“All aboard!”
Local historian Rod Stanley of Dexter shared the history of the Interurban Railway in Iowa with the members of the Dallas County Area Retired School Personnel Association (DCARSPA) at their October meeting.
Of particular interest to members was the Interurban line that ran from Perry to Des Moines. The electrically charged railway was dedicated in 1906 by Henry Wallace, who spoke to more than 600 people on the occasion, many from Des Moines.
Stanley explained that the Interurban ran daily every 1.5 hours from 6 a.m. to midnight. Called the “Galloping Goose” by some who rode it, the train jerked and bumped its way through Camp Dodge to downtown Des Moines, stopping at any of the 25 locations along the way in order to pick up passengers as well as produce.
Some of these stops became “ghost places” — small towns that no longer except in the archives and in the memories of some DCARSPA members.
The railway was discontinued in 1948 with the increased use of automobiles, Stanley said.
Sue Leslie is the secretary of the Dallas County Area Retired School Personnel Association.
