Sac Junction, Iowa: A Study of a Lost Town on the C&NW Sioux City Division

Sacton, Sac Junction, or Sac City Junction was a small yard located at the junction of Sioux City Division
subdivisions 1, 2, and 3. Located one mile east of Wall Lake, this station provided coal and water
facilities, a wye, and a registering station for C&NW’s many trains through the area.

What is the purpose of the yard at Sacton?

The yard at Sacton served as a place to leave and collect cars for Subdivision 3 -- the Boyer line. Freight
for towns along this line was likely brought up from Carroll and left in the yard to be sorted into the
mixed train bound for points southwest of Wall Lake. The local job at Sacton worked the gravel pits just
north of the yard. The Sacton yard also served as a place for empties to be stored for the eastbound train
to Jewell, as well as any remaining cars on the train from Jewell that terminated at Wall Lake. The
fueling facilities would be needed to provide coal and water for the mixed trains to Mondamin, the local
crew at Sacton, and the eastbound Jewell stock and way freight. Sacton was likely a substitute for a
yard at Wall Lake, which may have been difficult to locate geographically or based on the shape of
the track there. Based on my research, I’ve found that the wye at Sacton existed before the yard
ever did. Those in Wall Lake could only speculate what the Northwestern was up to at Sacton, but
they sincerely hoped that the engine facility move would transfer the locomotive facilities from
Lake City, a former division point, to Wall Lake. The yard and double-tracking to Sacton were
completed in 1899 just as the Boyer line was finished.

What structures were located at Sacton?

Sacton was host to many different railroad-related structures. They include:

1. A 50,000-gallon-capacity water tank on a concrete foundation with steel supports powered by

electricity.
2. A water treatment facility and pump house, possibly. This is uncertain because there is record of a
water treatment facility with the construction of the 1916 water tank, but the same source shows
that there was not a water softening plant with the construction of the 1923 water tank.
3. A Fairbanks-Morse direct coaler.
4. A large building served a short spur in the center of the wye, about 55’ to 60’ in length by 25’ to
30’ in width.
5. A track scale at the west end of the yard on the north side of the tracks, most likely for weighing
cars of gravel coming out of the pits.
6. A hog-sprinkling device near the water tank for spraying hogs to keep them cool, as was required
every few hundred miles.
7. The new coal chute was built in 1929, thirteen years before my intended modeling date. I wonder
if there wouldn’t be reason to model the remains of the former coal trestle, or at least part of the
piles leading up to the approach of the chute.

A guess on their locations is as follows:

1. The water tank was south of the main track. The concrete foundation still exists today, and based
on tie patterns, the east leg of the wye ended just west of the water tank.
2. Because of the location of the water tank, we can assume that the cluster buildings just west of
the tank was for the water tank. Aerials don’t show any evidence of settling tanks for a treatment