The Council Bluffs Railway was a shortline

Class III railroad Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With a ...

that handled freight switching operations in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The population was 62,799 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the state's List of cities in Iowa, te ...

. It operated from May 1991 until July 2006, when it was sold to the

Iowa Interstate Railroad The Iowa Interstate Railroad is a Class II railroad, Class II regional railroad operating in the central United States. The railroad is owned by Railroad Development Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. History The railroad was formed on N ...

. The Council Bluffs Railway was an

OmniTRAX OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns or operates railroads, with a network of 25 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. state ...

subsidiary.

History

A subsidiary of

, the Council Bluffs Railway began operations in May 1991 when it took over the 30-mile terminal switching operations of the former

Council Bluffs and Ottumwa Railway The Council Bluffs and Ottumwa Railway was a shortline Class III railroad that handled freight switching operations in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It operated from August 1989 until May 1991, when it was sold to the Council Bluffs Railway, an OmniTR ...

, which was a subsidiary of National Railway Systems and operated that trackage from 1989 to 1991. Prior to the Council Bluffs and Ottumwa's operation of that trackage, the track had belonged to the

Iowa Southern Railroad The Iowa Southern Railroad was a shortline railroad in southern Iowa, operating a former Wabash Railroad line between Council Bluffs and Blanchard. It was abandoned except at Council Bluffs on August 22, 1988, and in August 1990 the remaining track ...

. (The Iowa Southern once had operated a 61.5-mile former

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

(and

Wabash Railroad The Wabash Railroad was a Class I railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. It served a large area, including track in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri and the province of Ontario. Its primary con ...

prior to that) line between

and

Blanchard, Iowa Blanchard is a city in Page County, Iowa, Page County, Iowa, United States. The population was 29 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A small section of the city reaches into Missouri and is unofficially known as South Blanchard, Miss ...

, but in 1988, the Iowa Southern abandoned the line between Council Bluffs and Blanchard and scaled back its operations to just switching service in Council Bluffs.) Like the Council Bluffs and Ottumwa Railway, the Council Bluffs Railway's headquarters were at the corner of 29th Avenue and High Street in Council Bluffs. Although it was a subsidiary of OmniTRAX, the Council Bluffs Railway's actual parent company in the OmniTRAX family was the Great Western Railway Company of Iowa. That moniker was strictly a paper one, however. In July 2006, the Iowa Interstate purchased the Council Bluffs Railway as a way to expand its intermodal operations and create greater capacity in its Council Bluffs terminal.

References

{{Iowa railroads Defunct Iowa railroads Railway companies established in 1991 Railway companies disestablished in 2006