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Industries served by the Minneapolis and St. Louis in Mason
City, Iowa
The customers are arranged in a linear fashion from north to south.
Over Time, Different companies may have been at the same address.
These businesses will share the same number on the directory sheet.
Due to redundant carloads, industries may be grouped together on the
spreadsheet
.1) Weaver Construction Co.
Weaver Construction was headquartered at Iowa Falls IA. They operated
quarries throughout the state. They were mainly a road construction
operation and mined aggregate for that purpose. The MStL laid an
1170ft. spur at their quarry site 3.13 miles north of Mason City in
Oct. 1956.
1) Mason City Ready Mix Co.
Mason City Ready Mix also used the spur to receive bulk cement from
the local plants. Weaver Construction supplied them with aggregate to
make concrete.
2) American Crystal Sugar Co.
Known locally as the sugar beet. The plant was located off line north
of Mason City, west of the railroad. The Sugar Beet was the only sugar
processing plant in Iowa producing 40,000,000 lbs in 1942. It is
included here because of the direct connection with the Chicago Great
Western at a joint yard east of Lehigh Portland cement. The MStL would
give cars loaded with sugar beets to the CGW at this yard during the
fall Campaign season. Outgoing shipments would travel the normal route
of CGW to MC&CL to MStL. The plant rendered sugar beets into
granular sugar with profitable byproducts of molasses and beat pulp.
The Sugar Beet used ex-MStL consolidation 457 as the plant switcher
for many years, when retired the 2-8-0 was donated to Mason City and
resides in East Park. The MStL recorded plant shipments of 173 cars in
1955.
3) Lehigh Portland Cement Co.
Lehigh shipped 1561 carloads in 1955. In 1956 Lehigh built a new bulk
loading facility complete with scale north of the joint yard, the MStL
laid 842.7 ft. of track to the new facility. Lehigh produced 3,000,000
barrels of cement in 1957.
4) Northwestern States Portland Cement Co.
This description is based on information gathered from Holnam Inc.
Holnam purchased NW States in March 1990. We will assume that Lehigh
is similar. The plants mined limestone, sand and clay locally. Gypsum
rock is brought in from Fort Dodge IA. Large amounts of coal are
needed to fire the kilns; petroleum coke was also used. Portland
cement is manufactured in rotary kilns utilizing limestone, sand and
clay in specific proportions. From these raw materials calcium,
silica, alumina and iron are combined at high temperatures to make
clinker. The clinker is ground with gypsum to provide the correct
bonding characteristics for the final cement product. Cement was first
shipped in barrels and prices were based that way through the 60's.
There are approximately 4 bags of regular cement to a barrel or, the
weight of 376 lbs. In the 50's the plant advertised they were
producing 80,000 barrels a day. After barrels, cloth bags were used
for many years. The switch was made to paper bags in the early 50's. A
pool arrangement was used by the four railroads that served the plants
to supply empty boxcars to the plants. Bulk cement was sometimes
loaded into boxcars; these cars had to be marked "for clean
lading only" so as not to contaminate the cement. During the 50's
the use of covered hopper cars became the standard way of shipping
bulk cement. Covered hopper cars were dedicated to the railroad that
owned them. Northwestern States shipped 2216 carloads on the MStL in
1955. Trucks were not used to haul cement until around 1960. Several
types of cement are ground besides regular Portland, Masonry and High
Early are also produced in large quantities. High Early meant high
strength and early set time. The concrete made from Portland type
cement resembles the color of stone quarried on the Isle of Portland,
which despite it's name, is actually a peninsula along the southeast
coast of England. These plants are in operation today.
5) Mason City Lumber Co
Mason City Lumber had a shed on a siding across from the J. E. Decker
Plant. They would unload cars there and either store items in the shed
or haul to the yard a few blocks away.
6) Jacob E. Decker & Sons (Armour)
Known simply as Deckers. This meat producer was one of the largest
shippers on the MStL. Shipping 5478 carloads in 1955; this was
approximately 90% of animal products shipped that year. Deckers was
the largest employer in Mason City employing 1300 people. Armour &
Co. purchased Deckers in October of 1935.
