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Minneapolis & St. Louis Operations at Mason City Iowa
Mason City had three switching jobs. Job 1 worked from 7am to 3pm
and was called the Deckers Job or the 7 o'clock Job. Job 2 worked from
10am to 6pm and was known as the Cement Plant Job or the 10 o'clock
Job. Job 3 which worked from 5pm to 1am could be called either a
Deckers Job or the "gofer", but usually was called the 5
o'clock Job.
For many years the D-742 a GE 44 tonner was used on both Job 1 and
Job 3. By using an engine weighing less than 45 tons Job's 1 and 3 had
four man crews, no fireman. There was a large double mirror on the
fireman's side of the engine to allow the engineer to see both to the
front and to the rear on that side. Job's 1 and 3 started using ALCO
RS1's in the early 50's. With the use of the ALCO the crews were
increased to five. The ALCO's always faced south, almost all work was
done coupled to the short hood, north end.
Job 1's duties in the summer months would start by heading to the J.
E. Decker & Sons Packing Plant. The work at Deckers could be
described as being like a board game, where you must replace every
game piece you move, or as a fellow who didn't work the Job often once
said "you would make more switch moves than thought possible,
then do more!" There was a method to the work. Because of the
plant layout cars would have to be shuffled from one track to another
to complete the various stages in the loading process. To not hinder
Plant production the crew of Job 1 had to know how long it would take
to load or unload the various commodities.
On arriving at Deckers the first move was to push the pre-cooled
reefers from under the car shed to the loading dock. The car shed had
large pipes running the length of the shed. Brine from the Icehouse
could be pumped through the pipes cooling the cars. The reefers would
be loaded and iced simultaneously. The cars from the cleaning tracks
could then be spotted under the car shed for pre-cooling. Next to the
loading dock track was the coal track, coal was unloaded here for the
Powerhouse, hides were loaded here too. Salt was sometimes unloaded
under the Icehouse which was on this track too. Other commodities
shipped in boxcars were usually unloaded on these tracks also. Job 1
would pull the empty stock cars from the hog shed next and take them
south to the MILW interchange. The empties were pushed onto the south
track of the interchange, track 5. Loaded stock cars were then pulled
off the north track of the interchange, track 3.
Deckers had a hog buying station at Dumont IA on the Chicago and
North Western RR. Three days a week hogs would be transferred from the
CNW to the Mason City & Clear Lake RR. The MC&CL would spot
these cars on their interchange tracks with the MStL. The switch crews
had to know when cars of hogs were going to be placed at the
interchanges, so they could be moved to Deckers as quickly as
possible. Otherwise, the switch crew might have to unload and care for
the hogs themselves!
When heading back north with the loaded stock cars Job 1 would stop
at the Middle Yard and take any loaded cars and empty reefers left by
Train 96 and train 33 to Deckers. Sometimes low sided gondolas were
filled with guts at Kansas City to be rendered into tankage at
Deckers, these were not cars the switchman enjoyed riding on! Once
back at the Plant the stock cars was spotted by the hog shed. The now
loaded cars from the loading dock could be placed on departure track
6. Tank cars loaded with lard were moved to departure track 7. After
lunch the process was repeated with empties being spotted on the wash
track. Reefers had their racks removed and cleaned separately. Reefer
cars were washed inside with hot water. Tank cars were cleaned with
steam.
During the winter months the Plant would be setup for the days
operations by Job 3. Job 1 would start their day by collecting cars at
the interchanges and the Middle Yard before going to Deckers.
Job 2 was known as the Cement Plant Job. The MStL shipped the largest
percentage of cement of any railroad out of Mason City. Job 2 used a
steam engine until they were replaced by ALCO's. Job 2 would use the
engine from Train 33, the local from Marshalltown IA while the crew
rested. The Cement Plant's would call the MStL to tell them how many
box cars and hoppers they wanted. Job 2 would first collect all of the
empties for the Cement Plants from the Middle Yard. They would also
pick up any empty boxcars from the industries by the depot for the
Cement Plants car pool. Lehigh Portland Cement Co. was switched first.
The switch Forman would go to the Plant office to get their switch
list. After they had spotted their empty boxcars and hoppers by the
Plant's Packhouse and spotted any coal loads, they would take the
Lehigh loads and proceed to Northwestern States Portland Cement Co.
Job 2 would leave the Lehigh loads on the siding know as the "States
Leg" east of a bridge and trestle arrangement over US highway 65.
They would then enter NW States from the east. NW States owned an
impressive yard for an industry. The Plant assigned each railroad a
different color tag. These were placed on the cars tack board. Job 2's
Switch Forman would get a lineup sheet from the Plant's Yardmaster.
