I started back to the narrow gauge car barn.
The wig wag signal on the northwest corner of the grounds.
Denver and Rio Grande Western flat car 6206 built by the railroad in 1918.
Midwest Central 0-4-0T 16 "Erzbergbau Salzgitter" built by Henschel & Sons of Kassel, West Germany in 1951. It was shipped to Detroit in 1963 for use on an amusement park that never opened and the locomotive sat for 20 years until it was brought to Mount Pleasant in 1982. The engine was restored in just 11 weeks and operated for the 1982 Old Threshers Reunion, then rebuilt in the early 1990's as a diesel-hydraulic powered locomotive for the Six Flags Fiesta Texas Railroad by Shop Services.
16 had been part of the active locomotive roster since its restoration in 1982, however, in summer 2011, it was sidelined pending a thorough boiler inspection.
Midwest Central 2-6-0 2, nee New Berlin and Winfield 2 built by Baldwin in 1906. It was built as a coal burner with a straight stack, extended smokebox, round-case kerosene headlight, quick-opening smokebox, air brakes and a vertical stave pilot. It was painted in olive green and aluminum. In every way, it was as basic of a Baldwin Locomotive as one could have ordered.
The New Berlin and Winfield Railroad Company operated an eight-mile line in Pennsylvania for an agricultural community. The 2 hauled freight and passengers on this small operation until 1917, receiving very few modifications while in Pennsylvania. It is believed that the tender suffered a derailment, which required it to be repaired. During this repair, it received wider decking and a new endsill.
In 1917, the locomotive was sold to the Argent Lumber Company in South Carolina. Here, it would operate alongside two of Midwest Central's other locomotives: the 6 and the 1 until 1956. At Argent Lumber, the 2 gained an iron cab, a Rushton stack, a H.K. Porter tender tank, an electrical system and many other small details. The original air brakes were replaced with steam-jam brakes.
After Argent shut down, the steam engine was purchased by the Midwest Central Railroad and shipped to Iowa. It was renovated by 1971 and operated as the main road engine for nearly 20 years until 1987, when it was taken out of service for a complete rebuild. This on-going rebuild includes a complete frame up restoration comprising of a new boiler.
Ferrocarril Coahuila y Zacatecas 2-8-0 1 built by Baldwin in 1897. It was ordered by the British-owned Mazapil Copper Company for the Coahuila and Zacatecas Railroad (Ferrocarril Coahuila y Zacatecas) in Mexico. For most of its career in Mexico, it was used as a switch engine in the Saltillo yard, hence the slope-back tender.
Originally, the 1 was built as a wood burner with a "bonnet" (sunflower) stack, short smokebox, 23" diameter box-style kerosene headlight and a vertical stave pilot fitted with M.C.B. couplers. Around 1898, the engine was converted to burn coal with a signature Baldwin straight capped (fluted) stack and new grates. In 1903, the Nacionales de Mexico converted to standard gauge. Since the N.deM. and C.y Z. connected at Saltillo, the 1 was fitted with dual gauge coupler pockets.
It was converted to burn waste oil in the early 1960s. When the Coahuila y Zacatecas dieselized in 1963, the engine was retired from service. In 1965, Early West Railways, Incorporated purchased 1, along with C.y Z. 6, C.y Z. 12 and a plethora of freight and passenger equipment. They planned to operate a steam tourist railroad at the Puddingstone State Park in Pomona, California. However, when Early West Railways failed to come to fruition, the 1 was sold to the Specialty Restaurants Corporation of Long Beach, California, who displayed 1 at the "Loose Caboose", a railroad-themed restaurant in Anaheim, until the restaurant closed in 1981.
In 1983, the steam engine was donated to the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum Association in Campo, California, by Specialty Restaurants Corporation, delivered in November and cosmetically restored. In 1988, PSRMA sold the engine to the Midwest Central Railroad, as it did not fit in with their collection.
Author's aside: I used to see this engine at Katella Avenue when my family would drive down the street.
Midwest Central coach 3, history unknown.
Midwest Central coach 200 "Mignon" was built from scratch on one of the 4' x 30' flat cars bought from the Southern Pacific's abandoned Keeler branch in 1961. The flat car used for "Mignon" was the only all-steel construction Southern Pacific narrow gauge flat car built. This was also the last flat car in service on the Southern Pacific narrow gauge as it hauled the wrecking crane that was used to pull up the rail behind it as it made its last trip.
