Dakota & Iowa

Company History: The name of this line is a bit confusing. Officially it is the D&I Railroad Company but even on its parent company’s website it is referred to as Dakota & Iowa. The line launched in 1982, running from Dell Rapids, South Dakota south through Sioux Falls to Sioux City, Iowa, a distance of 138 miles. The line is mostly former Milwaukee Road trackage.

L.G. Everist Company owns the D&I. They are an aggregates quarrying company with a large facility on the line. Other major commodities include grain (enough to load a unit train daily through the harvest season,) spent distillers grains and ethanol.

The DAIR (their reporting marks) has about 28 diesels, all EMD, and all painted in the sharp yellow and black with red and white trim you see here. They have about 1,000 freight cars, mostly aggregates hoppers.

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.