In General
Getting Here
Maps
Sights
Bridges
Signals
Nora Springs
Manly
Floobydust
USGS Maps

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In General

Location / Name:
Mason City IA, Cerro Gordo County (county seat)

What's Here:
the Iowa Traction
Two diamonds -- UP/IT & UP/ICE
former M&StL Depot
former CNW Depot
former MILW Depot
Minneapolis & St Louis Steam Engine #457
UP Yard
I&CE Yard
Frank Lloyd Wright house and hotel

Data:
GPS Coordinates: as needed
Phone A/C: 641
ZIP: 50401

Access by train/transit:
None

The Scoop:

Iowa seems to be one of those under rated states for railfanning.  When I was traveling a lot for work back around the time of the new millennium coming in, I got to sample a fair portion of what Iowa has to offer, including Mason City, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Ames, Waterloo, Iowa City, and the quad cities area with Davenport.  So Mason City will kick off my Iowa section.....

Mason City, it's a great town.... it should be on every railfans list of places to visit!

The number one attraction to Mason City is the venerable Iowa Traction.  IATR is the only railroad left in the United States that uses traction power for it's freight operation.  Probably because the owner is much a railfan as anyone else.  If he has the time when you stop by for a visit, he will tell you as much as you want to listen to.

Thanks to John Richards for sending in a bunch of good information to update the page!

One place on the internet extolling the virtues of railfanning for Mason City, said that there wasn't anything else in town worth looking at besides the Iowa Traction, which I strongly disagree with.  I say this because......

-- You have a couple of nice diamonds, which for the signal fan, is a real treat.

-- You have two nicely maintained depots, one is privately owned, the other is used by the IC&E.

-- You have a Union Pacific yard on the north side.  Their track runs north-south through town, and they have two diamonds - one with the Iowa Traction, and one with  the Canadian Pacific, after they bought the IC&E.

-- You have a bunch of semaphores along the Iowa Tractions right of way, even though they are not operational, plus,
-- There are additional semaphores outside of town on the eastside on the IC&E.

-- There are two buildings in town designed by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, one is a private home: the Dr. GC Stockman house,
and the other is the Park Inn Hotel - one of six hotels he designed, and the only one still standing.

-- The Mason City airport is where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper took off from on their fateful flight of February 3rd, 1959, after a concert at the Surf Ballroom, in nearby Clear Lake.  The event is often referred to as "the Day the Music Died".

-- A fellow by the name of Meredith Wilson, born in Mason City, wrote the musical Music Man, which was a big Broadway AND movie hit starring Robert Preston.



-- And, FYI, Jello has a facility here that makes all of it's refrigerated ready-to-eat Jello brand snacks for the entire U.S.  :-)

So you see, Mason City has enough to keep you busy for a long June 21st summer day!

Please note: as of about 2017 or so, Bing has decided to do away with their birds eye view at most locations unless it is a major urban center, so aerial views via them are no longer available for Mason City.  As of 2025, this remains true and no "birds-eye" view are available from Bing Maps.

Acknowledgements:
John Richards
Cliff Hagman
Denver Todd

Websites and other additional information sources of interest for the area:
https://www.railfanguides.us/ia/norasprings/index.htm My Nora Springs page
https://www.railfanguides.us/ia/manly/index.htm My Manly page LOL
http://www.cnwhs.org/archives_maps.htm  Maps from the CNW Historical Society
http://www.cashgroth.com/towns/manly.html  Info on Manly (thanks to Jim Mihalek)
http://www.iaisrailfans.org/info/RailGuide  Iowa Interstate's railfan guide for their lines from Chicago to Council Bluffs:
http://www.cashgroth.com/towns/masoncity.html Stuff on Mason City
http://www.cashgroth.com/depots/depmasoncity.html Stuff on Mason City
https://iowadot.gov/iowarail/pdfs/cp.pdf

Getting Here

Interstate I-35 bi-sects the state of Iowa right down the middle.  This makes it easy to get to from the twin cities of Minneapolis and St Paul to the north, and Des Moines to the south.

Mason City is about 3 hours from the twin cities.

I would probably take exit 193, 255th Street/19th St SW, state highway 106.  Take it east into Mason City.  Taking this route, you will pass by Iowa Traction.  Once into Mason City, you can use my map below to get around.

Maps



The two maps are available HERE and HERE as PDF's.


Sights

Iowa Traction
the Union Pacific Yard
the ex CNW Depot
the ex MILW Depot
the ex M&StL Depot
the IC&E Yard
Diamond - Clear Lake Junction
Diamond - Bear Trap Junction
M&SL Steamer #457
the Stockman House
the Park Inn Hotel

 Iowa Traction

          Coming from the IC&E interchange.

              Along 19th St.

            Scenes around the shops.

               

Below, a couple of Bing shots of the IATR yard, the insert on the map is taken from the top one.






Barely visible in front of the green trees is one of the IATR fixed semaphores, this one at 19th and Monroe.


  The Union Pacific Yard

Couple shots of the lower part of the yard on the left, the 12th St overpass at the throat of the yard, and the entrance to the yard off 15th St.

     


  The ex CNW Depot

This station is on 1st St NW, between the tracks and North Monroe Ave.

           




  The ex MILW Depot

Located where South Pennsylvania dead ends at the yard, just off 8th Street SE, 2 blocks east of South Federal Ave.

     






  The ex M&StL RR Depot

GPS Coordinates: 43.15506, -93.19394
~410 4th St NE

The building in the lower right hand corner of the aerial view below is the former M&StL depot and then a Union Pacific MOW office.  Bing Maps' service has gone downhill tremendously since this screen capture was originally taken, and they no longer have a "birds eye view" of most locations like they used to, including Mason City.  You can still find pictures of the depot using Google's STREETVIEW, and going back to the 2013 series as seen below.









today/current







The aerial view below shows you that EVERYTHING is gone, tracks, building, and grade crossing.....




