The Ames and College Railroad was incorporated in September of 1890 by Parley Sheldon, B.J. Sheldon, Professor Joseph Budd, Dean Edgar Stanton, Dr. D.S. Fairchild, Captain Wallace Greeley, and M.K. Smith.  It made its first run to campus on July 4, 1891.  At that time there were only 425 students on campus at the Iowa Agricultural College and 1250 people in Ames, but the college and the town were entering into a significant period of growth.

Dirt streets lay between the existing railroad station and campus making better transportation necessary, so two donkey steam engines were purchased in Waterloo.  These were combined with passenger street cars obtained in Des Moines. The spelling of the name Dinkey may have been taken from the type of steam engine known as donkey engines.  The little rail line operated from its barn headquarters located on the east end of Main Street east of Duff Avenue.  Trips were made hourly picking up people along Fifth Street.  The nickel fare was never raised.  For 16 years the little railroad delivered hundreds of passengers and baggage daily to campus in addition to many tons of building materials and equipment, because this was when most of the central campus buildings were under construction.

In 1907 the Fort Dodge and Southern purchased the Ames & College Railroad.  They retired the Dinkey and moved the track from Fifth Street to Main Street.