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UER Forum > US: Great Lakes > All ghosts on board. (Viewed 2536 times)
crows 


Location: Eastern Iowa
Total Likes: 89 likes


Il est interdit de faire smashy smash

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All ghosts on board.
< on 4/11/2014 2:43 AM >
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A coworker of mine alerted me to this place that he'd stumbled upon while driving out west a few years ago. After finding the scratch of it on google maps this winter, my partner and I were pleased to find it in tact, more or less, when we took the long drive out to the western border of the state.



The rail route is maintained up to a factory on the other side of the street from this stretch (where you see the silos in this photo), and as far as I can tell it's abandoned west of here.





So we walked up along the length of the cars for a bit. Excessively pleasant day, which we both needed after the way this winter's been.








We climbed inside about midway down the run.


















"The other side is them", words sprayed on the inside of the outside door of the last car in the line. The couple of cars at the far end were more blitzed out than the others, I'm not sure if they'd just suffered more heavy vandalism or if it was because there was less tree cover to block the wind, or what.

At this point, we turned around to make our way inside back toward the first cars we'd walked by, but my partner looked out down the way and noticed a truck parked next to where we'd pulled the car over a ways away. After a brief discussion we decided to be outside of the derelict in case anyone was coming to look for us specifically. I'm sad our exploration was cut short because I would have liked to have had a lot more photos of this place, and I'm anxious to get back there, despite the distance from where I live (about 4.5 hours).






Ostensibly, this car may have housed a meth lab at some point? I was poking around on the internet at the cafe we had lunch in the next town over and did find a fairly lengthy blog post about this spot by a dude who may have reported it at the time (propane fueled, alarms, etc...) but it also seemed like that guy got into some weird internet trouble with The Republicans and all evidence of him existing (Flickr account which otherwise would have held the photos linked in that post, Twitter, and Facebook all gone) seems to have evaporated as of 2010 or something. I think the post also said the track had been pulled up and shipped overseas which... it was definitely still there at least as far as I could tell and continues west in google maps. So. Maybe he made that shit up, I have no idea. I also don't really know the practical logistics of setting up a meth lab and therefore cannot assess how practical or impractical this green caboose would have been for the endeavor (I haven't watched Breaking Bad or read Methland but I have been to Oelwein more than once).

...anyway.

So it turned out the truck was just some old guy from a private company maintaining the radio tower. He looked at us for approximately two seconds as we legged over the slouchy barbed-wire fence half-heartedly standing guard across the tracks, and then we left. Definitely planning on having another go at this next I've got a chance, especially since there was some other stuff I'd like to have a better look at with more time. I have some more photos from this afternoon of couple of other spots (one being an abandoned home built into a hillside at the next intersection west of here that we quite liked), but they're on my phone and I don't have the things I need to pull them off right now. So it will have to wait for another day.

I hope you're all having an adventurous spring. Cheers.





input: bacon | output: fiction
PorkyMcCaw 


Location: Western PA
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 59 likes




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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 1 on 4/11/2014 3:10 AM >
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Cool place and an interesting story!




cdevon 


Location: west county
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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 2 on 4/11/2014 3:49 AM >
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well damn....




When I say I'm 'clean and sober', it means I've showered and I'm headed to the liquor store.
ToXiC 


Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Gender: Male
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Original Jackassary.

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 3 on 4/11/2014 5:51 PM >
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Nice find




Savage Hooligan
Ace Urbex 


Location: MSPFYB
Gender: Male
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Ace

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 4 on 4/11/2014 6:06 PM >
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Is this close to Jackson, Minnesota? If so, when I was here we were confronted by a group of angry raccoons.




This is the funeral of the American dream
We are here to dress up the body...
crows 


Location: Eastern Iowa
Total Likes: 89 likes


Il est interdit de faire smashy smash

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 5 on 4/11/2014 7:45 PM >
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It is indeed. No raccoons this time... It didn't even reek of raccoon shit as bad as some of the old houses. I've been lucky with the lack of close animal calls. Except for the ticks.




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Bulljager 


Gender: Male
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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 6 on 4/12/2014 1:24 AM >
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Awsome find and in the middle of nowhere (on the west side) lol



luv trains Thanks!!!!!!!




crows 


Location: Eastern Iowa
Total Likes: 89 likes


Il est interdit de faire smashy smash

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 7 on 4/12/2014 3:08 AM >
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Man you ain't kidding about western IA holy balls.