Job 2 would generally spot the empty covered hoppers they brought by
the Plant's Packhouses. They would push the empty boxcars they brought
onto the cleaning track to be used in the Plant's car pool. The
Yardmaster would tell Job 2 which track to spot any coal had brought
on. The Plant's switcher would spot the empty boxcars and push the
loaded cars onto a yard track that would be designated for a railroad.
Job 2 would pull the cars off the track the plant switcher had setup.
Job 2 would push the NW States loads over the trestle and bridge and
add them to the Lehigh loads then proceed to the Middle Yard.
The bridge over US 65 was removed in 1953 when the highway was
widened. The MStL then entered NW States from the north. A switch was
installed on the south track of the joint MStL Chicago Great Western
yard east of the Lehigh Plant and west of Highway 65. The new track
crossed 25th St. NW and then over the Calimus Creek on a new steel
bridge before entering the Plant's yard. When the new track was
installed the loads from Lehigh would be left at the joint yard and
added to the NW States loads when Job 2 came back. In the summer and
fall Job 2 might leave cars at this yard for Job 3 to pickup.
In 1956 Lehigh built a new bulk loading facility complete with a
scale north of the joint yard. This meant Lehigh could now weigh their
bulk hopper loads. Lehigh also purchase a switch engine to spot cars
for loading and weigh them.
One of the duties of Job 2 when they returned to the Middle Yard was
to sort the bag cement cars from the bulk cement cars. The bulk cement
cars needed to be weighed. After 1956 only NW States cars were
weighed. There were two sidings on the east side of the MStL mainline
south of the crossing with the Milwaukee Road's mainline (Mason City
Junction). They were named Albert Lea 1 and 2. There was a scale at
the south end of Albert Lea 2. MStL switch crews were capable of
legally weighing cars. All the bulk cement loads were pushed on to the
scale one at a time and weighed. The cement loads were either returned
to the Middle yard or left on the Albert Lea tracks.
When this task was completed Job 2 would finish the day switching the
Depot area. Businesses that usually required daily switching were
Mason City Builders Supply, Northwestern Distributing, and the Freight
House. The switch Jobs tried to cooperate with each other. If there
were cars in the Middle Yard for these businesses or others in the
Depot area any Job would spot them on a siding at the depot area as
they were on their way to Deckers or the Cement Plants.
Job 3 was the mop up shift with some important duties. Job 3 used the
same engine as Job 1. Job 3's shift started with a very important
task. They first went to Deckers and pulled all the loaded reefer cars
to be shipped that day. Then they would proceed the Middle Yard to
make up train 32, The DMX (Decker Meat Express). Train 32 had to make
connections with an Illinois Central train bound for Chicago at Ackley
IA, 45 miles to the south. Most of the meat shipped south went to the
IC at Ackley. A few cars bound for Kansas City would go to the CGW at
Marshalltown IA. After their rest period, the crew of Train 32 would
get their engine back from Job 2 and be ready to leave town as The
DMX. Maximum tonnage for an ALCO RS1 southbound from Mason City was
1,800 tons or about 20 loaded cars. Deckers would ship more cars on
Thursdays and Fridays so trains on these days could have up to 36!
There were two grades between Mason City and Ackley, one north of
Geneva IA and the other between the MC&CL interchange and the
Swift Plant at the south Yard Limits of Mason City. When the DMX was
over tonnage they could get a run at the Geneva hill, but needed help
to get south of Mason City. If Job 3 was asked to "Give a little
push" everyone knew the DMX was over tonnage! Once the engine pin
was pulled south of the Swift Plant and the DMX was on it's way, Job 3
could get back to business.
Job 3's next task was to go to the Middle Yard and make up the
pickups for train 95. Some of the cars to be picked up included meat
and other products from Deckers, cement, and loads off the MC&CL
and MILW plus loads generated by the other on line industries. They
would switch the Depot area businesses next. Any hogs from the
transfers would be taken along. When finished at the Depot area, Job 3
would take the hogs to Deckers. Then they would take all loaded tank
cars to Albert Lea 2 and weigh them. During the winter months Job 3
would set Deckers up for the next morning.
During the peak cement shipping season of summer and fall Job 3 would
go to the Cement Plants to pickup cars left by Job 2. The bulk cars
would have to be weighed on the scale at Albert Lea 2. Job 3 usually
switched Weaver Construction at Mason City's North Yard Limit and the
Swift Plant at the South Yard Limit before the end of their shift. The
Yard Limits were 5 1/2 miles apart.
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