The UP Northern 814, one of the fastest passenger steam locomotives ever built, on display at the RailsWest Museum in Council Bluffs IA.
This handsome depot was built in Council Bluffs IA for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad in 1899. It served as a railroad station until the end of passenger rail service in the United States in 1971. In the mid-1990s the depot was listed on the US National Register of Historic Places, restored, and reopened as the RailsWest Museum in downtown Council Bluffs IA.
The Council Bluffs Rock Island depot is located on South Main Street south of the Lincoln Highway/US 6 as it passes through downtown Council Bluffs.
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"BACKGROUND-
The restored depot was originally built in 1899 for the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (the "Rock Island"), one of 15 rail lines serving Council Bluffs. The last Rock Island passenger trained pulled out of the depot on May 31, 1970. March 31, 1980 was the last day of operations for the Rock Island Railroad.
Engineer Grenville M. Dodge surveyed the westward route of the Rock Island Railroad to Council Bluffs in 1853. Years later, Dodge would survey the route west from Council Bluffs that enabled the city to become the eastern terminus of the transcontinental railroad.
The construction of the transcontinental railroad played a major role in the development of southwest Iowa, and vice-versa. The history of this era is well preserved in our depot and museum. It is the last survivor of a half-dozen passenger depots which at one time dotted the Council Bluffs landscape.
In 1984 the Society and the Greater Omaha Society of Model Railroad Engineers (GOSOME) joined forces with Council Bluffs to save one of the last remaining depots in Council Bluffs. In 1985, the City of Council Bluffs leased the Depot to the Society with instructions to restore the Depot into a tourist attraction and information center. On July 21, 1995, the Depot was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The renovation of the Depot and transformation into the RailsWest Railroad Museum took great effort. There was much rotted wood, much of the tile roof needed replacement, and a complete interior renovation was necessary. GOSOME relocated its extensive HO scale model railroad display from Omaha’s Western Heritage Museum, which was undergoing renovations of its own. Today the GOSOME display is located in the former freight section of the depot.
The RailsWest Railroad Museum is located in the former waiting rooms. There was a separate south waiting room for women and children, and north waiting room for men. The Museum includes a gift shop, railroad artifacts and exhibits, and the former ticket office.
The Museum has displays of dining car silverware, a telegraph office, and memorabilia such as porters' uniforms and ticket stubs. It has a large collection of daily newspapers chronicling the rise and fall of the railroads."
For specific opening hours, dates, and other information, please see the museum website here: (
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See here for more on the UP Northern steam locomotives, including the UP 844, the only surviving Northern still in active service on an American Railroad: (
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"CLASSES OF LOCOMOTIVES
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The Northern class steam locomotives, with a wheel arrangement of 4-8-4, were used by most large U.S. railroads in dual passenger and freight service. Union Pacific operated 45 Northerns, built in three classes, which were delivered between 1937 and 1944. Initially the speedy locomotives, capable of exceeding 100 miles per hour, were assigned to passenger trains, including the famous Overland Limited, Portland Rose and Pacific Limited. In their later years, as diesels were assigned to the passenger trains, the Northerns were reassigned to freight service. They operated over most of UP's system.
The second series of Northerns was more than 114 feet long and weighed nearly 910,000 pounds. Most of them were equipped with distinctive smoke deflectors, sometimes called "elephant ears," on the front of the boiler. These were designed to help lift the smoke above the engine so the engine crew's visibility wasn't impaired when the train was drifting at light throttle.
The last steam locomotive built for Union Pacific was Northern No. 844. It was saved in 1960 for excursion and public relations service, an assignment that continues to this day. Any current excursions scheduled are posted on the Schedule page. Two other Northerns are on public display: No. 814 in Council Bluffs, Iowa and No. 833 in Ogden, Utah. A third Northern, No. 838, is stored in Cheyenne and is used as a parts source for No. 844."