The Iowa River Railroad started up in 2006 to operate a stretch of previously out of service ex-M&St.L trackage in central Iowa. Then in 2012, they themselves abandoned the majority of that line. Only a short segment from Ackley to the Pine Lake ethanol plant just north of US Highway 20 on the north side of Steamboat Rock is still in use.
I took a road trip west on June 16-17 that started out as a storm chase (in which I painfully missed the spectacular Pilger, NE EF4 tornadoes by an hour). The (atmospheric) cap held over Iowa on the 17th, but I made the most of the trip by catching the IARR train creeping north from the Pine Lake plant behind their only motive power, GP30 No. 3004.