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NC IA | I think the rise of Ethanol plants springing up 25 years ago has something to do with it at least in Iowa. Used to be the farmer would haul his grain to the COOP with a tractor and wagon, then the COOP would store that grain and either 1) Load it on railcars or 2) use it in the feed mill or other random things.
Then Ethanol plants sprung up all over Iowa, the COOP gets a fleet of semis to haul to the local E-plant and forgets about loading railcars. After a few years the RR petitions to abandon that local line that serves the COOP, which gets approved and the line is torn out.
This is more recent history, but this concept applies to other industries too - the business finds a different way to move the product and no longer uses the RR.
Iowa used to have a lot of different RR companies running through it - if you went back to the 50s some a bunch. M&STL, Chicago Great Western, Rock Island, Chicago & North Western, Milwaukee Road were a few that are no longer around, all absorbed through various mergers (C&NW absorbed both M&STL and CGW in the 50s and 60s and promptly abandoned most of those lines as they were duplicate of their own). Milwaukee Road & Rock Island made a lot of poor decisions and went under, their lines taken over by Soo Line & C&NW, then the C&NW itself gets absorbed by Union Pacific & Soo Line gets bought out by CP. | |
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Railroads in Iowa?