It was designed by partially copying an 1865 coach model and built by Bob Shepp, Byron Livix and John Lauer.
Midwest Central coach 301 "Mt. Pleasant", history unknown.
White Pass & Yukon caboose 903. Now I would photograph all the way around the trolley loop, starting on the northwest corner.
Rio de Janeiro open-bench car 1718 built in 1911 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and operated there until 1965 when they became part of a group of cars that came to the United States. The design of these cars is called a Narragansett-style after a type developed by the Brill Company of Philadelphia. The interior woodwork is constructed of a Brazilian hardwood called Peroba de Camp. The cars joined the Old Threshers collection in 1970 and 1973.
The view across the loop.
Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad wooden interurban coach 320 built by the Jewett Car Company in 1914 and operated between Chicago, Aurora and Elgin, Illinois from 1914 thru 1961. It has been on display and in service at Old Threshers since 1968. This was running across the other side of the loop.
Midwest Electric Railway Museum interurban car 381, ex. City of Waterloo 381 1958-1972, exx. Waterloo, Cedar Falls and Northern 381 1945-1958, nee Knoxville Power and Light 379 1930-1945, built by Perley Thomas in 1930. It carries 42 passengers and is still considered a modern car by today's standards. This car was the last streetcar to operate in Iowa, August 1, 1958 and was donated to Old Threshers in 1971 by the City of Waterloo.
Midwest Electric Railway Museum streetcar 1945 is "Peter Witt" type car from Milan, Italy built in 1927 and acquired in 2002.
In spring 2002, Ameren UE (formerly Union Electric Company) of Keokuk donated motor flat car 1100 to Midwest Old Threshers. This car worked at the Keokuk Dam for the hydroelectric plant and served the plants needs for an amazing 84 years. The new cab is constructed of tongue and groove wood siding, mounted on a 40-foot motorized flat car.
Milan streetcar 1945.
Box Motor 3279 was built by the Boston Elevated Railway about 1910, originally on a pair of early type Boston boxcar trucks. In 1948 it received a pair of Taylor HLB trucks from a scrapped Type 4 car and two GE motors from a Type four as the car was only wired for two motors. The wheels were re-profiled for compromise wheel tread for use on the then being built Blue Line extension to Revere Beach which would use pantographs and overhead wire on the surface portions of the line.
Rio de Janeiro open car 1779.
Midwest Central interurban car 9 and Milan streetcar 1945 behind.
Midwest Central Railway interurban car 9, ex. Iowa Railway Historical Society 9 1967-1968, exx. Southern Iowa 9 1941-1967, exxx. Iowa Southern Utilities 1916-1941, exxxx. Centreville Albia and Southern 1915-1916, nee Albia Interurban Railway 9 1912-1925 built by Barber in 1912. It was rebuilt from a single-truck car in 1915. This was the first car to run at the Old Threshers in 1971.
Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad 320 ran along the west side, south of the trolley shops.
Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railway 381 came around the southwest curve of the grounds.
Wild flowers gone wild.
Rio de Janeiro 1718 passed my photo location.
Milan Streetcar 1945.
Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad 320 climbed the hill on the south side.
Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railway 381 came up the hill and back to the boarding area.
Three trolleys dropping off passengers for lunch.
Chicago, Aurora & Elgin 320.
Rio de Janeiro 1718. From here I went and had an excellent lunch then took a few more pictures.
Steve Miller really enjoyed his lunch.
Lunch was by Hyvee Catering.
Looking towards the shop.
Surry, Sussex & South Hampton Railway 2-6-0 6.
The builder's plate of Surry, Sussex & South Hampton Railway 2-6-0 6. I went into the offices, moved the pictures from the camera and the laptop then rode one of the streetcars. I worked on the story until Sarah asked me to be the Bus 2 host for the return trip to Cedar Rapids. A special thank you to the ladies of the office of the Midwest Electric Railway for letting me store my gear in their office and work on the story in the cool.
Back in Cedar Rapids, I met Nathan Chidester and we put his luggage in my motel room before Dave and Randy bought over my luggage. We all went to Kalona to take pictures of the Kalona Historical Village.
