At the same time, the St. Louis, Council Bluffs and Omaha Railroad was building an additional 42 miles from Chillicothe to Pattonsburg, Missouri.
By 1872, the St. Louis, Kansas City and Northern Railway began another extension, from Pattonsburg to the Iowa State Line near Blanchard.
These railroads were part of a loosely organized system of railroads which formed the Wabash "System".
By 1878, the Council Bluffs & St. Louis Railway would become the controller of all three of these railroads, and would finish the line to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The Wabash Railway was officially formed in 1924, and took over absolute control of these lines. It connected to a Kansas City-St. Louis mainline.
The railroad allowed for a strong connection between St. Louis and the Southeast Railroads, to Council Bluffs and the railroads of the west.
The Wabash was leased to the Norfolk & Western in 1960, and was completely absorbed by 1968.
The Norfolk & Western continued branchline operations of this line, and inevitably abandoned it by 1984. The Blanchard, Iowa to Council Bluffs portion was purchased by the Iowa Southern Railroad.
The ISR abandoned nearly all trackage, except for spurs in Council Bluffs in 1988.
The remaining portion would go through the COuncil Bluffs and Ottumwa Railway, and inevitably the Iowa Interstate.
The abandoned segment became part of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail, a 66 mile trail in Southwest Iowa.
11/07/21
One of the most scenic places along the Wabash Trace Nature Trail is around Malvern, where the trail crosses two large trusses.
The Silver Creek Truss, and the West Nishnabota River Bridge are the two highlights of this trail.
Like many of the other steel bridges along this route, this truss bridge has a history of being built at another location.
The original bridge here was a pile bridge, built in 1902. By 1923, a bridge in Attica, Indiana was being replaced, allowing several older truss spans to be moved to Iowa. In addition to this bridge receiving span "F" of the Attica bridge, the Des Moines River Bridge in Marion County was built with spans "C" and "D". The author believes span "E" ended up across the 102 River near Maryville, Missouri; although that bridge has since been demolished.
The Attica Bridge was built in 1892, and featured six trusses of varying sizes, approached by 12 deck plate girders. In 1914, spans "A" and "B" were destroyed in a derailment. Some strike damage is notable on this bridge, possibly from that derailment.
In 1923, the truss was brought in and reassembled across Silver Creek. As part of the reassembly, the truss was reduced from 131 feet to 129 feet in length, and received other upgrades. The next significant upgrade came in 1934, when I-Beam trestle approaches were installed to replace the original wooden approaches.
Using I-Beams as stringers instead of timber stringers allowed for lower maintenance costs, as well as a longer service life for the approaches.
Currently, the bridge consists of the 129-foot 6-panel pin connected Pratt through truss, approached by a single I-Beam approach on the south and eight I-Beam spans on the north. The entire bridge sits on timber substructures.
Fortunately, this bridge has been well preserved as part of the Wabash Trace Nature Trail. Overall, the bridge is in fair condition, and the south pier could use some rehabilitation.
In addition to the bridge, many pieces of scrap box cars are being used as rip-rap around the channel of the creek.
The author has ranked this bridge as being regionally significant, due to the truss design and history.
The photo above is an overview.
Special thank you to James Holzmeier for finding information on this bridge!