By Matt Marquardt –
MASON CITY – A large number of black rail cars in Mason City on 19th Street have residents asking why they are there.
The rail cars extend from Cold Storage on 15th Street SE all the way past Federal Avenue up to the Sears department store along 19th Street SW.
The rail cars do not block any intersections. They are all black, and look brand new or relatively new.
“We are just storing them for awhile,” Kay, an employee of Iowa Traction Railroad Company in Mason City, said on Friday.
Kay said the rail cars will be there for “a couple of months. It’s not permanent.”
The rail cars will not be moving, Kay said, and will eventually stretch all the way to Pierce Avenue.
Businesses along the railroad route have been notified that the rail cars will be there, Kay said. “We tried not to block any businesses or people’s view.”
I don’t mind the long line of broken up railroad cars along 19th SE at all. Nice shiny new black cars. Looks mighty impressive to me. Now if they were all rust buckets lined up through there, then we’d have something to squawk about. Yes they did a great job of breaking up the cars. I don’t see any problems at all with them being there.
I drive that route everyday, the only business I see that the cars block any real view of are Mason City Roofing, some of Sears and some of the YMCA.
None of these business really count on visibility by customers to do business. Everybody knows where they are.
Personally, I think they did an excellent job of breaking the line to leave as many business exposed as possible. It is a rail line after all. They mostly block the view of homes.
Good to see they are doing more business.
I came home when they first were parked and went “Woah.” This is the first time since at least 2004 since they’ve been used for rail cars. I think it’s a good thing, it shows things are progressing and some unused infrastructure is starting to be used again.
Why does a private company need permission to store items on their property? Typical anti-railroad BS!! I am sure the track were there before most of the people complaining about this.
The tracks were there before 1900, i want to say 1894 to 1896 but not positive.
the only thing i can see that is upsetting anyone is the Iowa Traction rarely uses the track to the east of their crossing with the Union Pacific, they decided to use idle track to store cars and everyone gets upset.
they have spent time and money fixing that track and finally decided to use it, not surprising at all
They need to move them, that is ridiculous.
Why?
They make money storing those cars. How would ya like if someone told you not to work?
Ummmmm. Not all the businesses have been notified about the rail cars.
Looks to me like some of those businesses could be covered by this long line of rail cars. Hopefully they won’t be just sitting around for long.
May I ask why rail cars parked on private property requires notification of anyone? Do the local trucking companies need to notify anyone when they park a truck on their lot?
Cornfused, in answer to your question I would think the answer is yes. If they intend to park a truck blocking view for ‘months’ then someone ought to be notified. It’s only the right thing to do.
The railroad probably gets paid to store them, or they are for the bio-diesel plant awaiting start up. Where else would you store rail cars but on a railroad?
Yawn…………..