Today's train of thought comes to us with plenty of ice to go around, between the frozen West Fork of the Des Moines River and the reporting marks on equipment from the Illinois, Chicago & Eastern.
The IC&E Predecessor was the I&M Rail Link- a sister company of the Montana Rail Link which purchased the former Soo Line trackage between the Twin Cities and Kansas City and the former Milwaukee line across Northern Iowa and on into Chicago back in 1997. In 2002, the line was purchased by the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern and renamed the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern before both the DM&E and IC&E themselves were acquired by Canadian Pacific in 2008.
However, one would be hard pressed to tell that CP was running the show for over a year in this shot taken by railpictures.net contributor Scott Marsh. Here, IC&E SD40-3 #6442 is in charge of a plow extra as it cautiously treads its way over the West Fork of the Des Moines River at Emmetsburg, IA on Dec 27, 2009. The train was sent out to clear the line and retrieve any cars along the Mason City line that were left out in the snow. It's slow going on the 90 pound rail, and the crews must also clear any highway crossing they come to by hand, as the accumulated snow there is packed down by passing cars and could cause the plow to derail.
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