Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support! As we've learned, these railroad series do require a great deal of time and energy to do. But at the same time, we've learned much and have met some great people along the way. And so we will indeed consider future railroad series for our channel.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Very glad that you found it worth the wait! Understood that it is a long wait - but all of our videos require a great deal of research and work - and we are literally working full time to put these out as quickly as we can. But thanks for waiting and watching!
Thanks for another enjoyable video about the CGW. This area is 1 part of the CGW between Dyersville & Lamont that I am not that familiar with. I did know about the fight to get the railroad to build the shops there instead of Oelwein. I'll admit I am glad Oelwein won out. Since Oelwein didn't get direct dial until 1959, that these smaller towns had local operators wasn't that unusual, especially for the small, non Northwestern Bell phone companies. Was happy to see you were able to get some shots using the drone because the weather cooperated. Finally, while I am excited that you are getting closer to Oelwein, it also means this series will, sadly, soon draw to an end. Thanks for all the work you have done to document the path the CGW took to get to my hometown.
Thanks for watching and commenting! And thanks for the continued support and for the always thoughtful comments! Agreed regarding the phone operators - that this was typical for most of these small towns. Part of our choices per video is to highlight items that may have been common to many of these towns - but not to repeat them for every town along the line. We look for interesting stories to tell - and if it's particularly interesting - or if it is representative of other towns, we try to fit it in. Thanks for the support of the drone shots! Yes, that day was particularly windy, on the order of 20 mph winds - although it might not appear too much in the footage. We did not want to get closer to the large trestle bridge, as there was cattle not far from it - and one of our guidelines is to avoid spooking livestock with the drone, out in these rural areas. We've got a few more videos to go in this series - and we may do a reprise, showing items we missed or new information coming in from viewers, or from additional research. Thanks again for all of your support!
So funny. I was born in Oelwein in '59. Back when I was a toddler, my next door neighbor was a friendly grandpa type who was recently retired from CGW as a track foreman. I remember his sky blue, '60s Belair station wagon had the track adaptors for rail use. I watched the tornado tear up that town in '68. Oelwein owed much of its success to CGW long ago. It just doesn't mean as much now. Hopefully future generations will help evolve communities like Oelwein to be even better than before. Thanks to all that help to remember the good olé days.
Thanks very much for the kind words - and glad that you are enjoying the series! It is something like cutting a cross section of American history, through the prism of the railroads, which were central to the story. Thanks again!
Thank you for another installment of your series on the Disused Stations of the Chicago Great Western Railroad. I enjoyed the trip from Oneida, Iowa to Thorpe, Iowa and then to Dundee, Iowa. I enjoyed seeing the locations of the CGW depots in Thorpe and Dundee. The information on the former CGW bridges was interesting. Thank you for showing us the remains of the bridges that you were able to locate. The historical information that you presented about the people and the two towns was fascinating. The story of Emma Jacobs is heartwarming. The robbers of the Dundee bank did their homework to help cover their nefarious deed. The book, Chicago Great Western: Depots Along the Corn Belt Route by Joe Piersen and Jerry Huddleston confirms, on page 23, that both depots in this video were 16 x 40-foot buildings as you mentioned in your narration. In the AFE (Authorization for Expenditure) Section of the book on page 93 there is mention that a dispatcher's phone was installed at Thorpe on 11 February 1922. The phone booth was used at night when operated was not on duty. In 1948 the 16 x 40-foot depot was retired. The depot was sold to C. L. Becker on or about 30 April 1948. Page 85 of the AFE Section reports the size of the Dundee depot as mentioned above. A 1905 AFE confirms that a platform was added to the Dundee depot along with a standard mail crane. In 1955 the depot was retired and sold to R. J. Welsh for $.00. Since the book by Piersen and Huddleston is about depots there is no mention of the sidings or other railroad related structures at these two locations. Thank you for finding and documenting the railroad structure foundations that you found at Thorpe, Iowa.
Thanks for the additional information and corroboration! Thanks again for watching our videos and supporting our channel - and for providing additional valuable information! We very much appreciate it!
Thanks for commenting! Indeed, there are multiple bridge relics along this stretch - and there may have been one or two more that we missed. It's amazing how much is left in the landscape, after almost fifty years of abandonment.
Thanks for watching the series! And glad that you are enjoying it! It is remarkable as to how much of the ROW still exists within St Charles, including the bridge infrastructure. Hopefully, they will be able to join up the walking paths, linking up both ends of the Great Western Trail, on both sides of the river. Thanks again!
As far as I'm concerned, you 2 don't have to stop at Oelwein, Ia There are many more new stories to be told about the Chicago Great Western Railroad from Oelwein to Minneapolis. The history of the CGW is fascinating, and I'm not looking forward to seeing the end of your CGW adventures. You 2 are truly, history archeologist.
