Hello, Larry.
I could not believe this message when I did my mail
run. I am from Albia, so I can maybe shed a little
light.
> About the Albia trackage, I would guess from the
> Government track put in, is the one that runs up
> through Lovilla and that the other track that runs
> off on the west side of town came later sence the
> old Wabash tracks that are still there, connect to
> the east side BN tracks?
First of all, I have a question. My grandmother
raised
me, and I remember both her and my mother talking
about
the track that runs from Albia to Des Moines. They
told me that the track used to run along part of the
present route of Iowa highway 5 and that during the
Depression, Grandma frequently had bums riding the
freights coming to her door looking for handouts. Her
house was where North A Street would have crossed that
track. They also told me that the railroad crossed
the hollow where the present junction of highways 5
and 137 is now located on a long trestle. That would
mean that the junction of the Des Moines Branch with
the main line would have been somewhere in the
northeast corner of Albia.
But then there is the monkey wrench of "the other
track that runs off on the west side of town." That
would be the present east-west main line. I recently
did a Google search on "Chariton," the next large town
west of Albia, and found that the track was completed
to Albia in maybe 1866 and to Chariton the following
year.
Can anyone help me? When was the Des Moines branch
built, and could there have been a major relocation of
that branch through Albia during the 20s or 30s?
> I know a guy from a model car list I am on that went
> to the Fairfield College in the 60s.
That was Parsons College, and I attended there in the
1960s also. I started in September, 1960, and
graduated in June, 1964.
> Where was the depot located in Albia?
Here I can be of help.
The depot was located on North A street about 4 blocks
total from the northwest corner of the town square and
2 blocks west of Highway 5. The Q ran through Albia
at an angle, not due east and west, and so several
streets stopped at a cross street just south of the
right of way and continued north of the tracks. The
Wabash ran on these tracks before turning south just
east of the Highway 5 underpass.
Bill Chambers
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