Milepost 31.83

The IAIS lease of the CRANDIC’s Hills Line was a failure.

That may seem harsh, but it’s accurate. An agreement was made between the two companies that, in theory, should have been beneficial to the point that it would still be in place today. But obviously that didn’t happen, since the Iowa Interstate chose not to renew the lease after it expired in 2016.

Turns out a bridge was part of the cause.

That’s greatly simplifying the story, but based on my research and somewhat-insider knowledge there was a small trestle just north of Hills that needed repairs. The IAIS didn’t want to pay for it since the CRANDIC owned the line; the CRANDIC didn’t want to pay for it since the IAIS was leasing the line. A few more back-and-forths over this, and a few other issues… and ultimately the decision is made to call the whole thing off.

In my original plan for The Hills Line I did not include the trestle, instead using the space for the runaround track at Hills. With my realization that I didn’t need as long of a siding, I’m now able to include this historically significant portion of the prototype.

To model the bridge, I combined parts from Central Valley Model Works and Monroe Models. Central Valley’s bridge ties make for an inexpensive solution to the ties, while Monroe’s Hobo Creek kit does the same for the supports. I shortened the Monroe kit to fit a section of CVMW bridge ties, but otherwise built the kit as designed.

I then took a piece of Micro Engineering Code 70 flextrack and, as I’ve previously documented, attached it to the bridge ties so that the rails are continuous over the trestle. This avoids rail joints on the bridge, and also eliminates having to wire the bridge track separately and having to figure out how to hide the feeder wires.

For the final step, I went ahead and painted and weathered the entire assembly before installation on the layout. That gave me a completed trestle ready to span a small body of water. Now I just need a body of water to cross…