Iowa Northern

Company History: The Iowa Northern began in 1981 to operate a former Rock Island line between Cedar Rapids and Vinton, and a line from Shell Rock to Nora Springs. The following year, they picked up the line that connected these two separate segments. This brought the system up to 163 miles, all in the state of Iowa. Their main shops are at Bryant Yard in Waterloo. The company was originally owned by a group of shippers on the line but they sold it to the Iron Road Railways group (owners of Bangor & Aroostook, Canadian-American and others) in 1994. In 2002, following the collapse of Iron Road, the company was picked up by Daniel Sabin.

Since the start of operations, traffic levels have risen 330% and track speed limits on the mains have been raised from 10mph to 30mph.

In 2003, Iowa Northern picked up a 23 mile segment of former Chicago Great Western route from Union Pacific between Dewar and Oelwein (the old CGW’s hub.)

IANR’s diesel fleet has changed quite a bit over the years. Here is a fairly recent roster: 5 rebuilt F40PH’s 2 MP1500D’s 2 MP2000D’s 12 GP38-2’s 6 road slugs 3 GP40-2LW’s

The rebuilt F40PH’s are former Amtrak units picked up third hand. The GP40-2LW’s are former CN wide nose units. The original yellow Iowa Northern paint scheme was a blight on the land and featured a logo that must have been designed with Play Doh.

The hideous yellow was replaced with a solid maroon with pale yellow nose stripes and a curious gray stripe about a foot above the frame. The Play Doh was replaced with a more dignified shield. This was a major improvement but the acquisition by Iron Road brought their snazzy paint scheme inspired by Canadian Pacific’s pre-1967 look. They have kept this paint scheme through the post-Iron Road era.

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.