Welcome to Iowa's largest 1 1/2" scale railway
EJ&K Mission Statement:
Maximizing Inefficiency Through Unnecessary Complexity
The EJ&K Ry is a 1/8 scale model railroad in Boone, IA designed for live steamers and model railroaders. It is not an amusement park open to the general public. We are usually open for visitors on Sundays, but we can also accommodate visitors on Saturdays and some weekdays with advance notice. Maintenance of facilities, grounds, and equipment is done by amateurs to rural residential standards. Visitors assume risk of injury.
Videos of operations on are YouTube: Search - EJ&K Train Farm.
Spring Steam Schedule
4 21 24 - Palindrome Steam Day - Light fire about 1100am, run until about 300pm.
4 24 24 - Palindrome Steam Day - afternoon and evening. Light fire at 300pm, run until sunset
5 5 24 - Cinqo de Mayo - annual heritage steam day
6 2 24 - June Steam Day
We will have diesel days every Sunday plus steam if anyone has the energy to fire up. Timetable and dispatcher operation will depend on the number of people who show up and want to operate with schedules and dispatchers.
Eastern Subdivision has about 300 feet of final grade completed. Gravel roadbed and trestle will be completed in April. Track construction to follow. Additional grading and subgrade is under construction from MP 3.0 to end of track which will be a wye at MP 7.5.
EJ&E 724 was a billet car that operated only within US Steel Gary Works. It had no airbrakes and no securement for the loads that were shuttled around the plant. No FRA requirements and no identification other than the number. EJ&K 724 is a reasonable model of that car. It is being left outside so that the load supports can develop authentic rust. It will not be interchanged with other railroads and will be used in our model steel mill when we build the mill next year.
Wabash 724 was purchased from Titan Trains.
We have had very warm weather and the invasives are blooming. We did several prairie burns to try to slow them down.
FDDMS 724 will be a scratch built car based on this picture
We acquired some additional equipment from Bob Drenth and the Shell Rock Short Line
We try to model realistic derailments as well as realistic operations
Bob with his IC Geep
I was talking to Garrison Keillor and he mentioned that his father was an RPO mail clerk on the Great Northern working out of Minneapolis.
Mother Nature gave us a very nice winter with many great photo opportunities
Builder's Photo: Bob built the car and Bob painted it.
This is the water car to give the Hudson additional water tank capacity.
Air hose project took 23 years and 15 minutes to complete
Frequent log trains all year. After taking down many invasive Siberian elms and creating a savannah, we have a lot of freight to move. If you want some good firewood come out and take it away.
The Geeps were out late at night on May 5 with a full moon