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38-623: The Iowa Traction Railway Company ( reporting mark IATR ), formerly the Iowa Traction Railroad Company , is a class III shortline railroad operating in the United States as a common carrier . It was originally founded in 1896 as the Mason City and Clear Lake Railway, a passenger carrier. Business has been exclusively freight since 1937. One of the only remaining freight railroads in the United States to use electric locomotives ,

76-674: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

114-497: A bus service between Mason City and Clear Lake in January 1937. That service continued until September 1959. William E. Brice, local utility magnate and a founder of the railroad, sold his interests to United Light & Railway Company in 1913. The successor of United Light & Railway was liquidated in 1950, and the railroad was sold to a utility executive at that time. The Mason City & Clear Lake Railroad (replacing Railway )

152-578: A connection between the two divisions were underway when Boyer died in May 1965 and were not pursued further. Meanwhile, the Mason City Division continued to operate as usual. The failure of several locomotives in the early 1960s led to the company's acquisition in 1963 of three locomotives from a recently abandoned electric interurban railroad, the Kansas City, Kaw Valley and Western Railway . Also in 1963,

190-539: A great little railroad." Comments by Progressive Rail officials in Trains Magazine indicated that the company planned to continue use of electric locomotives, possibly supplementing them with diesel, and that it was exploring the reopening of the line from Emery to Clear Lake. Reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects

228-461: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

266-685: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

304-474: A price break began in July 1920 which squeezed farmers between both decreasing agricultural prices and steady industrial prices. Examples of decreasing agriculture prices include: By 1933, cotton was only 5.5 cents per pound, corn was down 19.4 cents per bushel, and hogs declined to $ 2.94 instead of their respective 1909–1914 average prices of 12.4 cents per pound, to 83.6 cents per bushel, and $ 7.24 per hog. Furthermore,

342-450: A region of the great plains was hit by an extreme drought which added to the agricultural difficulties of the time. Throughout this crisis there were many attempts to form Farmers' Unions. This was difficult considering the lack of effective communication technology, the lack of electricity on many farms, and the overall size of the country. The Agricultural Marketing Act of 1929 intended to bring government aid to cooperatives. It allowed

380-528: A strong dollar. Record production led to a fall in the price of commodities. Exports fell at the same time, due in part to the 1980 United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union . The Farm Credit System experienced large losses, which were the first losses since the Great Depression . The price of farmland was a significant factor. Credit availability and inflation had contributed to an increase in

418-579: The 1980s farm crisis . All of these events adversely impacted traffic volume and interchange possibilities. In 1980, the Staggers Rail Act provided flexibility that permitted smaller crew sizes and other changes. These helped keep the company viable and competitive. The Iowa Terminal acquired 75 freight cars in 1980, and more in 1982. These cars enabled the railroad to fill the orders of online shippers when connecting railroads were unable to provide needed cars. On April 13, 1987, Dave Johnson purchased

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456-686: The Federal Farm Board to make loans and other assistances in hopes of stabilizing surplus and prices. Later, Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA), which was enacted on May 12, 1933, aimed to bring back pre World War 1 Farmers' abilities to sell farm products for the same worth they were able to buy non-farm products. The Act involved seven different crops: corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, and milk. Farmers were paid to not plant those seven crops, thus decreasing supply and returning to market equilibrium. In order to prevent noncooperative farmers from taking advantage of other farmers decreasing supply

494-528: The Frazier–Lemke Farm Bankruptcy Act . The United States experienced a major agricultural crisis during the 1980s. By the mid-1980s, the crisis had reached its peak. Land prices had fallen dramatically leading to record foreclosures. Farm debt for land and equipment purchases soared during the 1970s and early 1980s, doubling between 1978 and 1984. Other negative economic factors included high interest rates, high oil prices ( inflation ) and

532-535: The Mason City and Clear Lake Railway , which was founded in 1896. The shops were situated in Emery , the midpoint between the two namesake towns. Passenger service began on July 4, 1897. Freight transport has been the major source of the railroad's income since its beginning and has been the only source since the charter for trolley service in Mason City expired August 30, 1936. The company replaced its passenger service with

