Fifty years ago there was railroad fever in Nuckolls County much like there must have been 125 to 150 years ago when the first railroads were being built in this area though the original fever was more universal.
In 1974 promoters were beating the drums seeking financing for the Nebraska's first locally owned short-line railroad. In early spring of 1974, they believed they were on the verge of completing a unique railroad that would set a pattern for railroad abandonment in rural America. When the 84.7 mile line from Seward to Superior was abandoned by the Chicago and Northwestern in 1972, the promoters organized the Great Plains Railway Company (GPR) and bought the line.
By the spring of 1974, they were taking the final steps to complete the financing arrangements needed to put the line back into operation.
Robert Steinheider, one of the owners of an elevator served by the line at Goehner, was serving as president of the Great Plains. Like other people involved, his was a non-salaried job.
That March The Express reported the GPR had sold $165,000 in stock and expected to reach the $200,000 goal by April 15. This goal was in addition to $100,000 worth of stock sold earlier which allowed the company to secure an SBA-guaranteed loan to buy the line.
Steinheider said, "This is a do-it-yourself project by local people who can see the big economic benefit our railroad will be to the area. We figure it is possible to save farmers a minimum of $1 million a year in grain transportation costs on the wheat, corn and milo we can ship on the railroad."
The savings was expected to be 10 cents a bushel on milo, 17 cents a bushel on corn and 15-cents a bushel on wheat. He estimated the line would carry at least 10 million bushels and serve 15 elevators, seven of which had no other rail service. Three of those seven were located in the Nuckolls County communities of Cadams, Nora and Oak. This was a time in Nebraska before there were shuttle loading elevators like the ones in Superior and Sedan operated by Agrex and Aurora Cooperative.
If the $200,000 goal was reached, the short-line expected to be in operation by June 15.
On April 16, it was announced the railroad had met the goal to break escrow and obtain an additional SBA guaranteed loan. The Express printed a picture of the officers including Doug Muelich of Nora, signing the loan papers at the Cattle National Bank in Seward.
June 27, 1974, The Express reported a formal ribbon cutting ceremony was planned for later that day in the former Northwestern rail yard that is now the location of the Agrex elevator.
Several state and federal officials including Gov. J.J. Exon were planning to attend. The new railroad had paid the C&NW $205,000 in mid-1972 for the track.
Ted Wells, company president, said once the bridge over the Little Blue River at Oak was replaced and other maintenance work finished, the line would operate one train each day from Seward to Superior and one from Superior to Seward. The line would connect with four major trunk line railroads including both the Burlington and Santa Fe lines at Superior and the Union Pacific at Davenport.
The company expected to have about 25 cars on each of the two daily trains and have 22 employees. Though the track would not handle the hopper cars being used by some railroads, in 1974 much grain was still being moved by boxcars.
Wells told The Express the company expected to have 22 employees.
In addition to Oak, towns on the north side of the line included Davenport, Shickley, Martland, Geneva, Exeter, Cordova, Beaver Crossing, Goehner and Seward.
The first of three engines purchased for the line arrived in Superior at 3:52 a.m. June 25, 1973. The engine left Pueblo, Colorado, on the Santa Fe at 5 p.m. the previous Friday and was deadheaded to Superior at a maximum speed of 35 miles per hour.
The engine was a 1,000 horsepower Baldwin manufactured in 1943. The 122-ton switch engine had been used by the Colorado and Wyoming Railroad in the C.F. & I. Steel mill yards prior to being placed in storage in October of 1971. The other two engines purchased by the line were to be delivered to Seward, later that summer.
Some 20 boxcars provided by other lines were expected to be available when the first train left Superior for Nora.
After the snipping of a ribbon and the smashing of a bottle of champagne, Engine 1109 inched up the line to Nora with Gov. Exon at the front. Dean Terrill, a reporter for the Lincoln Journal story, said the train's slowly moving between Nora and Superior, "must be on the 12 miles of the weediest and rustiest track on either side of the Mississippi. In many places it was hard to see the track for all the weeds and tree branches brushed the locomotive and cars.
While there were big hopes for the expansion, the line at the beginning was operating with only three stops. At one end was Superior which was expected to be about zilch business-wise because of the competition from the Burlington Northern, Santa Fe and Missouri Pacific lines serving the community. At the north end there was Nora, population 40-plus. In between were the two-families of Cadams which claimed a population of eight people and one grain elevator.
The line had only limited service since the fall of 1969 when the bridge over the Little Blue River at Oak washed out for the second time. After the original bridge which dated from the time the line was built, a replacement was opened about July 1 of 1969 only to wash out that fall. The railroad blamed Nuckolls County for improving the county road bridge directly upstream from the railroad.
For a time the C&NW provided service from the north as far south as Oak, and from Superior north to Nora but all service stopped in 1972 when the line was abandoned.
At the dedication, Arlo Doehring, president of the Superior Chamber of Commerce presented sterling sliver keys to the city to the governor, Steinheider and Wells.
Mayor Sam Seever called the event a "monumental occasion."
State Sen. Richard Maresh said, "I think we're making history here today with a project that will affect more small communities than any project we have seen."
State Sen. Gary Anderson said, "Railroads helped develop the country and improved its economy." He praised the Great Plains for reacting to the changing economic problems.
To learn more about the short line and its failed dream, attend the Nebraska Humanities Council program in the Nuckolls County Historical Society's Pioneer Hall starting at 1:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Jim Reisdorff, the publisher of books about Nebraska Railroads, and Richard Schmeling, a Superior High School graduate and author of books about railroad history, and perhaps other associates are scheduled to present the Great Plains Railroad Story. Their program has been funded by a donation from The Superior Express and an admission fee will not be charged.
Reisdorff, operates the South Platte Press and specializes in the publication of railroad history books. He established the business in 1982 and has published more than 50 titles focusing on Midwestern railroads. The Express book department includes several titles published by the South Platte Press.
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