tell him why), backed about 1 or 2 miles north of town, opened up the throttle and hit the bottom of the grade at speed. Whatever the speed llimit at that point, we were doing 10 over, my memory fails me exactly, but I think we were doing 50 when we hit the base of the hill on 40mph track, otherwise it was 40 on 30mph. Anyway, we crested the hill doing 2-3mph, just crawling!! Then went into Marshalltown, dropped the cars, picked a handful, and high tailed it back to Iowa Falls.
The only thing I really remember about Eldora was the small, dilapidated old depot on the west side of the tracks had a dead cat sitting up high on the old train order board bracing. It had been there a loooooong time, was fur and bones!! I again made the same trip on 4/28/82 but don't remember anything special about that trip.
On 5/2/82 made the trip on train #161 from Mason City to DesMoines via Marshalltown, at Marshalltown we had to run the power around our train from the east end to the west end of the yard, then waited one hour for a hot westbound piggybacker to get by. We followed him out, went to Ames Jct. (middle of town in Ames) and slowly (about 5mph) went thru the connection to the Ankeny Sub (which is now gone from Ames to Slater).
I've lost the record (just realized it while typing this!!!) but sometime between 1982 and 1985 I also rode a deadhead move of a CNW Business car from Mason City to Marshalltown thru Eldora. It had been in use in the Twin Cities area and was moving back to its 'storage' spot of Marshalltown. From Mason City it was going to be the rear car on the local, what we called the Mason City turn. The Assistant Superintendent called the Chief to see if any dispatcher's on their day off wanted to ride, 5 of us showed up and there was an attendant on board who cooked us up a 5 course meal!!! Then the Asst Supt. drove us back after dark from Marshalltown. I'll need to research when that occurred and put it in my train-riding log! Larry Kirstein LRK7@radiks.net
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I am researching my wife's family. Her grandfather was Harry C. Murphy who was the president of the CB&Q RR from 1949 - 1965. He was born in Canton IL in 1892 but he graduated from Eldora IA HS. He then went on the Iowa State College. A resume he wrote says that: "1912 - 1913 While attending school worked nights and during vacations as laborer and station helper for the M.&St.L. R.R. at Eldora, Ia" By 1918 Harry's and his parents, Frank & Margaret Murphy, had moved to Aurora, IL. Harry himself was a pilot in the Army Air Corps. I am looking for information that might fill in this time period: Where did they live? What did Frank Murphy do? The Murphy family seemd to move from palce to place with Margaret's sisters, Were there any Hagerty's or Wigtons living in the area at this time? A story has it that Harry Murphy cleaned oil lamps for his aunt who ran a hotel in town. Was there a hotel run by Murphy or Hagerty or Wigton? Goergia Wigton might have been a switchboard operator at the time. Thank you for your time. I can be reached at john.lentz@ncr.com or John Lentz 220 S. Commonwealth Aurora, IL 60506 Thank you again. John Lentz 5/5/2000 |
Please email any stories or railroad history you know of to mstl@eldora.net. All items submitted will be added to this page.
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