> Question: I was surprised to see the Iowa Central operated from
> Albia down to Centerville. It appeared to parallel the Wabash
> from Albia to Moravia. Did the Southern Iowa electric operation
> later take over this track, electrify it, and then use it from
> Centerville to Albia? If so, this is certainly a surprise!!
Iowa Central controlled the Centerville, Moravia & Albia until 1910, when it
became independent and was electrified - so for a short time, perhaps, the
brick station in Moravia was an Iowa Central agency. The line was
originally built by Wabash interests, and control passed to the IaC sometime
around 1899, when the WAB built their own line north from Moulton. Recall
that one of the CB&Q lines into Centerville (the M&IN) - - was also
originally a Wabash controlled property, and would have provided a through
route to Des Moines in conjunction with the CM&A to points south. When the
Wabash lost control of that line, they would have to find another route to
connect the remaining pieces in southern Iowa with the line north of Albia -
so they built a new line off the Ottumwa line, rendering the line via
Centerville unneeded, at which time the IaC stepped in. As a result of the
Wabash's precarious financial position, other cast-off Iowa pieces ended up
in the Milwaukee camp or became (short-lived) independents.
A few more interesting items about Monroe county - the CB&Q had a very
short-lived branch from Albia to Moravia - so Moravia would have been a four
railroad town, historically speaking - I have an 1882 CB&Q employee TT that
shows this line on the map on the back - maps included on later 1800's ETT's
show an obvious gap south of Albia - evidence of where the line was excised
from the plate after it was torn up. Bits of the right-of-way were later
recycled by the Wabash and M&StL, the latter for a coal branch.
Amazingly, three of the four Moravia depots are extant, last I knew- the
CM&A station was unused, the WAB station is preserved, and most of the MILW
station is a farm building - looking east from the highway 5, one can
observe a building with a freight door and the four-pane horizontal window
above it - the freight end of the depot.
The Milwaukee built a connection from just north of the curved Foster bridge
to the CM&A at a place called Hilton Jct., about half way between Moravia
and Albia. The CB&Q map also shows Hilton, but I don't have any first-hand
knowledge that they would have connected, at any rate, it would have been in
only for a year or two, as the Milwaukee came in 1887, and the CB&Q came out
in 1889. Visitors to the Foster Bridges can look north and see the cut-work
still evident. I'm not sure, but believe the Foster to Hilton Jct. line was
torn up around 1915.
N. L. Pitsch
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