570-643: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses

608-504: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

646-558: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,

684-632: The Charles City Division rather than repair the overhead wire and to transfer the Charles City Division equipment to Mason City. A new building housing the shop and company headquarters was constructed at Emery during the summer of 1968. The railroad company abandoned the remaining trackage at Charles City several years later. The Iowa Terminal faced challenges during the 1970s and 1980s from fluctuating traffic patterns, diversion by some customers of traffic from rail to truck, consolidations and bankruptcies involving all of its connecting railroads, and

722-598: The Iowa Terminal Railroad and renamed it to Iowa Traction Railroad . During the fall of 2012, Progressive Rail , a shortline holding company based in Lakeville, Minnesota , purchased the Iowa Traction Railroad. Upon purchase, Progressive Rail renamed the line to Iowa Traction Railway . According to Progressive's President Dave Fellon, "It's [Iowa Traction] right in our wheel house [and] fits our model. It's

760-548: The Iowa Terminal ended service between Emery and Clear Lake, although the track remained in place. Two disasters in 1967 and 1968 shaped the future of the Iowa Terminal. First, a fire originating in a neighboring lumberyard on Thanksgiving Day in November 1967 destroyed the carbarn at Emery along with several pieces of rolling stock, the railroad's primary rotary converter , and a large supply of tools and spare parts. Key parts of

798-657: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

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836-531: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

874-603: The bill states "is to keep this noncooperation minority in line, or at least prevent it from doing harm to the majority, that the power of the Government has been marshaled behind the adjustment programs" In other words, the benefits from payments to cooperative farmers were designed to be more beneficial than being noncooperative and flooding the market. The AAA was deemed unconstitutional on January 6, 1936. Further reformation included Farm Credit Act of 1933 , which allowed farmers to re-mortgage no longer affordable property, as well as

912-500: The company's main line connects Mason City and Clear Lake , Iowa . The railroad also serves Rorick Park near Mason City. The 10.4 miles (16.7 km) IATR extends east–west between the Mason City Transload Center, the railroad's headquarters in Emery (southwest of Mason City) and the city of Clear Lake, where the western section of its tracks terminate immediately east of Interstate 35 (I-35). At its eastern end,

950-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

988-409: The name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equipment, similar to IATA airline designators . In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by

1026-438: The onset of the crisis, there was high market supply, high prices, and available credit for both the producer and consumer. The U.S. government continued to instill inflationary policy following World War I. By June 1920, crop prices averaged 31 percent above 1919 and 121 percent above prewar prices of 1913. Also, farm land prices rose 40 percent from 1913 to 1920. Crops of 1920 cost more to produce than any other year. Eventually,

1064-557: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

1102-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

1140-407: The price of farm land. Demand was further bolstered by high farm incomes and capital gains on farm real estate, when many farmers expanded their existing operations. The value of farmland increased so drastically that it attracted investment from speculators . Agricultural banks felt the impact of the crisis. There were 10 bank failures in 1981, only one of which was an agricultural bank. In 1985,

1178-547: The railroad interchanges within the Mason City Transload Center with the almost parallel Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) to its north and with the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) at Clear Lake Junction. The railroad also interchanges with the CP within the Emery Transload Center. However, in 2020, most of the railroad's traffic traveled on only 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of track within Mason City. The IATR can trace its roots back to

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1216-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of

1254-501: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Farm crisis A farm crisis describes times of agricultural recession , low crop prices and low farm incomes . The most recent US farm crisis occurred during the 1980s. A farm crisis began in the 1920s, commonly believed to be a result of high production for military needs in World War I . At

1292-727: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

1330-794: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

1368-474: The system remained intact, however, and electric service resumed about a week later. In May 1968, a tornado struck Charles City, destroying much of the downtown and severely damaging the Iowa Terminal's overhead wire there. Diesel power was already used to serve the White Farm Equipment tractor plant, which did not allow electrified service inside its foundry. The company therefore decided to dieselize

1406-598: Was chartered as part of that transaction. The name was changed to Iowa Terminal Railroad in December 1960 when General Motors executive and railroad enthusiast Harold C. Boyer of Detroit acquired the company. Boyer acquired the Charles City Western , a 23-mile (37 km) freight interurban operating between Charles City and a connection with the Rock Island at Marble Rock, on December 31, 1963. Plans to construct

1444-564: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

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