Labor Day weekend was a major car show weekend for me. Friday, right after work, I headed out to Iowa City to meet up with my Uncle Dave, cousin Sara and her new daughter Taylee (Tyson, the dad, was in Missouri camping out with high school friends). After a hearty dinner at Hamburg Inn #2, we attended the show. Sunday was the Grape Festival car show in Nauvoo, and Labor Day itself was the annual car show in McCausland, IA. But it was on the way home from Nauvoo that I saw this cool old train in Fort Madison–home of the (State) Pen and (formerly) the Pens–Sheaffer Pens, to be exact.
I usually take Highway 61 from the Quad Cities, which necessitates taking the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge to get back to Illinois. This bridge was opened to traffic in 1927.
One interesting fact about the bridge is that only Illinois-bound traffic is charged a toll; on my return trip, there was no charge to get back into leave the Land of Lincoln.
The Mississipp’ is very broad at this point. Views while waiting to pay the toll were quite picturesque.
Too bad no boating was on the schedule of events for the day, the weather was perfect for it. And indeed, I saw several pleasure craft taking advantage.
The above pictures were taken as I was heading to Nauvoo for the Labor Day parade and the car show. But I wanted pictures of the bridge, so later that evening I actually headed downtown to get some shots.
I have always loved old bridges, and this one is a good one. I think it is amazing that such old bridges can still be in daily use. It shows that the engineers and crews who designed and built this bridge really knew their stuff. But if you were to take a 180° turn from this view of the bridge, you would see another big part of Fort Madison history.
This. As alluded to in the opening paragraph, Fort Madison was the home of Sheaffer Pens for many years. The main administration building were right at the river’s edge–until 2008.
As has been oft repeated throughout the country over the last decade or so, the home base of Sheaffer was unceremonoiusly shuttered in spring of ’08 to–guess where?–Asia, of course (courtesy of Bic, their current owner). The announcement to close was made in 2003. My cousin’s husband’s relatives, who live in nearby Mt. Pleasant, had worked there for years–I believe his grandmother retired from there a few years before the closure. It’s a shame, but this is CC and I won’t dwell on it. But their former headquarters is most interesting for people like me, who love mid-century architecture.
image: rickconner.net
Here’s how the place looked when still open. This pic, and an interesting story about the final Sheaffer tour and other Sheaffer landmarks in Fort Madison, can be found here. I love the sign on the roof; I am sure it lit up at night, making it even cooler.
Here’s the lobby, with plenty of now-empty display cases. You can get a slight sense of how impressive this building was in 1952 when first opened.
Here’s the loading bays at the other end of the complex. According to my uncle, a Sheaffer pen was a common graduation gift in the ’60s and ’70s, and Iowans were proud that such a well-regarded company as Sheaffer was in their very own state. Of course, Sheaffer is still around, and I’m sure their Chinese-made pens are just fine. But I don’t really have any desire to get one. I feel sorry for this building.
This appears to be the employee entrance. Lots of cool Jet Age design fillips here. I would have liked to have toured the building before it closed, and seen it in its prime.
Hopefully many of you CCers find old building and bridges as interesting as I do; if not, never fear! For just down the road, there was a genuine Trackside Classic: A Baldwin 4-8-4 locomotive and tender, built in 1944.
It is quite impressive in person. Unfortunately there was a fence around it. Too bad, I would have loved to have climbed those steps and checked out the cab!
According to the sign, this locomotive was donated to the City of Fort Madison in 1960, after being retired in late 1955.
Zooming in on the cab, you can see a myriad of gears and levers. I’m sure it was no easy task to run one of these things, and can only imagine how one sounded when under way.
The Baldwin is just sitting feet away from the main line running near the river, and appears to be on permanent display. Honestly, who doesn’t love an old train?
I should have parked my wagon in front of this for perspective, but suffice it to say that this thing is BIG! I think if I lined the nose of my V50 even with the front of the 4-8-4, the rear bumper would be about even with the middle of the first big wheel. For you numbers guys, this unit is 120 feet, 10 inches long.
