Hawkeye Express Serves Fans, Opponents, on Hawkeye Game Days

I met Frank Grizel on the American Legion Road bridge while we were both looking at the Chinese steam engine and train passing on the train tracks under the bridge near the gas plant close to Larry Fobian’s farm. I grew up in Seattle and listened to the trains chugging along the coast of Puget Sound. To my mind, the train whistles, chugging sounds, and the beautiful sound were magical. On a clear day, I could see Mount Rainier while walking to school.

My husband and I live now in southeast Iowa City near the train tracks that pass behind Dover Street, Mercer Park, and Southeast Junior High. I can hear the horn blowing now as the Burlington Northern approaches First Avenue in Iowa City.

Frank has taken his interest to another level. He loves trains and volunteers on the Hawkeye Express to help adults and children who ride on the train to the Hawkeye games from the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) platform in Coralville. It costs $12 a person round trip (children 12 and under ride free) to ride the train for 10 minutes to a platform near Kinnick Stadium. There’s free parking around the IHOP and at the Coral Ridge Mall.

The Sabin family owns the Iowa Northern Railway, which owns the Hawkeye Express. The Hawkeye Express used to be the Denver Ski Train. Dan Sabin, the father, and Josh and Jonah Sabin, his two sons, ride the Hawkeye Express and manage the business side of the operation. According to Federal Railway Administration (FRA) rules, the train must be operated by an Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS) engineer, conductor, and a management employee. The IAIS runs from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Blue Island, Illinois, which is a southwestern suburb of Chicago.

The train has two engines, one on each end of the train, and each engine is specially equipped with bigger generators to supply electricity to all seven cars. The seventh car is a recent addition. Six of the cars are bi-leveled and used to be old commuter cars from Chicago. The Hawkeye Express is normally based in Waterloo, Iowa, but the Iowa Northern Railway (IANR) usually bring it down a few days before the first home game and keep it on the Vernon siding near Camp Cardinal Road until the last game.

The train starts running three to four hours ahead of each game and starts again at the beginning of the fourth quarter until 90 minutes after the game has ended. Frank said the last trip back might have a dozen people on it. For example, if a game starts at 11:00 a.m., the Hawkeye Express starts running at 8:00 a.m. and operates every half hour. If the game starts at 2:30 p.m., the Hawkeye Express starts running at 10:30 a.m. Frank Grizel volunteers on car 6.

Hawkeye Express goals are to get the Hawkeye game traffic congestion down, keep people safe while they’re traveling to and from the game, and provide a picturesque and historic means of transportation that big and little people can thoroughly appreciate.

Last year at the University of Iowa vs. the University of Northern Iowa game, a total of 5,300 people rode the Hawkeye Express that day. The Hawkeye Express is the only train of its kind in the nation to provide such a service. It’s in its 11th season of taking big and little fans to their destination in style.

“A lot of little girls love trains,” Frank said with a smile. “Some people ride the train just for the train ride. They don’t go to the game.”