The Iowa Railroad Historical Society/James H. Andrew Railroad Museum and History Center recently received a grant award of $5,000 from Humanities Iowa, a state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, in support of a project called Iowa’s Railroad Evolution. This exhibit will open on Thursday, September 14th, 2023.
The exhibit focuses on various aspects of Iowa railroads, how they began and their contribution and importance in growing Iowa as a state. Iowa’s Railroad Evolution offers 18 QR coded and themed 7-foot color historical information banners, a custom touch-screen interactive program, as well as two high resolution custom educational shows. This exhibit supplies little known Iowa railroad information highlighting rail history, passenger engines, car types and artifacts. Included are never-before-seen photos of various heavy and lightweight train sets from a variety of different Iowa railroads. Some panel titles include: Iowa Passenger Railroad Overview, Wooden and Lightweight Passenger Cars, Passenger Train Personnel, Dinner in the Diner, Railroad (Gas-Electric) Doodlebugs, Railroad Post Office Cars (RPO’s), Interurban and Narrow Gauge Passenger Trains plus many more topics.
For more information, call the James H. Andrew Railroad Museum at the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad at (515) 432-4249 or e-mail [email protected].