M&StL
History
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This comes from the Marshalltown Times Republican 50 years of progress issue in June of 1949.
Most of the history is true.
Of the 1400 miles of M&StL main line track, more than half are in Iowa. And 212 full time employees of the railway work and live in Marshalltown. Their annual payroll totals well over $700,000. Most of this money, which in 1949 has averaged around $60,000 per month, is spent for goods and services in Marshalltown. In another way, too, the M&St L has been for more than three-quarters of a century a prime factor in the business and industrial progress of Marshalltown. That is thru the dependable transportation service it provides every day in every year.
It was in 1869, just 80 years ago, that the Iowa River railroad, one of the numerous predecessor lines of the M&StL, extended its tracks into Marshalltown from the north. In 1870, this was consolidated with other early day roads as the Central Railroad of Iowa. Within another year, the latter had built into Marshalltown from the south, thus completing a line all the way from Albia to Northwood. At Northwood, it connected after a few years with the Minneapolis & St Louis railway, which had constructed its first stretch of track in 1871 and in 1877 had extended its line south from Minneapolois thru Albert Lea into Iowa. (Somewhere the BCR&N should be mentioned here). the Central of Iowa finally was merged with some other railroads and became a part of the Iowa Central Railway system. After years of closely affiliated operation with the M&StL , the latter leased the properties of the Iowa Central and operated them for a time under lease as part of its own system. In January, 1912, the M&StL purchased the Iowa Central and took over complete control of its properties and operation.
The line of the Iowa Central, from Northwood thru Marshalltown to OSKALOOSAS, BECAME A VITALLY IMPORTANT SECTOR OF THE MAIN LINE OF THE M&STL which extends 487 miles from Mpls, northern terminus of the road, to Peoria, its eastern traffic gateway.
Marshalltown shares significantly in benefits that accrue to communities on the M&StL and thruout the midwest, on savings in transit time made possible by the Peoria Gateway. On shipments to or from points anywhere in the east or southeast, hours and even days are saved by routings via the M&StL and Peoria. That is because freight so routed can bypass congested terminals that delay traffic at many rail centers.
In Marshalltown are located the railway's principal car shops. Scores of boxcars have been rebuilt and a considerable number of cabooses and flat cars have been constructed completely by the expert mechanics in the Marshalltown shops. The car shops and big freight yards employ most of the 212 workers on the M&StL payroll in this city. The car building and repair work is a major item in the system-wide program for improvement of rolling stock, tracks, buildings and other properties on which the M&StL has spent well over $30,000,000 since the present management, headed by President L.C. Sprague, assumed charge in 1935. Most of the 4,000 freight cars are new, acquired in the last five or six years. Likewise impressive has been the virtually complete modernization of M&StL motive power.
Ten years ago, the road understook to rebuild its fleet of steam locomotives. But the iron horses, most of them more than 20 years old, could not supply adequate power for the kind of modern railroad which the M&StL management had set out to create. So a planned program for dieselization of motive power was undertaken.
First were purchased a dozen new diesel-electric switch engines. Then came a series of 1,000 horsepower combination road and switching diesels. The M&StL has bought some of these all purpose locomotives each year since 1943 and by the end of 1949 will have 30 of them in service.
Next on the list of new engines were three huge freight diesels, each generating 4,050 horsepower in its three units. These, the heaviest power ever operated on the M&StL, are used almost exclusivly to haul fast freight trains of 80 cars or so in daily non-stop service between Minneapolis and Peoria via Marshalltown, making the 487 miles in less that 18 hours.
Newest of M&StL diesel power consists of three two-unit locomotives, each developing 3,000 horsepower. These also are used in fast-scheduled freight service and three more are on order.
Before the close of this year, M&StL motive power will be almost completely dieselized. In recent years, the policy has been to sell, scrap or otherwise dispose of steam engines, as fast as they outlive their usefulness. Some 50 diesels will be on the rails. They will be rolling on heavy-duty tracks, designed for smooth, efficient movement of fast freight trains.
The M&StL main line thru Marshalltown has been rebuilt from end to end, with heavier rails, hardwood ties, and crushed rock or washed gravel ballast. Main and yard tracks and sidings have been extensively improved as part of the continuing program. Bridges, buildings and other structures have been rebuilt or replaced. Grades and curves have been reduced and cuts widened. All this, with scores of other betterment jobs, has transformed the M&StL into a modern well equipped railway, progressively operated and dedicated to efficient transportation service for Marshalltown, for Iowa, and for the midwest. Adv
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