Thanks for the support and for the kind words! And thanks too for taking the time to comment. We may very well continue the journey from Oelwein. We'll have to see where we are with other series and other topics we'd like to explore. As you might guess, these road trip videos consume a great deal of time and energy. They are well worth it, as it allows us to see things and meet people that we otherwise would not have had the opportunity to do so. Heading north to St Paul is appealing, as that's where the CGW roots lie. But we'll see! Thanks again for the comment!
but what is neat is my profile picture is of me taking a picture of the C.G.W. Rail line about 1/4 of a mile west of Dundee on a section where my dad and I have converted nearly 3 miles worth of the rail line into snowmobile trail use in the winter
Thanks for watching and commenting! We would love to see your picture of the Dundee bridge, as we were unable to find any. Is it possible to send the picture to one of our emails, at brian@behistoric.org or joyce@behistoric.org? Thanks again!
Thanks for the comment and the question! No, not at this time. We've considered creating a web site, where we could add in more photographs and narrative about our investigations. However, that would require more work, which would take away from us making videos. Perhaps at some point we may do that - but for right now, we've got our hands full trying to get a video out about every three weeks! 🙂 Thanks for the interest, however!
Thanks for the comment - and for watching our video! Indeed, the well may still very much exist. If it was there, it was not obvious to us - but it may have been partially buried beneath the sod. If we were to return to that location, we would attempt to more precisely map the location of a few other structures there, relative to the depot. Thanks again!
@@WaltANelsonPHD We like to think of what we are doing with abandoned railroads as Industrial Archeology, looking at the above ground remnants and artifacts of a lost time and culture.
This series is great. Please do other railroads after this one!
Thanks for watching and for the kind words of support! As we've learned, these railroad series do require a great deal of time and energy to do. But at the same time, we've learned much and have met some great people along the way. And so we will indeed consider future railroad series for our channel.
As always it's worth waiting for, just wish I didn't have to wait so long. Great work and thanks.
Thanks for watching and commenting! Very glad that you found it worth the wait! Understood that it is a long wait - but all of our videos require a great deal of research and work - and we are literally working full time to put these out as quickly as we can. But thanks for waiting and watching!
Thanks for another enjoyable video about the CGW. This area is 1 part of the CGW between Dyersville & Lamont that I am not that familiar with. I did know about the fight to get the railroad to build the shops there instead of Oelwein. I'll admit I am glad Oelwein won out.
Since Oelwein didn't get direct dial until 1959, that these smaller towns had local operators wasn't that unusual, especially for the small, non Northwestern Bell phone companies.
Was happy to see you were able to get some shots using the drone because the weather cooperated.
Finally, while I am excited that you are getting closer to Oelwein, it also means this series will, sadly, soon draw to an end. Thanks for all the work you have done to document the path the CGW took to get to my hometown.
Thanks for watching and commenting! And thanks for the continued support and for the always thoughtful comments! Agreed regarding the phone operators - that this was typical for most of these small towns. Part of our choices per video is to highlight items that may have been common to many of these towns - but not to repeat them for every town along the line. We look for interesting stories to tell - and if it's particularly interesting - or if it is representative of other towns, we try to fit it in. Thanks for the support of the drone shots! Yes, that day was particularly windy, on the order of 20 mph winds - although it might not appear too much in the footage. We did not want to get closer to the large trestle bridge, as there was cattle not far from it - and one of our guidelines is to avoid spooking livestock with the drone, out in these rural areas. We've got a few more videos to go in this series - and we may do a reprise, showing items we missed or new information coming in from viewers, or from additional research. Thanks again for all of your support!
So funny. I was born in Oelwein in '59. Back when I was a toddler, my next door neighbor was a friendly grandpa type who was recently retired from CGW as a track foreman. I remember his sky blue, '60s Belair station wagon had the track adaptors for rail use. I watched the tornado tear up that town in '68. Oelwein owed much of its success to CGW long ago. It just doesn't mean as much now. Hopefully future generations will help evolve communities like Oelwein to be even better than before. Thanks to all that help to remember the good olé days.
This series is amazing! ❤❤
Thanks very much for the kind words - and glad that you are enjoying the series! It is something like cutting a cross section of American history, through the prism of the railroads, which were central to the story. Thanks again!
