This is what happens when a railroad has more resourcefulness than resources. Perpetually short of funds but needing a station in the southeastern Iowa community of Mediapolis, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific RR, simply added a roof, two doors, and five tiny windows to an aging boxcar.
It wasn’t just the Rock Island that was creative in its use of retired equipment. (Although it may have been mostly the Rock Island.) Boxcars converted into stations are unusual, but boxcars set on the ground and used for storage can be found almost anywhere.
Old railroad equipment turns up in the most unexpected places. I’ve seen a tiny, decrepit wood boxcar from railroading’s Jurassic era tucked between a chicken coop and a barn on a Minnesota farm, miles from any railroad. If you can imagine an alternate use for a piece of old rolling stock, chances are good that a prototype exists somewhere. Railroads are very creative when it comes to being frugal.
The fate of the original Mediapolis depot is not known to us. It might have burned down, or it might have become too leaky, creaky, drafty, and decrepit even for the Rock Island. We also don’t know if the 1,600 or so Mediapolis residents were disappointed when the railroad provided a boxcar as a replacement. Perhaps they understood it was better than no station at all.
These photographs are undated, but were probably taken in the mid- to late 1960s. Judging by the faded paint, this station had been in place for several years before the photographer’s arrival. The train-order signal mast shows it was still a train-order station at the time these photos were taken.
Could this have once been a passenger station too? As late as 1958, the town was served by a daily St. Louis-Minneapolis train. By 1960, Mediapolis was no longer listed as a passenger stop in the Official Railway Guide.
When these photographs were taken, the building would have housed a freight agent and possibly provided storage for section gang tools and supplies.
The humble Mediapolis station is symbolic of Rock Island’s desperate effort to stay afloat. In the end, there was only so much they could do. In 1975, the Rock filed for bankruptcy – the third in its history. Five years after that, a court ordered the liquidation of the railroad.
In 1985, the line through Mediapolis was abandoned.
