About Burlington Northern Creston Shops Creston Iowa
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad operated one of the Midwest’s largest rail networks. Creston served as a major divisional point on the CB&Q main line, housing extensive locomotive and equipment maintenance operations that supported rail service across Iowa and into surrounding states — including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Sioux City.
When the CB&Q merged with the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Spokane, Portland and Seattle railways in March 1970 to form Burlington Northern, the Creston Shops reportedly continued operating as a significant locomotive maintenance facility under the new corporate structure. Workforce levels shifted as diesel technology matured and railroads centralized repair operations, but the facility’s industrial character — and its materials — remained.
Railroad maintenance work drove heavy reliance on asbestos-containing insulation and thermal protection products throughout the steam and diesel eras. Steam locomotives operated at extreme temperatures and pressures. Boiler systems, firebox surrounds, steam pipes, valves, and fittings all required heat-rated insulation, and asbestos-containing materials were the industry standard. Locomotive boilers were routinely wrapped in asbestos-containing lagging — thick insulating jackets. Pipe runs throughout the locomotive were covered with asbestos-containing insulation, including products marketed under names such as calcium silicate pipe insulation, Thermobestos, and pipe insulation.
Burlington Northern completed its shift from steam to diesel through the 1950s and 1960s. Asbestos hazards did not disappear with steam power — they followed the work. Diesel locomotives and shop machinery reportedly continued to incorporate asbestos-containing materials: exhaust systems and turbocharger insulation on diesel engines, locomotive cab firewall insulation, brake shoes and friction components, gaskets on engine manifolds and cylinder heads, electrical panel insulation and wiring materials, and shop building insulation, pipe lagging, and stationary boiler systems within the Creston facility itself.
General Equipment at Burlington Northern Creston Shops Creston Iowa
The equipment below represents the systems and infrastructure documented or typically present at this facility during the era when asbestos-containing materials were specified in industrial construction. This is general facility-equipment reference — not a legal attribution of any specific product, manufacturer, or exposure event to this facility. Material-category and manufacturer information is addressed in the AsbestosIndex Product Crosswalk linked under the records table below.
Documented Asbestos Evidence — Iowa
The records below are verified, state-documented asbestos removals at this facility. Each entry represents a regulated abatement project where the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (Iowa DNR) was notified under federal NESHAP rules, the work was logged, and the asbestos-containing material was confirmed and removed under regulated conditions. These are not allegations or estimates — they are paper records tying documented asbestos-containing material to this specific site.
No Iowa DNR NESHAP abatement notifications have been identified for this facility in current public records. Per the framing above, absence of state-agency documentation should not be read as absence of asbestos — only as absence of a formal, regulated abatement event meeting reporting thresholds. Workers who recall encountering pipe insulation, block insulation, gaskets, or other asbestos-era construction materials at this facility may still have viable claims regardless of whether a state record exists.
Material Categories in Documented Records
The materials documented above (and similar asbestos-containing materials commonly encountered in records of this type) appear in the AsbestosIndex catalog with historical manufacturer and trust-fund information. Click a category to view manufacturers historically associated with that material:
Who May Have Been Exposed at Burlington Northern Creston Shops Creston Iowa
Multiple trades at the Creston Shops worked in conditions that may have exposed them to asbestos-containing materials on a regular, sustained basis.
Insulators mixed, applied, cut, and stripped asbestos-containing pipe covering, block insulation, and thermal lagging throughout their careers. They may have faced the highest airborne fiber concentrations of any trade at the facility. In Iowa, heat and frost insulation work at railroad and industrial sites was performed by members of Asbestos Workers Local 12, which represented insulation workers statewide. Boilermakers worked directly on locomotive boiler overhaul and repair — handling boiler lagging, refractory materials, and gasket products in confined quarters. Overhauling a steam locomotive boiler meant removing and reinstalling asbestos-containing insulation as a matter of routine. Iowa boilermakers in railroad maintenance were represented by Boilermakers Local 83. Pipefitters worked on high-pressure steam and water systems throughout the Creston Shops — cutting into insulated pipe runs, pulling valve packing, and fitting connections on insulated lines. That work regularly disturbed asbestos-containing pipe lagging. Pipefitters Local 33 represented pipefitters and steamfitters at railroad and industrial facilities across Iowa. Machinists handled cylinder head gaskets, manifold gaskets, and packing materials that may have contained asbestos during both steam and diesel engine overhaul. They also worked in open shop bays where insulators and boilermakers were simultaneously tearing out overhead lagging and pipe covering — creating airborne fiber concentrations that affected everyone present in the shop environment, not just the trade generating the dust.