Also thanks everyone I'm glad you like the pichers.




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Cosmic 


Location: Minneapolis / St. Paul
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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 8 on 4/13/2014 8:10 AM >
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Cool find. Ive always wanted to see something like this in person.




whelve 


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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 9 on 4/13/2014 7:33 PM >
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Lovely find! I want to go!




Skye_Ann 


Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Gender: Female
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I seem to have Irritable Owl Syndrome...

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 10 on 4/17/2014 4:39 AM >
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Looks like I gotta add "abandoned train" to my "to do/explore" list.

What a weird story though! What are the odds, eh?




My Blog; https://historyindecay.blogspot.com/
Dare2Hide 


Location: South Carolina
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Total Likes: 43 likes


Lets go exploring

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 11 on 4/17/2014 7:50 AM >
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OMG! I been looking for a train for awhile now....Anybody message me some more info on it please? I gotta see it




iliamo1986 


Location: Central Iowa
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Total Likes: 29 likes




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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 12 on 4/17/2014 3:10 PM >
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Wonderful find! I have been so busy this spring I haven't had any time to explore




"The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes." -Simone Weil
dammband 


Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Gender: Male
Total Likes: 454 likes




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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 13 on 4/17/2014 4:19 PM >
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So fucking cool. Great shots. Thanks for sharing.




crows 


Location: Eastern Iowa
Total Likes: 89 likes


Il est interdit de faire smashy smash

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 14 on 4/18/2014 3:24 AM >
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iliamo- I know it's been a crazy spring. I've been very fortunate to get out when I could. I'm still hoping to come down that way again sooner than later! We've got to meet up.

skye- I have discovered, on gaining DB access, that this train is in there (not that I'm terribly surprised; it just seemed a touch remote and I wasn't sure if it would really interest the rest of the community here because sometimes I like weird things. But sometimes I don't!) so, you know, if you get a chance to visit, I'd recommend it, cause the place was cool as shit and I'm hopeful I can get back up there some time not to far off.

dammband- Thanks It was my first time wrestling with a big boy camera (ie not my cell phone >.>) and I spent a lot of time fighting with it and swearing at it and that's AFTER I remembered that I had manual control of things like, oh, the aperture. (It doesn't belong to me; I haven't handled it much.) I'm glad most of the shots came out okay! I half expected everything to be a hot mess when I yanked it off the SD card.




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iliamo1986 


Location: Central Iowa
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Total Likes: 29 likes




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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 15 on 4/21/2014 9:00 PM >
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[last edit 4/21/2014 9:01 PM by iliamo1986 - edited 2 times]

"The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes." -Simone Weil
iliamo1986 


Location: Central Iowa
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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 16 on 4/21/2014 9:02 PM >
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What the hell...my above post is coming up blank.

Anyway, D, as I was trying to say, you still need to post pics of "our" farmhouse!




"The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes." -Simone Weil
Tenebrae 


Location: The Wild West
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Life's short; eat dessert first.

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 17 on 4/21/2014 10:41 PM >
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Bummer to see such ruin; I love trains!




crows 


Location: Eastern Iowa
Total Likes: 89 likes


Il est interdit de faire smashy smash

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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 18 on 4/22/2014 4:37 AM >
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Posted by iliamo1986
What the hell...my above post is coming up blank.

Anyway, D, as I was trying to say, you still need to post pics of "our" farmhouse!


Gah I totally do. They're on my phone, which is strangely more of a pain in the rear to get stuff off of than my camera so I procrastinate it more. When I get home (I'm in AK) I will do that.

Then can I come back down and take some more?!




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iliamo1986 


Location: Central Iowa
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Total Likes: 29 likes




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Re: All ghosts on board.
< Reply # 19 on 4/22/2014 1:49 PM >
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Posted by crows


Gah I totally do. They're on my phone, which is strangely more of a pain in the rear to get stuff off of than my camera so I procrastinate it more. When I get home (I'm in AK) I will do that.

Then can I come back down and take some more?!


Sounds great! And I don't know, can you?! (Please do! I need to get back there myself!)




"The destruction of the past is perhaps the greatest of all crimes." -Simone Weil
UER Forum > US: Great Lakes > All ghosts on board. (Viewed 2536 times)


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