Pete -
Donnelley was in Knoxville Township, Marion County. Knoxville Twp is one of
those odd shaped townships (that have more than the normal usual 36
sections) - so we're talking about the western half of it.
Donnelley was in the northwest corner of section 4 (the western one) - the
section road between section 4 and 5 should get you there - the track has
been moved about a half mile north of original site, comparing the 1939 and
1984 county road maps I'm looking at. This should be the first straight
through road to your right as you travel west on old highway 92 - there are
a couple of what look like dirt roads that curve around immediately on the
west outskirts of Knoxville - the one I'm talking about is 4 miles from the
center of town. Delorme seems to call this road "S45", but it is hard to
tell as the markings are north a piece and south-west a piece from this
exact location. Delorme also shows that there should be a road bridge over
an "inlet" of the Red Rock dam - you'd be driving over Donnelley at that
point - so would probably be under water.
The passenger shelter for Donnelley (also the place name referred to as
Donley and Donnelly - probably PO discrepancies with the RR name or map
errors) was still around, preserved in a park west of Knoxville, probably
along the same road - I'm looking at the scan of the slide I took in Aug of
1986, shows it with two E's. There is a similar one from Ladoga, now
located in a park on the west side of Bedford.
I show Giles/Togo/Bethany Jct. as being in the north-east center part of
section 7, New Buda Twp. Decatur County. I looked for it in May of '85, but
really couldn't locate anything obvious. Would venture to say that the
I35-US 69 interchange would be right about where it was, again comparing the
1939 and 1984 county road maps.
This reminds me of my search for Sedan/Diff, in Appanoose County - once had
tracks radiating out in six directions (to include a coal line parallel to
the line north to Centerville) - went back probably three times (before I
acquired the set of 1939 maps) and could find no trace each time.
The "Q" in Southern Iowa was a mysterious and wondrous thing - what to have
seen it all in place.
Nick Pitsch
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