Hogs and cattle were slaughtered and processed into meat products and
meat by-products. The plant quit processing sheep around 1950. During
a Normal day, 5000-6000 hogs (600 an hour) and 300 cattle were
processed. In addition to livestock many other products were required
for operations. Salt, sawdust, sugar, coal, cardboard, soda ash and
ammonia were also shipped in by rail. Most inbound commodities
especially tin cans were billed to Emery IA headquarters of the MC&CL.
These loads were delivered directly to Deckers by the MStL. The MC&CL
would get the line haul charges, while the MStL only collected a
switching fee!
The plant had it's own power plant which produced steam, electrical
power, compressed air and pressurized ammonia. There was also an ice
plant. Chunk ice was made for icing refrigerator cars and crushed ice
was made for plant operations. At the "car line" hot water
was used to clean reefers, steam was used to clean the tank cars.
Tank cars were loaded with lard, tallow, white grease and "stick"(evaporated
tank water). Other products shipped included Fresh pork, cured pork,
smoked meats, bacon, canned hams, beef quarters, bone meal, tankage,
dried hog hair and beef hides. A Milwaukee Road waybill showed a car
load of canned pork was routed MStL Mason City IA to Minneapolis MN,
then MILW to Seattle Washington.
7) Mason City Water Works
The water pumping station unloaded coal. This was used to fire the
boilers to make steam for the water pumps. During the middle 50's, a
large tank was built south of the spur track. This was for the storage
of oil. The oil was used to oil the city's streets. Water and sewer
pipe is stored west of the pumping station. The pipe was unloaded with
a "stiff leg" affair that could be clamped to the side of a
flat car or gondola. Later a backhoe tractor was used to unload cars.
8) Andrews Concrete Products
Known locally as Andrews, the company started business in 1947. They
brought in bulk cement from the local plants. The hopper cars were
spotted on a 585ft. spur laid in July of '47. Besides making "ready
mix" they specialized in precast concrete products such as blocks
and steps. They were the only plant in the area to produce Prestress
concrete beams and joists. When the new MStL engine house was built
adjacent to Andrews in 1948, the floor was gravel. Shop foreman
Darwitz made arrangements with Andrews to use the leftovers from the
'ready mix' trucks. That's why the concrete floor of the enginehouse
is laid out in many odd sized squares!
9) Mason City Builders Supply Co.
Mason City Builders Supply was one of the areas largest building
products wholesale distributors. The yard was located on the old coal
chute track. The office moved from 221 7th NE to 316 4th NE when the
Pillsbury warehouse closed.
10) Midland Cooperatives Inc.
Midland Coop with street address 326 4th NE was a farmer owned
wholesale distributor of fertilizer, seed, feed, fencing, small farm
machinery, and milking machine products. Home appliances were also
sold. In July of 1960 a new building was constructed to store
fertilizer, seed and feed on the east side of the MStL yard. A 390ft.
long spur track was laid so cars could be spotted at the new building.
This allowed Midland to build retail store at 326th NE.
11) Pillsbury Flour Mills Co.
Pillsbury built the warehouse in 1944. The MStL laid a 771ft. spur
track for the new building. Six cars of cinders were used to bring the
new track up to grade. Unfortunately this wasn't enough. When boxcars
were spotted at the two unloading doors the floor of the boxcar
spotted at the north door was 11/2 ft. lower than the warehouse floor,
the car at the south door was 6 inches too low! This problem was
satisfactory corrected on June 24th 1944. Pillsbury used the warehouse
to store the companies products shipped in by rail for local delivery.
Mason City Builders Supply occupied the structure in 1953.
12) Minneapolis & Saint Louis Station
A new passenger station was built in 1956 of local brick at a cost of
$35,000. A new track was laid behind the station so it could handle
LCL freight.
13) Red Star Oil Co.
Red Star Oil was located behind the MStL station. The facility had
four storage tanks with a capacity of 100,000 gallons of gasoline. The
metal warehouse could hold five carloads of oil plus an inventory of
Fisk Tires worth $4000. 1,400,000 gallons of gas were sold in 1941
through 21 outlets in North Iowa. They also sold STARCO fuel oil,
offering a discount of 11/2 cents on quantity sales. Red Star stopped
operations in 1953.
13) Sprenger Oil Co.
Sprenger started using the facility in 1955.