Thank you for another installment of your series on the Disused Stations of the Chicago Great Western Railroad. I enjoyed the trip from Oneida, Iowa to Thorpe, Iowa and then to Dundee, Iowa. I enjoyed seeing the locations of the CGW depots in Thorpe and Dundee. The information on the former CGW bridges was interesting. Thank you for showing us the remains of the bridges that you were able to locate. The historical information that you presented about the people and the two towns was fascinating. The story of Emma Jacobs is heartwarming. The robbers of the Dundee bank did their homework to help cover their nefarious deed. The book, Chicago Great Western: Depots Along the Corn Belt Route by Joe Piersen and Jerry Huddleston confirms, on page 23, that both depots in this video were 16 x 40-foot buildings as you mentioned in your narration. In the AFE (Authorization for Expenditure) Section of the book on page 93 there is mention that a dispatcher's phone was installed at Thorpe on 11 February 1922. The phone booth was used at night when operated was not on duty. In 1948 the 16 x 40-foot depot was retired. The depot was sold to C. L. Becker on or about 30 April 1948. Page 85 of the AFE Section reports the size of the Dundee depot as mentioned above. A 1905 AFE confirms that a platform was added to the Dundee depot along with a standard mail crane. In 1955 the depot was retired and sold to R. J. Welsh for $.00. Since the book by Piersen and Huddleston is about depots there is no mention of the sidings or other railroad related structures at these two locations. Thank you for finding and documenting the railroad structure foundations that you found at Thorpe, Iowa.
Thanks for the additional information and corroboration! Thanks again for watching our videos and supporting our channel - and for providing additional valuable information! We very much appreciate it!
Amazing artifacts on this leg of the journey!
Thanks for commenting! Indeed, there are multiple bridge relics along this stretch - and there may have been one or two more that we missed. It's amazing how much is left in the landscape, after almost fifty years of abandonment.
I really enjoyed your se ries. I grew up in St. Charles, IL and remember when the CGW ran over the f ox RI c er. KAW
Thanks for watching the series! And glad that you are enjoying it! It is remarkable as to how much of the ROW still exists within St Charles, including the bridge infrastructure. Hopefully, they will be able to join up the walking paths, linking up both ends of the Great Western Trail, on both sides of the river. Thanks again!
As far as I'm concerned, you 2 don't have to stop at Oelwein, Ia There are many more new stories to be told about the Chicago Great Western Railroad from Oelwein to Minneapolis. The history of the CGW is fascinating, and I'm not looking forward to seeing the end of your CGW adventures. You 2 are truly, history archeologist.
Thanks for the support and for the kind words! And thanks too for taking the time to comment. We may very well continue the journey from Oelwein. We'll have to see where we are with other series and other topics we'd like to explore. As you might guess, these road trip videos consume a great deal of time and energy. They are well worth it, as it allows us to see things and meet people that we otherwise would not have had the opportunity to do so. Heading north to St Paul is appealing, as that's where the CGW roots lie. But we'll see! Thanks again for the comment!
They really dig up the history and make it intresting
Sad the C & NW didn't save this line. Railbank, like UP did on Tennesse pass line. Unused, but can be reactivated w/o much work.
Thanks for commenting! Yes, agreed. Remarkable how many railroad lines turned over within the span of 100 years.
Another great informational video
Glad that you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Unfortunately youtube will not allow me to share the photo I have of the rail bridge spanning over the Maquoketa river, would be great to share
but what is neat is my profile picture is of me taking a picture of the C.G.W. Rail line about 1/4 of a mile west of Dundee on a section where my dad and I have converted nearly 3 miles worth of the rail line into snowmobile trail use in the winter
Thanks for watching and commenting! We would love to see your picture of the Dundee bridge, as we were unable to find any. Is it possible to send the picture to one of our emails, at brian@behistoric.org or joyce@behistoric.org? Thanks again!
It's crazy to think there was a time this system wasn't in place
Yes, indeed! And thanks again for the wonderful music that you created!
Do you guys have any books or thought of writing books on any of your topics?
Thanks for the comment and the question! No, not at this time. We've considered creating a web site, where we could add in more photographs and narrative about our investigations. However, that would require more work, which would take away from us making videos. Perhaps at some point we may do that - but for right now, we've got our hands full trying to get a video out about every three weeks! 🙂 Thanks for the interest, however!
The railroad's well at Thorpe must still exist.
Thanks for the comment - and for watching our video! Indeed, the well may still very much exist. If it was there, it was not obvious to us - but it may have been partially buried beneath the sod. If we were to return to that location, we would attempt to more precisely map the location of a few other structures there, relative to the depot. Thanks again!
@@BeHistoricYour efforts are enough so no one expects you to be archeologists!
@@WaltANelsonPHD We like to think of what we are doing with abandoned railroads as Industrial Archeology, looking at the above ground remnants and artifacts of a lost time and culture.
The use of crap colored photos and AI generated garbage makes what you are doing really crappy. What a waste of effort.
@@dsma2023 Thanks very much for watching our videos! Glad that you enjoyed it and found it informative!