37 years ago today - Rock Island ended service

There were many Thrall Car, Pullman-Standard, and ACF CENTER FLOW Covered Hoppers acquired in THE ROCK's blue scheme that are still in service today.

I have a few.......thought the Rock was cool....

It was a sad time in railroading. The Milwaukee Road pulled back from its pacific extension just 3 weeks earlier.

Thanks for the history lesson Walter. My son and I enjoyed the video.  I still see the baby blue hoppers around here now and then.  Nick The 

The Bessemer & Lake Erie bought a lot of blue coal hoppers and I would see them all the time. All gone now.

I grew up along the Rock Island, in my eyes it was the BEST road! The 70's were really hard times for many of our nation

railroads, Then the railway and airline strike in late 1979 was the death of the Rock Island, After bankruptcy in march of 1975

and January of 1980 the court ordered the Rock to liquidate the railroad! Many of the Rock Island Lines are still going strong,

Under new names, Such as Union Pacific, Iowa Interstate and many short lines.

Long Live The Rock Island!

When I turned 50 and for nearly 20 years thereafter, I collected O-gauge Rock Island trains exclusively. My collection included almost all of the Lionel, MTH, Weaver, Williams, Marx, and Atlas O RI products, and some long-gone brands -- Ives, LoBaugh, AMT, KMT,  and others.  After a stroke, I decided to offer nearly all the trains and operating accessories at auction to spare my wife (as a widow) from having to deal with it.

But I recovered with no deficits, so looking back on it I probably acted in haste. I kept only two RI trains -- a Lionel Mikado with freight cars and a Lionel E6A with passenger cars.  To "fly the flag for RI," I recently ordered an O-gauge TA diesel and matching cars from Sunset Models -- as one last RI purchase and a memory-maker of a "mighty fine line."

Mike

Nice story Mike.  I had the Lionel TMCC GP7.  Last made and best of the TMCC Geeps.  Great runner, sounds and a beautiful paint scheme.  Kinda wish I'da hung on to that too.  She was a honey.

Chicago and North Western bought several The ROCK Geeps, freight cars and tracks.

When the coal, dairy, livestock, manufacturing and passenger traffic subsided, in the 1960's most of the private railroads went under. Many Rock routes are still in place but other RR routes like the Milwaukee Road were almost totally abandoned.

My memory of the Rock goes back to 1966.  I was a freshman in college fresh from Rural NE. i Lived in a dorm in Lincoln Ne.  The Rock Island line had a track just a few feet from my window.  The line went from Kansas through Lincoln and then east towards Omaha.  The trains I remember the most were headed by F units of some sort with I believe the paint schemes that are shown in Walter's post.  What a thrill that was.  The tracks crossed a lot of busy downtown streets and tied up a lot of traffic but why would I care about that when you got to see these units. 

First railroad to put a bridge across the Mississippi R,  Abraham Lincoln represented them in a legal case, had some of the most handsome 4-8-4's, and went to the darndest, unexpected places:  Denver, Memphis, Louisiana, Little Rock Ar, Oklahoma City OK, Tucumcari NM, above mentioned Lincoln NE, Ks City, Sioux City IA,  Dallas/Ft Worth, Minneapolis/StPaul, Houston, St Louis, South Dakota, etc.  It just had too many formidable competitors.

This picture was taken back on September 1, 2014. The first and only time I've seen a Rock Island trailer.

Thanks, Walter, for the reminder and the video link.

          Logan

Walter, I love that caboose. Is it a custom model?

Thanks, Jerry

Christmas '68. Had a leave and figured I'd better get home to see the family, figuring that I would soon get orders for Vietnam. Do you think I could get a flight? Nooooo, of course not. So bus from Ft. Sill to Oklahoma City, train to KC (I think) and rode the Rock from there to Colorado Spring, bus to Denver and finally UP from Denver to Ogallala. Lordy, what an ordeal. Wasn't bad riding except for the stretch between Limon and Colorado Springs. There were times when I doubt we were going over 30 MPH and doing a lot of rocking and rolling, even at that speed. Going back, up from Ogallala to Denver on the UP  and flight from the old Stapleton Airport to OKC. 

Glad I did it ,though, because by the first week of January I was with an artillery unit based out of Lai Khe. It would be close to 16 months before I saw US soil again.

 

 

Jerry Williams...no just a photo off internet.

Walter

A fan at its southmost destination, The Rock never ended operations in my universe, thanks to Lionel producing a couple of bankruptcy blue GP7's, 9700 series boxcar and N5c caboose in 1977.  Hoarder of everything Lionel and MTH issued in bankruptcy blue livery ever since.

 

And still no cabbed RI B unit in three rail to pull the Limon to C. Springs section  described above over my bad track?

My teen/ young adult years were spent in a southwest suburb of Chicago, and we commuted downtown on the Rock Island's "Suburban Branch", that left the Chicago/ Joliet Mainline at Gresham, and rolled downgrade from there to run through Beverly Hills and Morgan Park to its terminus at Blue Island. 

During those years, most of the commuting stock was the 1920's heavyweight "Al Capone cars" (some of which are preserved at IRM), and later, smooth-sided bi-levels painted yellow over red. The power was a collection of E- or F-units of various vintages, as well as one-offs like the Alco  DL-109 "Christine" and the B-unit-like AB6s. I also used to see the AeroTrain fairly often, but never road it, as it was confined to the Main Line, which ran out to Joliet and beyond. (My Dad had taken me downtown to see and walk through the new Aerotrain when it was displayed before its introduction in 1956 , so at least I got to walk the interior.) In the late 70's, my sister commuted on something called "The Dinky", which was supposedly a European version of a doodlebug, but I never rode or even saw it. (Today, that term is reserved for bi-level METRA commuter trains generally.) 