Electricians installed, maintained, and removed electrical systems in shop buildings and aboard locomotives. They may have handled asbestos-containing wiring insulation, switchgear, and panel materials — including asbestos-impregnated electrical panels and arc chutes standard in mid-20th-century industrial facilities. In Iowa, electricians at railroad and industrial facilities were represented by IBEW Local 347. Even when not directly handling asbestos-containing materials, electricians working in active shop bays may have inhaled fibers generated by surrounding trades throughout the workday. Carmen performed car inspection and repair, including brake work that may have involved asbestos-containing friction materials in brake shoes and drum linings. Laborers performed cleanup, sweeping, and material handling in shop bays throughout the workday. Sweeping debris left by insulation removal generated its own fiber release — often from dust that had settled on floors, equipment, and structural surfaces over years. Workers who performed this cleanup without respiratory protection may have sustained significant cumulative asbestos exposure over careers at the Creston facility.
Iowa — Filing Deadline & Next Steps
Iowa law gives mesothelioma and asbestos-disease claimants 2 years from the date of medical diagnosis to file a personal-injury lawsuit (Iowa Code § 614.1(2A)). For wrongful-death claims after an asbestos-related death, the filing window is 2 years from the date of death (Iowa Code § 614.1(2)). The two deadlines run on separate tracks — preserving one does not extend the other.
The personal-injury clock runs from diagnosis, not from exposure. Mesothelioma latency is typically 20 to 50 years, so workers exposed in the 1950s–1980s are being diagnosed today.
Practical first steps
- Document what you remember. Pay stubs, W-2s, union cards, photographs, coworker names, and dates of employment. The WorkChain widget on this page can save a copy you can email yourself.
- Preserve medical records. Pathology reports, biopsy results, imaging, and pulmonary-function tests are central to both civil claims and trust-fund filings.
- Identify household members. Spouses who laundered work clothing and children of plant workers are eligible for secondary-exposure claims when diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease.
- Speak with an asbestos attorney with Iowa experience. The first conversation is free and confidential. Asbestos trust-fund claims and civil claims run on different tracks — both can be pursued in parallel.
Asbestos-Related Diseases — Iowa
Asbestos fiber exposure can cause several specific diseases that typically appear decades after the original exposure. The latency period — the gap between exposure and diagnosis — usually runs 20 to 50 years. That's why workers exposed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are receiving diagnoses today.
Mesothelioma
A rare, aggressive cancer that affects the lining of the lungs (pleural mesothelioma), abdomen (peritoneal), or heart (pericardial). Mesothelioma is almost exclusively caused by asbestos exposure, which is why a mesothelioma diagnosis often points directly to historical workplace exposure. Average latency from first exposure to diagnosis is 30-50 years.
Asbestosis
A chronic, non-cancerous scarring of lung tissue caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis causes progressive shortness of breath, persistent cough, and reduced lung function. It does not improve with treatment, and it is a recognized basis for compensation under most trust schedules and civil claims.
Lung Cancer
Asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of lung cancer, particularly when combined with a history of smoking. Asbestos-related lung cancer is compensable under the same trust schedules and civil claim avenues as mesothelioma.
Other Recognized Diseases
Pleural plaques, pleural thickening, laryngeal cancer, ovarian cancer, and certain gastrointestinal cancers are also recognized as asbestos-related under various trust schedules and case-law authorities, though eligibility and proof requirements vary by claim type.
If you have any of these diagnoses and you worked at this facility, lived with someone who did, or were exposed in any documented capacity, you may have a claim worth pursuing. Speak with an attorney before assuming you don't qualify.
Cross-State & Regional Corridor Workers
Workers at the Creston Shops may have faced compounded asbestos exposure if their employment history included other Iowa industrial sites where asbestos-containing materials were similarly prevalent during the mid-20th century — including Iowa Steel in Iowa City, Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids, Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, and John Morrell & Co. in Sioux City.Data Sources — Iowa
Information about facility equipment, industrial materials, and occupational records referenced on this page is drawn from publicly available sources where applicable, including:
- EPA ECHO Facility Compliance Database — enforcement and compliance records for industrial facilities
- OSHA Establishment Search — federal workplace inspection history
- EIA Form 860 Plant Data — power-plant equipment and ownership records (where applicable)
- Iowa Department of Natural Resources NESHAP asbestos abatement notification records
- Published asbestos trial and trust fund records (publicly filed court documents)
- AsbestosIndex Product & Manufacturer Crosswalk — historical asbestos-containing product schedules linked to manufacturers
If specific equipment or product claims in this article are sourced from a non-public database, the source is identified parenthetically within the text above.