The history of the Rock Island railroad doesn't date back as far as the M & St. L. According to records the Rock Island was started in 1900 and finished early in 1902. McCallsburg was well supplied with shipping facilities with completion of the Des Moines, Iowa Falls and Northern R. R. (as it was known then). This only ran from Des Moines to Iowa Falls and was known as the "Short Line." With completion of this railroad thru Story County, only two townships were without train service at this early date.
For a time a tower stood west of town and a man was hired to tend the block signal where the two railroads crossed. Early in May 1916 a terrific wind storm roared through Central Iowa and the tower was toppled, along with property damage to railroad buildings at Radcliffe crossing and Buckeye. Henry Christiansen was agent at Garden City at the time and orders were given to a north bound train to wait there instead of heading on into the storm. The Christiansen family took refuge in the downstairs office of the depot as they were afraid the upper story might be blown off in the storm. A story is told of a school a few miles north of here that dismissed when the storm was approaching and the teacher and children huddled in a low ditch until the storm was over. Since the school had no basement nor storm cave the teacher thought this was the wise thing to do — and it was a lucky thing they did —because the school was completely demolished. The storm came from the north and by the time it passed through McCallsburg the tower by the tracks was gone!!!! It was never replaced — so is just a memory.
While previous records were not found — the names of Babcock and Frank Nail are among those remembered as serving here as R. I. depot agents and telegraph operators.
Perhaps one of the most memorable dates in Rock Island history in town was the big snow in Feb. 1936, when a passenger train headed for Des Moines from Minneapolis was stuck here two days. Because it was a steam locomotive, crews worked day and night carrying snow to put in the engine to keep the steam up and the 61 passengers aboard warm. Because of the (30 below) temperature, the men could only stand to work in 15 min. shifts. Several crews of men were sent out from Des Moines to help the snow plow get through. (The first group had 70 men in it, and others followed). Finally after much shoveling, the plow reached McCallsburg and the passenger train was taken on into Des Moines with the aid of 7 engines.
The depot caught fire while the train was stalled there, and this added to the excitement in the community. While it wasn't too serious it did get in the Des Moines paper, as there was a reporter passenger on the stalled train.
The agents' wives kept hot coffee for the section men on duty. The men slept in the depot waiting room when-ever they could-to get in out of the storm. The weather was so severe, the men suffered frozen hands, feet, and faces from walking the tracks etc. Since the storm lasted for several days things looked bad. Stores were out of bread, meat and other staples — and worse yet, families were running out of fuel. When the first train got through people with teams and bob-sleds waited in line to get their portion of fuel from the coal car.
The station agents worked 22 hours a day for 10 days straight, without any help, because no relief man could get there. The railroad reported that 25 foot drifts covered the tracks in several places around McCallsburg.
Time marched on—and brought progress to the Rock Island lines. In 1937 the first streamlined train "whizzed" through McCallsburg. The passenger was known as the
