From: "Drew Cannon"
To: ritslist@storm.simpson.edu
Subject: Big Hook Recollection
Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997
Here is a story from my early youth related to Big Hooks. This is just at the
edge of my memory, so the details are a little fuzzy. Does anyone else remember
this wreck or any others where Big Hooks were called out?
Sometime in the early or mid-1950s the Rock Island needed a Big Hook in Iowa
City: a locomotive went in the drink at Ralston Creek. At that time the RI
still switched industries in downtown Iowa City, and may even have run freight
(and perhaps passengers?) northeast out of town, connecting with the old BCR&N
mainline between West Liberty and Cedar Rapids (at Elmira?).
The day I remember found a red and black Geep nose down in Ralston Creek at the
south end of the wooden trestle. Apparently the trestle collapsed under the
locomotive's weight. My recollection is that the trestle was only a locomotive
length or two long and only 5 or 6 feet above water level. The trestle was
maybe a hundred feet west of Gilbert Street, back in a wooded lot behind the
commercial buildings fronting Gilbert St. The only effective access was via the
track.
My father took my brother and I to watch the Big Hook work. What a sight:
railroad people and spectators everywhere, a huge black crane inched up to the
wreck from the south, two red and black geeps powering the wreck train. (I don't
remember what other equipment, if any, was at the actual scene besides the crane
and two geeps. With a yard nearby, other equipment and outfit cars might well
have been left there.) The conversation I remember is that this was the Silvis
crane (makes sense since Iowa City is closer to Silvis than Des Moines). I
don't remember whether or not there was a second crane on the north side of the
wrecked locomotive. I seem to remember watching as the Hook tried to lift the
locomotive: cables strung under the locomotive, railroad personnel watching
closely and checking everything. If this is a real recollection, the crane was
boom-over the end of the locomotive at a somewhat awkward angle. The operator
reeled in cable very slowly while workers kept a sharp eye under the locomotive.
As the crane began to bear the locomotive's weight more and more it tipped ever
farther to the side, sending everyone scrambling out of the way. The operator
must have had experience with this situation because he slowly released tension
in the lifting cables until the crane settled back to an even keel. I never did
see the actual removal of the locomotive from the creek. We couldn't stay. But
they eventually lifted it out. A very exciting day for two young boys and their
dad! And a railroad image I still remember!
The map below shows roughly the track arrangement. Travelling from the west,
the mainline crosses the Iowa River and CRANDIC yard on a high deck girder
bridge. Once off the bridge, it approaches the station on a high fill. Just
before reaching the station from the west, the track splits into a passing
siding to the south of the mainline. The main is closest to the station and was
normally used by passenger trains stopping at the station. From the station,
the track continues east on another high fill over Ralston Creek as it flows
south out of downtown Iowa City. Two large (concrete?) culverts allow the creek
to pass through the fill. The east end of the fill is a deck girder bridge over
Gilbert Street and the RI lower track into downtown. Even before the east end
of the bridge, a switch takes the yard lead and branch line track off to the
south.
>From the east-west mainline, an intricate three-way switch took the yard lead
and branch line track south. This switch overlapped the first switch off the
mainline into the yard at the west end and the switch onto the first yard track
south of the double mainline. (This switch has been replaced by IAIS with a
single switch, so the track arrangement now is a switch off the mainline to
become the yard lead and a second switch immediately off the lead south to the
branch line--now the CRANDIC interchange track. The first yard track now
diverges off the mainline a few yards east.)
The branch line / interchange track swings south around a sharp curve and
quickly drops down the side of the hill forming the Ralston Creek valley until
it reaches the flood plain level about 3 blocks south of the mainline. The hill
is steep, the track is rough, and the freight was heavy (mostly loaded coal
hoppers from the east in those days) so I remember several derailments in this
area over the years. Once at "ground level" the track joins a run-around
siding. The route out of the run-around track continues south as the Montezuma
Branch to Hills and eventually Montezuma. To the north, the route splits before
passing under the mainline: the diverging route to the west toward the CRANDIC
yard about 6 blocks away, and the straight route to the north toward downtown
Iowa City. The track toward downtown is no longer there, but in the early
1950s, two blocks north after passing under the mainline bridge, the route
crossed tiny Ralston Creek on a wooden deck trestle. The creek is normally
small, little more than a trickle and only a few feet below track level. During
heavy rains, however, it is a very different story as it drains all of downtown
Iowa City and the northeast residential neighborhoods. Surely this trestle
suffered mightily when flood waters rushed through.
to Hills & Montezuma
^
Rock Island |
track |
diagram-- /|
downtown || |
Iowa City || |
c. 1954 || North
/|| |
/ || V
/ ||
/ \|
/ |
/ |
/ |
/ |
| |\
| | \
| | \___ to CRANDIC
| |
| | I
_________ \ | O
_________\ \ \ W
____yard__\__\ | A
__________________\____\__/______________________________ \____/
____________________________E <--_East-West_Mainline_-->_\____________
/ |\ __________ / \
| | Station | R
| R |_________| I
| a V
| l E
| t R
| s
| t
| o
]|[ n
]|[ Creek
]|[
|
/
/
/
to downtown Iowa City
Drew Cannon
Des Moines, Iowa
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