14) Minneapolis & Saint Louis Freight House
The MStL Freight House was used for LCL freight until 1956 when the
new passenger station was constructed. The railroad offered a delivery
service, using a company owned truck. When the cement plants used
cloth sacks, they put a 25-cent deposit on them to insure their
return. Customers would see that the sacks were returned to the
freight house where a cement plant truck would pick them up.
15) Northwestern Distributing Co.
Northwestern Distributing Co. feed mill made Mor-Gain brand feeds.
Mor-Gain was ground to feed hogs, poultry and cattle. The animal feed
consisted of a base of soybean meal with wheat middling, to this shall
measured amounts of meat scrap (meal), salt, tankage, and minerals
were added. Linseed meal or cottonseed meal could be used as the base.
The feed mill was a good railroad customer, shipping 444 cars in 1955.
An interesting fact about the feed mill is it burned down three times
and was rebuilt twice at the same location!
16) E. G. Morse
E G Morse processed poultry mainly turkeys. Operations ceased after
Mr. Morse's death on April 13 1956.
16) Hoxie Fruit Co.
Hoxie fruit was a warehouse for fruits and vegetables. They moved
into the building in 1959 because City renovation closed their
previous address.
17) W. G. Block Coal Co.
A 1943 ad stated the company had been serving the community for over
50 years. They sold all grades of coal and coke. They specialized in
stoker coal. They were the local dealer for Handyman Stokers. They
used an elevated track to unload coal. They were out of business in
1945.
The rail was removed by the MStL. Farmers Elevator tore down the
trestle in 1951 to make room for a large metal building to store corn
in. The corn was transferred into boxcars by an 'air machine' that
would suck up the corn and blow into the rail car.
17) Steward Farm Chemicals
Steward used the Block Coal office building. They sold Farm weed and
pest control chemicals. Steward was also a dealer for sprayers.
18) Farmers Elevator Co.
Through the 1940's, the complex had a track running behind the main
structure for unloading coal. The coal was unloaded by hand from
gondolas. Straw and hay was stored as well. The elevator shipped corn
and oats year round. There were two storage silos behind the elevator
building. They could hold 5000 bushels of corn each. A boxcar could
carry 2000 bushels of corn or 1800 bushels of soybeans. Extra corn
storage silos were built to the north when the National Refining
storage tanks were removed. There are 8 silos 6 have a capacity of
10,000 bushels each 2 have a capacity of 8,000 each. About 1959 the
coal, straw and hay storage were replaced with a large metal building,
which was used to store Purina Chow products. Between the elevator
building and the new Purina storage were feed tanks able to hold 1000
bushels each.
19) National Refining Co.
This fuel distributor can be seen in photos as far back as the 30's.
They sold White Rose Gasoline, EN-AR-CO oil and National Light
Kerosene.
The MStL purchased the facility in May of 1944. The building was
renovated in March of '45 and used as a repair shop. The Railroad sold
the land north of the building where the storage tanks had been to
Farmers Elevator in the early 50's. The elevator put up 8 silos.
19) Home Insulation Co.
Home Insulation began business at 410 4th NE in 1953. They
specialized in blown in insulation. They started handling asbestos
siding products in 1958.
20) Queal Distributing
Queal Distributing 629 6th SE was a building material supplier.
21) Mason City Foundry & Mfg. Co.
The foundry cast sheaves (pulleys). Manhole covers were cast for
local use in the late 50's. The foundry was located at the south end
of the MStL's "middle yard". This was one of the busiest
spots on the railroad, but the foundry had no physical connection.
They did however load a company truck with coke, from rail cars
spotted on the I&M track also known as "the pocket".
This track was an interchange connecting the MStL with the Milwaukee
Road's line to Austin MN, which was on their Iowa Minnesota division.
The rail was taken up in Sept. 1950.
22) Milwaukee Road Interchange
Most Mason City Business participated in reciprocal switching. This
simply means they could ship their goods on any route they chose as
long as it connected with the line serving them in Mason City.
The MStL offered fast dependable freight service to several "gateway"
points. The Twin Cities Gateway offered connections north and west.