Sitting within spitting distance of the main line, I’m sure if this engine could think, it would be reminiscing about its glory days in the ’40s and early ’50s, before diesel engines took over.
However, I’m sure the nearby businesses are thankful that their buildings are no longer coated in coal dust.
Finally, I spotted a genuine Curbside Classic just a few blocks from the river. And in true CC fashion, it was a B-body. Perfect.
A ’78 Delta 88 Royale in two-tone blue, no less. This one was quite sharp with its paint, no vinyl top and Super Stock wheels with the “starfish” hubcaps. Rest assured, a full CC will appear on this car at some point in the future, but I couldn’t resist giving you all a sneak peak.
And with that, I got back on Highway 61 and went home.
I thought plans were underway years ago to shelter the big Baldwin? Hate to see it in the weather year in and year out. Very nice of Santa Fe – now BNSF – to think that highly of their heritage and have it on display.
When employed with my first packaging company, Sheaffer Pen was a client, and a group of us traveled there one fine day to meet with them in August, 1986. Taking the tour and seeing how the pens were made and assembled was fascinating and is a story in itself.
Talk about piece-work!
At one time they were owned by Textron. Sad to see the place fall to the fate of so many old-line companies.
Driving up U.S. 61 and veering off into town, one of the first sights I saw was that Santa Fe locomotive. For a train lover, I was thrilled, especially since I wasn’t driving, so I got a nice, long look! Wish I could have gotten a photo…
The one and only time I have been to Iowa.
That Delta 88’s really got my Oldsmo-blood rushing! I definitely prefer the revised front-end styling 88s received in 1980, but this clean example really makes me like the rear styling of the ’77-’79s, even if it does look more Capricey.
Interesting stuff. I wonder why a toll into Illinois but not back out. Also, I thought Illinois was the Land of Lincoln? Actually, I think that Indiana was the original Land of Lincoln Anyhow, I share your fascination with old bridges and buildings as well. Actually, the Oldsmobile may have been the least interesting thing on this tour. 😉
New York City does the same thing with tolls at its bridges and tunnels: pay to enter, but not to exit. Often it is said in jest that they are charging people from New Jersey for the privilege of entering the city, and there may be some truth to that.
The original Land of Lincoln is Kentucky, but I doubt that the state is eager to commemorate the President who brought them back into the Union by force!
I was going to ask if the toll was for getting into Illinois or for getting out of Iowa?
(But then I’m from Ohio and have very little room to talk. 🙂 )
US301 crossing the Potomac is the same way. Getting in to Maryland is free. Getting out of Maryland and back into Virginia is $6.00 – which is probably a bargain, considering what you’re leaving behind.
I don’t think the practice of one-way tolls is any more complicated than the simplification of toll collecting. i.e., if a driver crosses a river in one direction, he’s probably going to “uncross” it later. So why not collect a double fare in one direction rather than have two sets of toll collectors. To my knowledge, all crossings of the Hudson River in NY State have toll payment in the east-bound direction. If they didn’t, a driver could cross the river both ways for free by changing bridges.
I’m pretty sure, where this practice occurs at a state boundary, that the two states split the fare 50/50. (Although is only half the bridge repainted in your photo? Maybe the two states aren’t reinvesting their revenues the same way.)
But what a fascinating bridge. I do not know this one and will have to look it up. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Yes, IL is the Land of Lincoln–oops! I knew that; just mixed it up while writing 🙂
Will fix.
Nice Delta 88, classic late 70’s GM two-tone.
Speaking of GM classics, I was lucky enough to see a 1974 Cadillac Coupe DeVille today. Looked like Jasper Green. Beautiful car.
Man what a lovely Oldsmobile — the two-tone is much sportier than the awful 1/4 vinyl top my ex-Holiday 88 had.