Kalona Historical Village 6/18/2012
They were waiting for me at the office. When the Kalona Historical Society was established in 1969, the Kalona Historical Village was not even a gleam in the new board's eye. First on its agenda was to try to acquire and move the new town's depot from the Rock Island Railroad site, which had been purchased for $50. A "Save the Depot" drive was begun by several service organizations and Glen Wahl, who donated the property site on which the depot would be relocated.
Plans for the placement of the depot on the grounds and an expanded historical village concept were drawn. The depot was moved to its present site in 1970. Property donations came in the form of garden plots from neighbors and land purchases by the Kalona Historical Society. The construction of the Mennonite Museum began in 1971, followed by the addition of other historical structures in 1972.
Continuing the forward thinking of the original Board of Directors, a Welcome Center was constructed in 2000, with an addition in 2007. Two quilt galleries and additional exhibits are now available to visitors.
The Burlington Cedar Rapids & Northern (a predecessor of Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific) station built in 1879 and relocated here.
The Rock Island station sign.
Views around the Kalona Historical Village. We thanked our host after we toured station then Dave Smetko and Randy Jackson drove back to Cedar Rapids but Nathan and I had a few other places to visit.
From here the two of us drove to the Amana Colonies but along US 6, found a westbound Iowa Interstate train with Iowa Interstate Rock Island heritage unit 513 on the point.
This train was headed north to Cedar Rapids and was setting out a car in Oxford.
Iowa Interstate ES44AC 513 in a Rock Island-inpsired heritage paint scheme.
Here they were setting out a car.
Iowa Interstate ES44AC 513.
Iowa Interstate ES44AC 503.
Iowa Interstate ES44AC 500.
Iowa Interstate ES44AC 513. We re-located to Homestead.
The first two engines were cut off and were wyed so that Iowa Interstate 513 would be pointing east for our trip tomorrow. From here we drove through the Amana Colonies.
Amana Colonies 6/18/2012The history of Amana Colonies, a National Historic Landmark and one of America's longest-lived communal societies, begins in 1714 in the villages of Germany and continues today on the Iowa prairie.
In the turbulent 18th century, Germany, in the midst of a religious movement called Pietism, two men, Eberhard Ludwig Gruber, and Johann Friedrich Rock, advocated faith renewal through reflection, prayer and Bible study. Their belief, one shared by many other Pietists, was that God, through the Holy Spirit, may inspire individuals to speak. This gift of inspiration was the basis for a religious group that began meeting in 1714 and became known as the Community of True Inspiration. Though the Inspirationists sought to avoid conflict, they were persecuted for their beliefs. Eventually, the Inspirationists found refuge in central Germany settling in several estates, including the 13th-century Ronneburg castle.
Persecution and an economic depression in Germany forced the community to begin searching for a new home. Led by Christian Metz, they hoped to find religious freedom in America and left Germany in 1843-44. Community members pooled their resources and purchased 5,000 acres near Buffalo, New York. By working cooperatively and sharing their property, the community, now numbering some 1,200 people, was able to carve a relatively comfortable living. They called their community the "Ebenezer Society" and adopted a constitution that formalized their communal way of life.
When more farmland was needed for the growing community, the Inspirationists looked to Iowa where attractively priced land was available. Land in the Iowa River valley was particularly promising. Here was fertile soil, stone, wood, and water enough to build the community of their dreams.
In 1855 they arrived in Iowa. After an inspired testimony directed the people to call their village, "Bleibtreu" or "remain faithful" the leaders chose the name Amana from the Song of Solomon 4:8. Amana means to "remain true". Six villages were established, a mile or two apart, across a river valley tract of some 26,000 acres – Amana, East Amana, West Amana, South Amana, High Amana and Middle Amana. The village of Homestead was added in 1861, giving the Colony access to the railroad.
West Amana.
High Amana.
Amana.
The Amana Milwaukee Road station built in 1883.
East Amana. We headed back toward Cedar Rapids.
In Walford we found this caboose. We returned to the Motel 6 after getting some dinner then I worked on the story and finally went on line to check things and listened to Let's Talk Trains archive while I worked, finishing before calling it a night. What a second great trip our NRHS 2012 Convention staff gave to all the passengers.
That is what occurred at the 2012 NRHS Cedar Rapids convention on this date.
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