The Peoria Gateway bypassed the congestion of Chicago offering
connections east and south. The MStL was the preferred route for the
Santa Fe RR's shipments from the southwest to the Twin Cities Gateway
via their direct connection with the MStL at Nemo IL. We can assume
that the MStL would get it's share of business located on the other
rail lines in Mason City through their Direct connections with the
MILW and MC&CL.
23) MStL Repair In Place Facility (R I P Track)
The MStL purchased this area from General American Transportation
Corp. (GATX) in Nov. 1957. All types of car repairs were done here,
mostly wheel and truck changeout. Foreign road cars were preferred,
because they would be charged the repair fee!
24) Mason City & Clear Lake RR Interchange
The Trolley transferred cars between the major railroads in Mason
City. The Trolley also served several industries in Mason City, Emery,
and Clear Lake. Two major companies located on the MC&CL are
listed as numbers 26 and 27.
25) Swift & Co. Plant Food Div.
The Swift plant was located approximately 2 1/2-miles southeast of
Mason City. The MStL laid 1252ft. of track when construction was under
way for the building in Aug. 1953. When completed the plant was a "sister"
to the one in Houston Texas. Swift manufactured granular and mixed
plant food. Plant capacity was around 50,000 tons annually. 326
freight cars were shipped in 1955. There were two major commodities
delivered to the plant. White Potash from Canada and red potash from
New Mexico. Brand name Vigoro had nitrogen content for home garden
use. Red Steer brand was also nitrogen based and intended for farm
use. Brand names Blenn, Brimm and Pasturgro were farm plant food with
trace minerals. The 1st carload out of the plant went to P. H. Feely
Farmington MN, 30 tons of Blenn. The 2nd shipment was sent to Berry
Seed Co. Boone IA, 30 tons of Vigoro. The plant supplied Plant food
(fertilizer) to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, parts of Nebraska, and
both North and South Dakota.
26) State Brand Creameries Inc.
State brand as it was known made butter, packaged butter and
processed milk. Bulk butter was trucked into the creamery in 64lb
boxes. The butter was cut into 1lb chunks wrapped and boxed or the 1lb
chunks were quartered wrapped and boxed. These cartons were put in
32lb cases for shipment. State Brand used one of the largest butter
churns in the country when making butter on site. There were two
processes for making powdered milk. The roller process made buttermilk
powder; this was shipped to bakeries in 50lb bags. The spray process
made skim milk powder by spraying milk under high pressure into a hot
oven. This was shipped in either 50lb or 100lb bags.
27) Mason City Brick & Tile
One of Mason City's most prominent buildings was the Brick and Tile
building. The company had their offices on the second floor for many
years.
The Brick and Tile made clay drain tile in one-inch increments from
four to twelve inches in diameter, fired clay building block and clay
bricks. The plant made a special drain tile; Hi-Flow brand was to be
used to drain areas quickly. The brickyard produced 100,000 tons of
tile and brick in 1955. The company quarried clay a short distance
from the plant. The clay was hauled from the dragline to one of three
plants by truck. The clay would be placed in a hopper where water and
chemicals were added. The slurry would then be fed into an extruding
machine. This machine could be fitted with different tile dies. The
extrusions were cut in twelve-inch lengths, except building blocks,
which were sixteen inches. The tiles were placed on curing racks
before being fired in the kilns. After a cooling period the tile was
removed from the kilns and either stockpiled or loaded directly into
boxcars. All drain tile fittings were made by hand. The brickyard
would shut down for a short time each winter for repairs and
improvements. The blocks and tile were very fragile. It was rare for a
boxcar to arrive at its destination without needing to have a damage
claim filed. The company shipped carloads throughout Iowa, Minnesota,
Wisconsin, and both North and South Dakota.
Contributors
Jack Shannon, MStL retired
Terry Harrison, Loomis Archives
Art Fishbeck, local historian
Harley Alitz, Farmers Elevator
Elmer Tosel, Midland Coop
Jim Manuel, Deckers
Holnam Inc., Northwestern States
Art Beenken, Northwestern Distributing
Chuck Klocke, Mason City Brick & Tile
Vaughn Escher, State Brand Creamery
Gene Green, MStL archives
Vaughn Ward, MStL retired
Photos
S D Marty
Vaughn Ward
Iowa State Historical Society
Loomis Archive Mason City Public Library
RITS
Written by Clark Propst
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