Piece of eastern Iowa railroad history shines thanks to California museum

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A classic passenger train car that formerly operated in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City got a moment to shine again over the weekend.

The Western Railway Museum in Suisun City, California shared images of the 8′ 10″ long CRANDIC 111 on Facebook, saying visitors got a chance to take a ride aboard the restored car.

“Back in the day, this spectacular Art Deco interurban used to run up to 90 MPH! Of course, we didn’t run it that fast for our delighted winter visitors…” the museum wrote in the post.

A post on the museum’s website says the interurban coach features a single toilet compartment and a small baggage area.

According to the post, the cars were built by a company in Cincinnati in 1930 to reverse the trend of lost ridership on the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad. However, that effort failed and the railroad discontinued passenger service in 1938, selling six of the cars to the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railroad for $2,000 each.

CRANDIC discontinued passenger service in 1953.

One commenter on the Facebook post said the cars carried University of Iowa students between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City.

See more about the CRANDIC Railway’s history here.

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