The Sheaffer Plant saddens me: I love such architecture & would go nuts exploring that place. Of course I probably couldn’t resist the evil temptation of bringing home as many light fixtures as possible though.
Highway 61 revisited- Build some bleachers out in the sun and have it on highway 61.
My seventh grade math teacher had this exact same Oldsmobile. This was mid-’80’s at the time, and he was in his early 30’s and he wondered if he bought it new or not. He later sold it but soon bought it back.
I went to Nauvoo once; it is quite interesting. Likely the only place where a Catholic Church is next door to, and dwarfed by, a Mormon Church.
Sheaffer Pens are / were good quality products, but I have always had a hang-up about buying a product when the people didn’t even know how to correctly spell their name! 🙂
I left Keokuk when my tour on the CGC Scioto was up in 1998, so Fort Madison was an old stomping ground of sorts. The BNSF mainline coming off the Fort Madison Bridge is part of their Transcon Route, LA to Chicago, one of the busiest mainlines in the country. One day, coming off the Burlington, Iowa bridge, into Illinois and heading south back to Keokuk, a BNSF intermodal freight came into my sight around Dallas City Illinois, heading west bound towards Ft Madison. Talk about speed, I had my 68 Corvette at about 65-70 mph on that 2 lane road, just keeping pace with those big General Electric locomotives in the then new Heritage II Pumpkin paint scheme. At the approach near the bridge they come down to about 20-25 mph or so, crossing the Mississippi. It was always a treat to come up there and just do a little train watching as these behemoths make their way back and forth our giant country….
On our USCG cutter, we never had one issue with the bridge at Ft Madison opening for us, but up at Burlington, the bridge there often had issues opening. Seeing Sheaffer Pen shuttered as it was is quite disturbing; it was such an icon for Southeast Iowa. I understand that even Burlington; the B in BNSF Railway, is not the railroad town it once was either.
A nice little walk into downtown Fort Madison, Iowa. Tom, thanks for the photos and stirring up some old memories!
Great post! It had a little of everything I like, especially the Delta 88!
Methinks I will have to take a ride over to Iowa at some point in the future. It looks like it could be fun…
Thanks for sharing. It’d be hard to imagine a CC road trip story not worth the read.
Did someone leave the ball from a really big pen on the roof of the Sheaffer building?
That’s the classic Sheaffer “white dot” logo. It is still used on the Chinese-made pens today, I believe.
I collect old fountain pens , it would be interesting to add Desk Side Classics, old fountain pens that still keep on writing in this computerized age.
What happened to Scheaffer has already happened to Waterman and Parker, the Big Three of US pen manufacturers are all gone overseas.
Lamy and Pelikan are still based in Germany but they are not a match to luxury pen maker from Switzerland: Carand’Ache.
The title of Mecedes of Pens can be bestowed to Mont Blanc of Hamburg Germany with the best dealer network and repair service.
I have quite the stable of Desk Side Classics, myself. I’ll pull out my Parker “Big Red” Duofold (original! not the reproduction version) and start jotting down my task list for today in a couple minutes. I have a couple of Sheaffers (one of which I seem to have mislaid at the moment), but I’m mainly a Parker guy.
If you want an American-made pen, there are some small (frequently one-person) companies that make great custom pens. Here’s one:
http://edisonpen.com/
But yes, by and large, the fountain-pen industry is largely gone from the US as a mass-production enterprise.
I think Mont Blanc is definitely the Mercedes of pens–even down to the modern models not living up to the reputation of older ones and coasting on marketing. I wouldn’t have a modern Mont Blanc. But that’s a whole different discussion, and forum, for that matter.
I was one of those that got a gold plated Sheaffer pen as a graduation present, in 1971. Geat story, glad you shared it. I also love mid 20th century commercial architecture. I was fortunate to have visited Racine, Wisconsin and was able to view the exterior of the Frank Lloyd Wright Johnson Wax headquarters.