Sioux City, Iowa — An aging Rock Island Railroad boxcar that’s sat on the tracks beside an Atlantic gas station for decades is finding a new home about 130 miles to the northwest at the Sioux City Railroad Museum.
Keith Olsen, who owns the Olsen’s BP station, says he doesn’t know the full history of the railcar, but he knows it was used to store things for more than 60 years.
A friend of a friend of the museum recently spotted the railcar and arrangements were made to move it to Sioux City. Gary Richter, with Richter and Sons Towing in Atlantic, oversaw the loading of the railcar onto a flatbed truck last week.
The car weighs about 30-thousand pounds and is what was referred to as a “Tool Car” in the language of railroaders. Olsen says the Siouxland museum is the third to have contacted him over the years about the car, but it was the first to follow through on making the arrangements to adopt the elderly rail relic.
Photo courtesy KJAN Radio, Atlantic IA
