by Dan Munson/photos by the author
Fort Dodge, Iowa, is a railroad town. Today, it is served by two major railroads: Canadian National and Union Pacific. Both of these roads gained access through mergers. Back in the 1960s, there were several more, including Illinois Central, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, & Southern (FDDMS), Chicago Great Western, and Minneapolis & St. Louis. Two of these had a significant presence right in downtown Fort Dodge, on Central Avenue between 12th and 22nd street, CGW and FDDMS.
Chicago Great Western was a 1,400-mile regional railroad that connected Chicago with Omaha, Minneapolis, and Kansas City. On July 1, 1968, CGW was merged into Chicago & North Western, which gave them access to Kansas City, but most of the other routes were soon abandoned.
Incorporated in 1906, Fort Dodge, Des Moines, & Southern expanded the territory of the old Newton & Northwestern Railroad from Newton to Fort Dodge, Rockwell City, and Ames. Operated as an electric traction line, passenger service ended in 1955, but diesel freight continued until Chicago & North Western acquired what was left of the line in 1968.
ABOVE: The CGW Turn job is pulling three cars from the Brady Building The International Harvester Building was actually located one block north on 1st Avenue. With modeler’s license it was turned 180 degrees and it is served by the CGW Turn job from the Alley Track — all done with the wink of an eye to add to the fun value.
Over the years, the trackage in downtown Fort Dodge was slowly removed as various customers left the rails. In the early 2000s, access from the former CGW trackage was cut and a new connection was built to access the remaining customers from the former FDDMS side. Today, no trackage from either railroad remains in downtown Fort Dodge.
Mike Porter’s teenage memories of watching crews from both roads serve downtown Fort Dodge, and then becoming a railroader himself years later, strongly influenced his decision to model this fascinating urban industrial switching district served by two railroads in the middle of otherwise rural Iowa.
ABOVE: Looking east up Central Avenue, the CGW NW2 light motor is coming down the street to serve some customers while the FDDMS 70-tonners are heading east back to the main yards at East Fort Dodge after finishing their work downtown.The grain elevator was scratchbuilt by Rick McClellan.
Designing Downtown Fort Dodge
Downtown Fort Dodge is just one of several signature scenes on Mike’s HO scale model railroad depicting CGW from Clarion to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1967 (see “Chicago Great Western” in the May 2017 RMC). Others include the “High Bridge” in Fort Dodge that crossed the Des Moines River. This huge structure towers over 140 feet above the river below — Who says Iowa is all flat?! This massive scratchbuilt bridge takes up almost 15 feet on one side of Mike’s railroad, just across the aisle from the 33-ft.-long peninsula that is downtown Fort Dodge. Another signature structure in Fort Dodge is the large “UFO”-shaped water tower, located next to the CGW station. This structure was scratchbuilt by Mike Feyten. It had to be “selectively compressed” since the original structure was more than 180 ft. wide.
When Mike Porter and his friends were designing his model railroad, the downtown Fort Dodge scene went through several changes, including the length of the peninsula. What started out as just modeling a portion of downtown Fort Dodge, on a 26-foot-long peninsula, eventually grew to 33 feet, encompassing 10 of the total 12-block area where the railroads had customers.
ABOVE: CGW Turn Around job with a single NW2 comes off the east end of the alley track, heading back toward the yard at Fort Dodge.
Several research trips to Fort Dodge were made to gather more detailed information on this area. Many photos were taken and interviews with retired railroaders who worked the territory were recorded. On one of these trips, Mike was traveling with Floyd Brittain. They were walking around the International Harvester building, located between 17th and 18th streets, trying to get some measurements so Floyd could scratchbuild a model.
An employee working on the back dock saw them and asked what they were doing. The friendly and curious employee then invited them inside. After they got past the initial “You’re doing what?” type of questions, they were introduced to the owner. Before they knew it, they walked out with a copy of the original blueprints of the structure! Not only did Floyd build the International Harvester building, but also most of the other structures on the peninsula…