Riding The Five Rails Of Iowa City.

When Iowa joined the Union in 1846, transportation in and around the Hawkeye State was very limited. Riverboats, of course, worked well in connecting the larger communities located on the Mississippi River, but for the good people of Iowa City, traveling outside of the capital city was limited to horseback, horse-drawn carriage, and stagecoach. Back east, the railroads were becoming quite abundant (see map below), but the closest train station to Iowa City was in Chicago.

But on January 3, 1856, everything changed, as Iowa City had its very first taste of rail transportation. It came via the Mississippi & Missouri (M&M) Railroad. and it was the very first passenger train to travel westward into Iowa – coming from Davenport and the shores of the Mississippi River. Sadly, today, there is no passenger rail service in and out of Iowa City – only freight – running on that very same route first built by the M&M over 160 years ago. Read more about the early railroads of Iowa here.

Over a period of 120 years of Iowa City history (1850-1970) there have been five railway systems (see map below) that have attempted to bring passenger rail service into our community. One of those railroads was very short-lived, while others were here nearly that entire time. On this page, we’re simply introducing you to these five railway systems and then, we offer you links to five separate pages where you can read more about each line…

This map – courtesy of historian Tom Schulien – shows the five passenger railway systems of Iowa City. **Brown** **– Lyons-Iowa Central RR – The Calico** (1850-1854) **Green** **– M&M / Rock Island RR** (1853-1974) **Blue – Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern RR – The Plug** (1873-1924), **Black** – **CRANDIC Interurban Railway** (1904-1953) and **Red** – **Iowa City Electric Railway** (1910-1930).

Now, it’s time to go deeper with each of the five railways of Iowa City…

As we said earlier, today, there is no railway transportation in Iowa City or Johnson County and none since the Rock Island Railroad was replaced by Amtrak in the mid-1970’s. Will high-speed trains ever come into town? Will electric or solar-powered railway service ever be developed? Who knows? Above is a tentative plan for a Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. In it, there is a proposal to run a high-speed passenger rail service from Omaha to Chicago. But until such a plan is actually approved by Federal and State government, we give a tip of the old hat to Iowa City’s rich railway heritage. Five amazing stories of five railway systems:

The Lyons-Iowa Central RR – The Calico (1850-1854)
The Mississippi & Missouri (M&M) / Rock Island (CRI&P) RR (1853-1974)
The Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern (BCR&N) RR – The Plug (1873-1924)
The Cedar Rapids & Iowa City (CRANDIC) Interurban Railway (1904-1953)
The CRANDIC Interurban Railway Trolley Picture Page
The Iowa City Electric Railway (1910-1930)

Gone – but never forgotten!