An article in the February 29, 1931 edition of Railway Age indicates that motorcars #9627 and #9628 had begun providing passenger service between Keokuk and Shenandoah as trains #1 and #2, laying over on alternate nights in Shenandoah and being serviced in Keokuk. These were 65’ mail-coach cars built by Pullman in 1928 as part of series #625-629, having a 15’ RPO section and a capacity of 16 smoker and 37 general passengers. The series was renumbered in 1930 to #9625-9629. Between 1932 and 1936, the motorcars were rebuilt into a mail-baggage-coach configuration with a 15’ RPO, a 21’4” baggage-express section, and 22 non-smoking seats; they were then renumbered again to #9814-9818. The run of 244 miles included 47 stops and a running time of 8 hours, 12 minutes, with a total scheduled time (including stops) of 10 hours, 18 minutes for an average speed of roughly 29 miles per hour. Apparently, the trains sometimes couldn’t even keep that schedule; John P. Vander Maas, writing about going to the Keokuk Union Depot as a boy to meet the train carrying his new pet dog, comments “I was yet unaware of the delays that were a part of early-day branch-line railroading.”
An October, 1935 timetable from the Keokuk Union Depot shows a different numbering system for the K&W trains, reflecting numbers used for the trains as they ran over the K-line between Keokuk and Alexandria. It shows daily mixed train #41 arriving at Keokuk at 12:10 pm and daily except Sunday #39 arriving at 8:50 pm; departing Keokuk were daily except Sunday #40, leaving at 8:30 am and daily mixed train #42 leaving at 8:50 pm. Material from the 1935 timetable also shows #42 carrying a merchandise car “for all points south of Sedan” as well as a car “for the AT&SF via Medill”. Another KUD timetable from July, 1938 shows daily except Sunday trains #39 and #40 still operating on the same schedule, but with a daily except Saturday train, #45, arriving in Keokuk at 12:30 pm and daily except Saturday #38 departing at 9:30 pm. A CB&Q Hannibal division timetable from 1942 also reflects this numbering system, but with #38 and #45 again operating in place of #41 and #42 and listed as mixed trains. The K&W trains would continue to carry #38, 39, 40 and 45 on the K-line into the 1950s. By the 1960s, the K&W numbers for remaining trains #94 and #95 were being used over the entire run, presumably as a result of the Centerville Division being merged with the Hannibal Division in the first half of the 1950s.
A 1938 K&W timetable shows a similar traffic pattern: passenger train #1 operated daily except Sunday, leaving Keokuk for Clarinda at 8:30 am with #2 arriving in Keokuk at 8:50 pm, while mixed #95 (operating daily except Saturday) left Keokuk for Centerville at 9:30 pm with counterpart #94 arriving in Keokuk at 12:30 pm. An August, 1939 CB&Q timetable for the Alexandria and Centerville subdivision shows #94 and #95 operating as way freights, though it’s likely that passengers continued to be accommodated. A 1946 timetable shows some slight variations in times: #1 was still scheduled to depart Keokuk at 8:30 am; #94 arrived forty minutes earlier at 11:50 am; #2 arrived about an hour earlier at 7:45 pm; and #95 mixed left at 9:25 pm.
In the mid-1940s, passenger traffic on the K&W continued to be provided by motorcars running as trains #1 and #2, between Keokuk and Humeston, as well as daily except Sunday mixed trains #94 and #95 between Keokuk and Centerville. Motorcar #9815, one of the 1930s rebuilds, seems to have been a regular on the route at this time, and photos also show #9817 (another 1930s rebuild) and #9813 working the K&W. #9813 was another 1928 Pullman car, also 65’ in length, and having the same configuration as the rebuilds. A 1952 Rules & Rates of Pay for Trainmen booklet reveals the following about passenger operations over the Centreville Division:
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IOWA DISTRICT, CENTERVILLE DIVISION PASSENGER RUNS
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Runs From
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To
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Miles Run
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Burlington
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Carrollton, via Viele
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220.8
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Carrollton
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Burlington, via Viele
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220.8
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Keokuk (Train 1)
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Shenandoah one day
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244.4*
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Shenandoah
Red Oak
Shenandoah (Trains 6, 11 and 2)
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Red Oak
Shenadoah one day
Keokuk
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282.0*
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Keokuk (Train 3)
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Centreville one day
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89.6*
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Centerville
Humeston (Trains 3 and 4)
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Humeston one day
Keokuk
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172.2*
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Keokuk (Train 5)
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Centerville, Sunday
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89.6*
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Centerville (Train 6)
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Keokuk, Sunday
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89.6*
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Humeston
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Shenandoah
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227.0
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Sedan, Sunday only - Trains 11 and 12 (I & St. L.)
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Elmer and return
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104.0
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Centerville
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Carrollton
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247.4
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* Four Crews Pooled
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By 1953, the motorcar service had been reduced to Keokuk to Centerville, and the mixed trains were providing passenger service to Humeston on an as needed basis: timetables told potential customers to check with the agent! On March 20, 1954, the motorcar made its final run between Centerville and Keokuk, thus ending the era of trains scheduled primarily for passengers.
Mixed train service provided by #94 and #95 continued for a while longer, with a Hannibal division NW2 most often providing power; diesel switcher assignment lists from January 10 and March 6, 1952 show #9240 and #9246 working the territory between Keokuk and Centerville. At the other end of the train, one of the CB&Q’s branch line combines frequently carried the markers. Between 1948 and 1949, the CB&Q rebuilt eight older coaches for this kind of service, outfitting them with a baggage compartment and even crew accommodations. Correspondence from September 23, 1953 indicates that the assigned car on the K&W at that time was #3531. Later photographs from June, 1963 also place car #3537 on #94 and #95. Apparently it was brought over from the branch between Villisca and Corning sometime after 1958 when that line was severed between Northboro and Clarinda. Timetables from 1961 and 1963 show that trains #94 and #95 had been reduced to Monday, Wednesday and Friday service only, but were still operating on much the same time schedule as in 1939.
It was while carrying the markers for #95 that #3537 was destroyed in an accident in late 1963. Emerging onto the K-line at Alexandria, the K&W train was rear-ended by a northbound freight. Archie Hayden provides the details: “Every spring and summer the Gravel Train would go on to accommodate the extra demand for gravel out of the LaGrange gravel pits which the Missouri Highway Department needed when their new roads were being built. Sometimes the Gravel Train would deliver some cars to Keokuk and then turn back to Hannibal. On this particular day, the agent at Alexandria, which was the junction of the Centerville line and the K-line, let the Centerville crew out onto the K-line without being aware of the Gravel Train's close location. The crew on the Centerville local had just lined the main line switch back when the Gravel Train popped around the curve. Since they hadn't picked up any speed yet, the Gravel Train ran into the rear of the combination coach. No one was hurt as I recall the old timers telling, but several were pulled out of service as a result of the investigation that followed.” Bill Glick’s Burlington Route Passenger Car Roster indicates that the car was subsequently dismantled in Hannibal on November 15. This may have been the end of combine use on the Centerville way-freight; by May, 1968 the train had 30’ NE-8 waycar #13887 as the assigned car. Photographs also indicate that, in the mid- to late-60s, SW1 #9151 was sometimes providing the power.
Duncan Cameron
