Train fans, former employees learn of local train history

A depot and railroad history symposium was held Saturday at the Creston Restored Depot. Local historian Jane Briley shared some of her notes and others who spoke about local railroad history. Organizers said about 30 people from Iowa and Missouri were in attendance including former railroad employees.

Dave McFarland of Red Oak provided some history of the railroad in Iowa. The Burlington and Missouri River Railroad was incorporated in Burlington in 1852.

The company built track in 1856 with only a few mile of track built. The rail connected to Ottumwa by 1857 and stopped work due to the Civil War. Work started again laying track to Creston by 1868 and Red Oak by 1869.

The plan was to then curve north to Council Bluffs and connect with the Union Pacific Railroad’s bridge to cross the Missouri River. A verbal agreement with Union Pacific had been made during the meeting so building of track began. When the track was laid to Council Bluffs the Union Pacific Railroad rescended their agreement and wouldn’t allow them to connect.

For many years until a bridge was built, they would ferry the engines and cars across the river to Plattsmouth, Nebraska, where the track continued in Nebraska.

In the agreement to build the land in Iowa the government gave them a track of land on both sides of the planned track, this resulted in the railroad having millions of acres of land in Iowa and Nebraska. The railroad started promoting the land to draw settlers to Iowa. The railroad agents who sold the land were able to sell it cheaply at an average price of $12 an acre.

In 1870 B & M Railroad leased the railroad line to the newly form corporation Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. In 1872, Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad purchased the Iowa portion of the B & M RR. The B & M RR continued building in Nebraska and then Colorado; CB and Q Railroad eventually acquired all of that as well.

Mike Avitt shared his collections of photographs of depots in the area along the C.B. & Q mainline and branches explaining information about the origin of the depots, features, and how the depots operated. Many of the photographs were taken by Avitt just days before the depots were destroyed and may be the only photos that exist of those depots. After photographing these depots, Avitt started collecting old postcards and photographs of the depots