Muscatine, IA: Rock Island and MB&S Depots

Don Gerdts posted

28 AUG 1926 - MUSCATINE RIVER FRONT

RI DEPOT TO THE RIGHT

MB&S DEPOT TO THE LEFT
J Pete Hedgpeth MB&S was the "Muscatine Burlington and Southern"..One track at Muscatine was and probably still is referred to as the MB&S MAIN. So typical of railroads...once a track or other facility had a name it never changed..ie One track might be callled the "New East"...which was probably 50 years old, but still younger than the "Old East"..which was 75 years old. Took awhile for a new guy to get used to this concept. There was an article in TRAINS or maybe it was "Classic Trains" about a guy who went to work at Muscatiine and pontificated at great length about the MB&S MAIN..I think, now that I'm thinking it was in an article about "Culver Tower"..which was a story in itself. Doug Weitzman who was a co-worker of mine was Division Supt on that territory when there was a fire at Culver. Doug said "If I ever find out who called the Fire Department I'm gonna fire him"

Don Gerdts The first person I ever heard call that track "The Monkey Nuts" was the late Muscatine Rock Island Agent Ed Fuller (March '68). Have yet to find anyone who knows why it was called that. Culver - an Operator, the BRAC Griever from Silvis and his partner-in-crime, were the cause of the hand thrown switches being installed and the demise of the positions in the Tower. Was working Muscatine when this happened

The road bridge has moved since 1938. It used to be an extension of Walnut Street. So the depots would have been between Sycamore Street & Iowa Avenue and between Mississippi Drive & the river. The 2005 SPV Map shows enough of Iowa that I can see that MB&S was closer to the river and paralleled the RI out of town to the southwest. It was an interurban that did make it to Burlington, but no further south.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

Raymond Story posted
MUSCATINE IOWA
J Pete Hedgpeth: See that long and old hiway bridge in the background. It was finally replaced in the 70's after terrorizing my daughter on our trips from Chicago to Lincoln, NE by its rattling and banging as we drove over it and causing H J Heinz company to have to "float" the tomato hauling trucks every summer across the river on barges from the "Patches" on the east side of the river to the "factory" in west Muscatine where they were turned into Ketchup and juice.
Don Gerdts: MB&S Freight and Yard Office off to the right. When I hired out on the Rock Island in '68, what was the MB&S trackage was know as The Monkey Nuts. Have yet to find out why it was called The Monkey Nuts.

Raymond Storey posted two images with the comment: "MUSCATINE IOWA."

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Update: Flood of 2019:

Nancy Paul posted May 1, 2019
Our riverfront is flooded but the trains are still running....**Edit**.(this is in Muscatine Iowa, not Davenport and the "guy" in the background is a statue)
[My 2005 map shows this was Milw+RI and then ICE. I assume it is CP now.]