Iowa Railroads
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This is my first attempt for HDR.
There still is much room for improvement.
But I am happy to learn these new techniques.
I thank my son Robert for teaching me and DanielKHC for helpful links.
In Dyersville, Iowa, the Basilica (from the Greek meaning "Royal House") features Gothic Revival architecture. The two steeples are 212 feet (65 m) tall with 14 feet (4.3 m) crosses that cap the spires. This helps make the church visible from miles away across the rolling farmland. Pilots often use these steeples as landmarks during flights. The interior of the church is decorated with a number of paintings and frescoes, and 64 large cathedral glass windows. We grew up near here.
Some of these migrate but these stay local!
I left the image with context because I love them lifting over the trees. To see their lovely detail - just enlarge.
The Dakota & Iowa Railroad's Hawarden based local smashes a small snow drift from a recent storm as it heads south through Westfield, Iowa with ethanol, corn oil, and DDG loads bound for class I interchange at Sioux City. A predominant portion of the D&I's business is hauling rock, cement, and other construction materials for their parent company, L.G. Everist. Since these commodities don't move much during the winter months due to the extremely cold temperatures, this crew is kept busy Monday - Thursday serving customers such as the ethanol plant in Hudson which operates year round.
A rural photo of a creek and pasture in rural Guthrie County, Iowa. Look close and you can see the cows grazing just beyond the creek.
Developed with Darktable 3.6.0.
This is a DNR Wildlife Refuge Area which will allow hunting during certain seasons. Late spring, summer and early fall it's hiking country for families and kids.
Today, it was a glimpse into the past on what real pioneers saw as they made their way "westward" across the open Iowa landscape.
Copyright 2021
Iowa Interstate 515 with BICB crosses the Iowa River on a mild spring day. Shots on the north side of the bridge are uncommon due to trains usually passing through Iowa City when the sun is on the south side of the bridge. But with the new BICB schedule shots on the north side is now possible.
This is a farm I drive by a lot, and this time the light and the sky caught my eye. I even turned around and drove back to get the shot.-something I usually don't do and kick myself for later.
. . . of Winterset, Iowa -- boyhood home of John Wayne -- from the northeast corner. This 180 degree pano is four images stitched together and probably one of the cats knocked over a couple cans of paint on it in the workshop (of the imagination). And I must be on a Greg Brown kick this week, but his song "Our Little Town," seems so apt: youtu.be/m8OStXJTu30
A westbound UP stack train was rolling into Cedar Rapids behind a pair of former Chicago and North Western C44-9Ws, a Union Pacific SD60M, and a standard cab SD60 in the winter of 1995.
The action was constant and varied at the time and you never knew what would come along next.
UP LNM34 rolls through the heart of Iowa on the former M&StL headed towards Oskaloosa with a ratty GP15-1 leading two GP38-2s.
I was on my way to visit friends in South Bend, Indiana traveling eastbound on Interstate 80 when I had to pull over and get some shots of this amazing sunrise near Walnut, Iowa. There are a few locations in Iowa along I-80 where you can see many wind turbines and this is the first one I encountered heading east. I hate stopping when I am traveling long distances to get from A to B but this was definitely worth it.
Norfolk Southern's Wabash heritage made several trips to the Iowa Interstate on the coal train to ADM in Cedar Rapids. On New Year's Day 2015, NS 1070 led a few IAIS engines pulling the empty coal through Oxford, IA for another load.
January 1, 2015
Just out of Union Station. the Hoosier State begins its evening trip to Indianapolis.
Two GP40FH-2's power the train. Both started life as New York Central GP40's.
Iowa Interstate's eastbound CBBI passes the former Rock Island depot in Iowa City. At the time it was standard practice for CBBI and BICB to swap power at the yard in Iowa City and this day was no different. 701, 604,485(ic), 627, 603, 628 and 702 were pulled off and ran back west while 713, 714, 715 and 716 would continue taking it east.
September 2, 2006.
CN's L565 local switches the large Big River United Energy ethanol plant on the west side of Dyersville in northeast Iowa. Dyersville only has a population of about 4000, but has garnered global notoriety in baseball lore for hosting the movie site for Field of Dreams.
L56591 26 (Local- Dubuque, IA to Manchester, IA and return)
GTW GP38-2 #6225
GTW GP38-2 #5844
Dyersville, IA
May 26th, 2022
Iowa Northern Railway (IANR) 4 pack of 4001, 3851, 3856, and 4003 lead the MABU (Manly to Butler) south around a sweeping curve east of Rockford, IA. I normally try to avoid the super-wide angle with the drone when I can but somehow this scene captured the feeling of this warm, partly to mostly sunny early July summer afternoon well enough I thought it was worthy of sharing. A beautiful afternoon for a chase of some sharply painted units down the former Rock Island main from Manly to Waterloo!
The north end of the Iowa Northern hasn't had a consistent pattern (that I've seen anyway) in quite a while, so catching something north of their yard at Butler has always been elusive for me personally. I originally headed to Waterloo to shoot the afternoon Oelwein Job, but a chance message on a facebook group that the MABU had been sighted leaving Manly quickly diverted me north. I caught up with them here at Rockford where I also found a small gaggle of other fans out giving chase too. With the future of this railroad short with a pending sale to CN, it's a "get your shots while you can" type atmosphere for sure, especially when there aren't any leasers in the consist!