Iowa State’s Hub isn’t the same kind of hub it used to be.

From 1892 until 1907, when ISU was known as the Iowa Agricultural College, ISU and Ames were serviced by a train referred to as the Dinkey, which docked briefly at the Hub before heading back to Ames.

The Dinkey traveled through central campus and connected ISU to Ames, said Farwell Brown, an Ames historian.

“The Dinkey came right in front of the Hub, which was located, at that time, directly north of Beardshear Hall,” Brown said. “The most important thing the Dinkey did was connect the campus and the city.”

The Dinkey began operation in September of 1890 and was owned by the Ames Street Railway Company. It was officially known as the Ames and College (A & C) Railway.

“The Dinkey was organized by local people and some Boone people to connect the city and the campus,” Brown said. “A lot of people confuse it with the electric street car that replaced the Dinkey.”

The Dinkey’s first run to campus was on July 4, 1891. At that time, it was available to ISU’s 425 students and the Ames populace, which totaled 1,250, according to the 1890 census.

Commuters always knew when the train was leaving.

According to a fall 1987 article in the Ames Intelligencer, three blasts of the engine whistle indicated that the train was leaving in five minutes, and two short toots meant the train was en route.

It delivered mail and brought loads of boxes and scrap wood for the victory bonfire after sporting events. The Dinkey also carried building materials for Engineering Hall, the Campanile and other structures erected near the turn of the century.

Once, students devised a plan to smuggle a keg of beer on campus, which was forbidden at that time, according to “Between the Squaw and the Skunk” by Gladys Meads.

With the help of an “inside man” the keg was transported in the Dinkey’s engine. As the engine turned around at the Hub, the students planned to sneak the keg into a grove of trees.

Their plans were foiled by former ISU President William M. Beardshear, who intercepted the keg before students could get to it.

The Dinkey was replaced by an electric streetcar, and after the campus grew into the city, roads replaced the railway system, Brown wrote in his book “The History of Ames: The second edition.”

During the 1930s, many people tried to locate the Dinkey because they wanted to display it at a university museum, Brown said.

But it was too late. Brown said the train was dismantled and the parts were used for World War II.

“Reconditioning it was obviously impossible,” he said. “The Dinkey was no more.”