Celebrating Oelwein's Other Heritage

In this case the Railroad Heritage. Mainly Chicago Great Western but also the Rock Island line.

A few notes:

The CGW engine is an F7A that was restored several years ago to its original scheme & engine number 116A. (You can see a complete roster of equipment at the museum here.

:35 - In the back ground you can see the historic CGW shops that are being threatened with destruction

:43 - The track that curves to the West at the upper left of the screen heads toward the roundhouse that alsos till exists. (The roundhouse was about 3 blocks North of my home.)

The 3 buildings that exist north of the control tower (from N to S) are the depot (now City Hall), the Railway Express Agency (originally Wells Fargo) building & the CGW Yard Office & corporate HQ building. Yes the HQ was in Oelwein from the mid 50s until its demise in 1968. The REA & HQ building along with the tower are the Oelwein Railroad Museum complex.

The D&W Railroad Inc. (D&W) operates (service provided by Iowa Northern Railway) over 18.8 miles of former CGW track between Oelwein & Dewar. It continues into Waterloo over UP track. D&W is owned by TRANSCO Railway Products Inc & was created by TRANSCO after UP filed to abandon the tracks in order to maintain service to their Oelwein shop. The "D" and "W" stand for Dan and Woody, two former TRANSCO Railway Products employees who lost their lives in an accident in Oelwein.

Oelwein got the nickname the Hub City because of the CGW & RI tracks into town looked like spokes on a wheel. (See IDOT abandonment map, Orange CGW, pink RI & black D&W)

Historic Note: Walter Chrysler worked for a while at the Oelwein shops in 1908-9. His son, Walter Jr., was born in Oelwein. In fact Oelwein is where he 1st developed his interest in automobiles. (Chrysler’s road started in Iowa) Walter P. Chrysler Park is named in his honor. Now you know the rest of the story.