County museum 'tracks' down mysterious railcar's owner
Staff with the Dickinson County Museum noticed a small, red track inspector car had been left behind the building. The museum suspected the railcar was meant as a donation to the museum, but staff has since learned that is not the case, and the car is expected to be removed. (Photo by Seth Boyes)
This story was updated Tuesday, July 18, 2023, after museum staff contacted the car's owner.
Speeder car not an anonymous donation, will be moved
It was unlikely someone just forgot where they parked their little, red railcar.
There was no note attached. The keys were inside. The doors were unlocked. So staff at the Dickinson County Museum assumed it was meant for them — but they recently learned, with a degree of disappointment, it was not.
Museum officials noticed the small, red railcar had been left behind the building on Friday, July 7, along with a trailer on which it was presumably hauled there. The museum is housed within Spirit Lake's former Chicago-Milwaukee train depot and already displays a large, orange caboose outside — staff discovered the mysterious railcar parked a stone's throw to the south of the caboose.
Museum Director Mary Dreier, said the railcar is a track inspector — sometimes known as a speeder — and she said a QR code attached to its lefthand side indicated it was purchased at auction in Mason City within the last two weeks or so. She said she soon spoke with employees at the nearby Consumers Lumber to confirm the railcar did not belong to anyone there — it did not.
Dreier initially suspected someone had purchased the speeder with the intention of donating it to the museum, but the museum hadn't been notified of any planned donations — especially not an anonymous one of such size. And neither the speeder nor the trailer it was chained to bore any license plate to help identify their owner.
"It's one thing if someone drops off a doily," Dreier said last week. "We can deal with a doily, but dealing with this requires a bit more effort.”
She said Tuesday the museum had successfully contacted the car's owner after putting out the word about the railcar's unscheduled stop at the museum. The museum learned the diminutive locomotive was in fact not intended as a donation — Dreier said the speeder was expected to be removed from the gravel lot Tuesday afternoon.
The little, red railcar — about the size of a semi cab — seats two on either side of a few vintage levers and switches, and a sign hangs between the two chairs, instructing riders to "Never but never question the engineer's judgement." The exterior of the gasoline-powered railcar sports a few decals — one of which bears markings of the Southern Pacific rail line while another states "My other car is a lunar rover."
"It's really cute," Dreier said. "It's like a kid's dream."
Had the speeder turned out to be a donation to the museum, Dreier said there would have been several steps for the museum's board to take before deciding where to potentially display it. She said there was the possibility to house it outdoors near the existing caboose, or even inside the museum amid potential updates to its depot area — assuming the small railcar would have fit through one of the museum's doors.
However, now that the museum staff has tracked down the car's rightful owner, any plans for keeping the railcar wont' be leaving the station persay.