  The IC&E Yard

     


  The UP / IATR Diamond - Clear Lake Junction

GPS Coordinates: 43.13396, -93.21825

Located along 19th Street SW (where Olive Street use to intersect), an overpass was built over the UP tracks.  The Bing Maps birds-eye-view pictures are from 2010.

  UP Freight on the south side of 19th, waiting to head into the yard.

      Another NB UP freight crossing 19th St.

    Close-ups of the construction work








  The UP / IC&E Diamond - Bear Trap Junction

Easiest place for access to this diamond is on the south leg of Jackson Ave, off S Van Buren and 8th St SW.






  Ex Minneapolis and St Louis Steam Engine #457

GPS Coordinates: 43.15262, -93.18291
East Park, 900 E. State St., Mason City IA 50401

This 1912 steam engine has been cosmetically restored for public viewing and tours in the summer.  Looking at the picture Cliff supplied, the engine looks immaculate!

Photo: Cliff Hagman





  Frank Lloyd Wright's Stockman House

GPS Coordinates: 43.15237, -93.19226
530 1st St NE, Mason City, IA 50401
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._G.C._Stockman_House
https://www.stockmanhouse.org/

The Dr. G.C. Stockman House was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1908 for Dr. George C. and Eleanor Stockman in Mason City IA. The home was originally located at 311 1st St. SE, but was moved to 530 1st St. NE to avoid demolition.

 


  Frank Lloyd Wright's Park Inn Hotel

GPS Coordinates: 43.15170, -93.20163
15 W State St, Mason City IA 50401
https://www.historicparkinn.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Inn_Hotel

 




Bridges, Tunnels, and Overpasses

111

GPS Coordinates:

The

222

GPS Coordinates:

The

Signals

   

A 2 color, color light signal for southbound UP traffic crossing the diamond.

      US&S manual crossing gate switch at signal 1.


 

A US&S searchlight signal for UP traffic continuing north after the diamond.

         

Looking north and south on the UP towards signals 1 and 2.

 

Looking across at signals 1 and 2.

 

  Battery box next to signal 2.


 

A 2 color, color light signal for westbound IATR traffic.

   

  Looking east on the IATR towards signal 3.


 

A 2 color, color light signal for eastbound IATR traffic.

         

   
Manual switch box (and a little corn) on signal 4 - Manufactured by Griswold.


 

A 3 color, color light signal for southbound UP traffic before going into the small yard.

         


 

A 2 color, color light signal for northbound UP traffic crossing the diamond.

            Signals 5 and 6.

    Old (probably not used) relay cabinets adjacent to signal 6.

 


  Bear Trap Junction

A two head color light signal for westbound IC&E traffic, same as signal 9.

       
  Bear Trap Junction

A two head, color light signal for southbound UP traffic crossing the UP/ICE diamond.

         


  Bear Trap Junction

A two head color light signal for westbound IC&E traffic.

   


  Bear Trap Junction

A single head color light signal for northbound UP traffic, and an abandoned line runs off to the left... notice the one signal is to the left side of the track.



The relay cabinet for Bear Trap Junction.


NORA SPRINGS

10 miles to the east of Mason City is Nora Springs where the IC&E services a few local industries.  Just east of here is a distant semaphore.  This train, where the head end was east of "downtown", was in the process of dropping off a couple of cars in Nora Springs.

I have given Nora Springs its own page here.






MANLY

About 10 miles north of Mason City is a junction between the UP and the Iowa Northern, the signals are for a UP siding south of the junction.  The track ends here in Manly at the former Rock Island yard, and no longer goes any further north into Minnesota.

Since working on this page, I have done a guide page just for Manly, located here

The police station and a static display in Manly.






We chased this train from Nora Springs, and it passes by bunches of old out of service searchlight signals


What's left of the Rock Island yard... not much... and me by a street sign with my name on it


Floobydust


Railroad Oriented "Stuff"


The IC&E / IATR interchange.


Just south of the CNW depot (#3 in the above map), going over 4th St, is this pair of bridges, one of which hasn't seen trains for years.


Ex CGW/M&StL right-of-way crossing 5th St SE


Ex CGW/M&StL right-of-way crossing 13th St NE, interesting layout, I guess there was a split here....


Ex CGW/M&StL right-of-way crossing Elm Drive on the diagonal

 
A couple of abandoned crossings on the M&StL line.


The M&StL "junction" on the north side by 310th St, the two lines ran parallel to each other.  A power line now runs where the tracks once stood.


The M&StL junction on the south side of town below 245th St.  Some of the ex M&StL line north of the junction is used for siding access.

UP's relay cabinets on 19th street.

Well placed electric cables for the IATR..... not :-)

Other "Stuff"

I mentioned the Music Man and Robert Preston above.  Here is an example of AI GONE WRONG.  Being a Sci-Fi fan, I knew that Robert Preston starred in a movie called THE LAST STARFIGHTER, and I thought I remembered it being his last film.  So I Googled it.  At first, Google said Victor-Victoria was his last film in 1982, but below that, when it discussed his other movies, it DID say that the Last Starfighter was his last movie in 1984.  We're not there yet, so don't trust AI for all your answers quite yet.....




Historical USGS Maps

Courtesy USGS, click here for their index page.


This is a USGS index map from roughly 1920






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New format 10/26/23: Please check out my disclaimer page for my standard dribble and contact info here

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