Iowa Interstate

Company History: The Iowa Interstate launched in 1984 to operate the former Rock Island mainline from Chicago to Omaha with a few short branches, and one longer branch to Peoria. The mainline also serves the Quad Cities and Des Moines along the way. Cedar Rapids is served by agreement with Cedar Rapids & Iowa City. This Rock Island route had been operated by the Iowa Railroad between 1981 and the establishment of the IAIS in ‘84. Chicago to Bureau is on trackage rights and the western terminal is actually in Council Bluffs with Omaha just over the state line. In total, the system is 580 miles. IAIS’s parent company is Railroad Development Corp.

Early operations were mostly handled by the usual spin-off suspects, rebuilt first generation EMD road switchers. Of the 36 engines, only 3 GP38’s and an Alco RS-36 were 2nd generation units. As traffic picked up over the years, they began to dump the first generation road switchers in favor of used 4 axle 2nd generation power. Now many of those have been returned and Iowa Interstate is going ultra-modern. As of this writing, their 44 engine fleet consists of: 12 ES44AC “GEVO”’s; 8 SD38-2’s; 22 GP38-2’s 1 GP38; and a pair of slugs.

They also have a pair of Chinese built 2-10-2 steam locomotives used for tourists and special events. They can also be found in freight service to break them in after shopping.

The addition of the 12 brand new GEVO’s permitted IAIS to retire twice that number of older 2nd generation road switchers, and still have a net increase of pulling power. Two of these GEVO’s wear Rock Island heritage colors.

In addition to the usual Midwestern mixed-manifest freights, IAIS has a respectable intermodal business. In the early years, this consisted of a single 5-unit Twinstack behind a GP9 (really!) As of this writing, IAIS sports its own fleet of Maxi-IV stack cars among others, and trailers and containers now move in sizable blocks.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.