RailsWest Railroad Museum

RailsWest Railroad Museum is a railroad museum operated by the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County at 16th Avenue and South Main Street and illustrates the history of railroads in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Council Bluffs
Former Rock Island Line passenger rail station
Council Bluffs station in May 2011.
General information
Location	1512 South Main Street, Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503
History
Closed	1971
Rebuilt	1899
Former services
Preceding station Union Pacific Railroad Following station Omaha toward Ogden Overland Route through to Chicago & North Western/Milwaukee Road Preceding station Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Following station Omaha toward Colorado Springs Main Line Underwood toward Chicago
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Show map of Iowa Show map of the United States
Location	1512 S. Main St. Council Bluffs, Iowa
Coordinates	41°14′49″N 95°51′8″W
Area	less than one acre
Built	1899
Architect	Chief Engineer, CRI & PRR; Volk, John, & Co.
Architectural style	Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	95000856[1]
Added to NRHP	July 21, 1995

History

The museum is housed inside a Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad passenger depot that was also used by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific. The depot is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Passenger Depot and also has been known as just Rock Island Depot.^[2] The depot opened in 1899 and would become a daily stop for the Rocky Mountain Rocket, Midwest Hiawatha, the Arrow, and Corn Belt Rocket before the end of passenger service in 1971.^[3][4] Similar Rock Island passenger depots were also constructed in Iowa City, Iowa and Ottawa, Illinois.

Museum

RailsWest includes historical exhibits on the eight railroads that served the community along with displays on the Railway Mail Service and an extensive HO scale model railroad. Adjacent to the historic depot are Union Pacific locomotive 814 and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy locomotive 915, Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad and Chicago, Burlington and Quincy cabooses, a 1953 switch engine built by the Plymouth Locomotive Works, the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Omaha lounge car, a Union Pacific boxcar, and Union Pacific Railway Post Office car 5908. RailsWest is adjacent to tracks of the Union Pacific, BNSF, and Iowa Interstate Railroad with a fenced-in area for railfanning.

• 
  Union Pacific 814
• 
  Union Pacific 814 side view
• 
  Chicago, Burlington and Quincy 915