My only souvenir of that time was the plastic sleeve that held our monthly tickets, duly printed with" Rock Island Lines" in red ink. The only Rock Island O Gauge items I have are the "bankruptcy blue" GP20 that LCCA put out in 1980, and the similarly-liveried N5c caboose (which , of course, never existed, but I like N5c's generally.)

 

My great regret was that I wasn't into photography back then, and that I didn't record all that history. "The Rock Island Line was a mighty fine road."

I'm trying to do my part to keep it alive and going. 

I'd love to see some fantasy 21st Century Rock Island engines offered!

Regards,

Swafford

Time does fly - I took this photo on CP Rail two years ago. Hard-wearing paint I'd say!

 

It would be hard not to have a warm spot for the Rock Island if you ever did business with them or rode one of their passenger trains.  Personally, I rode the Rock Island in 1952, '56, '57, '65, and '67 - always with a good-natured and friendly crew.  Even the Conductor who booted me out of the parlor car and back to the chair car was nice about it.  Rock Island had a reputation with other railroads of being easy to do business with.  Their officials and their agency personnel went out of their way to be cooperative.  BN hired a number of displaced Rock Island Engineers and Conductors in Amarillo, and after the merger some of them came over onto former Santa Fe territory, where I was an official.  There was not a single problem employee in the bunch.  I had one at Sweetwater, too, and he was also very reliable and always pleasant.  It was just something in the Rock Island culture, I guess.

Now, their track was another story!  At least they were consistent -- their track was rough everywhere.  That didn't hold them back, though.  The Rockets moved right along at 79 MPH on the lines with block signals, and I rode the Choctaw Route at 59 MPH on 90-pound rail and light ballast.

Ironically, since 2004, I have lived only a mile from the long-abandoned Rock Island Tucumcari to Memphis line, known as the Choctaw Route.  There id still Rock Island Lines bridge identification on a few bridges and every time I see one, it warms my heart to think of the Rock Island's good days.

The ROCK engines and freight cars still alive in my layout.

Looks like a lot of folks remembered and like the Rock Island! Its been 37 years since shut down!

It still runs on my layout almost everyday, when I have the time

Remember the ROCK

I notice Firewood's photo up above has a GE reporting mark on the car.

On my trip in '68 I don't recall splitting the train in Limon - maybe the service from there to Denver had already been discontinued?? I would also like one of those "cabbed" b units. I do have a set of A-B-A E units and a K-line Golden State to pull behind them. Nice looking set.

Walter Matuch posted:

On March 31, 1980, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific RR ended operations.

All across the railroad many employees could not believe it was happening.  From the engineer and fireman whose locomotives just completed a run to the lonely yardmaster somewhere in Iowa who waited long past midnight for his relief to come...the Rock Island was done.

With no one to say differently, locomotives were left running until their diesel fuel ran out and the lights were turned off in many railroad stations and offices. That yardmaster stayed on duty until his family came to take him home.

The Rock Island Line was a mighty fine line......see a neat video here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2FbCEaUfMw

We should all run some Rock Island trains today.

Walter M. Matuch

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Walter, nice video and memories.

Gcw forever.  Who makes those rock island engines? Atlas

21st Century RI Grain Hoppers.............

Regards,

Swafford

tripleo posted:

I notice Firewood's photo up above has a GE reporting mark on the car.

On my trip in '68 I don't recall splitting the train in Limon - maybe the service from there to Denver had already been discontinued?? I would also like one of those "cabbed" b units. I do have a set of A-B-A E units and a K-line Golden State to pull behind them. Nice looking set.

Strangely enough, I just saw another Rock hopper a couple of days ago, but in worse cosmetic shape.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Gcw forever.  Who makes those rock island engines? Atlas

Four engines were made by MTH. Hard to find.

MTH number is 20-2169 if you're looking for them

CGWforever posted:

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Gcw forever.  Who makes those rock island engines? Atlas

Four engines were made by MTH. Hard to find.

tripleo posted:

MTH number is 20-2169 if you're looking for them

20-2407-1 Powered Rock GP38-2

20-2407-3 Non-Powered Rock GP38-2

30-2317-1 Powered Rock GP-9

30-2317-3 Non-Powered Rock GP-9

I'd be a buyer for the RI F7 ABA set.....................Fantastic color scheme!

Regards,

Swafford

I hope nobody offers an AB-6; l'd be forced to buy a diesel.

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

Gcw forever.  Who makes those rock island engines? Atlas

I also have a Weaver GP38 in Rock Island's blue scheme.

The Rock was almost split between SP and UP.  It took the ICC 12 years to say NO!

One advantage the ROCK had was Blue Island yard in Chicagoland.  It was one of the few western roads who could interchange directly with some of the eastern.  I think the IA Interstate still has this advantage.

And I did hear somewhere that for a while the copyrights to the RI name were owned by MAYTAG?  Guess the repair person got too lonely!

645 posted:

At the Illinois Railway Museum CNW GP7 4160 still operates. It was originally acquired for parts but was made operational again. What does it have to do with this thread? It was built as Rock Island 1266 and later became ROCK 4506 when rebuilt. After the Rock shutdown CNW bought it.

I understand IRM plans to repaint it as blue/white ROCK 4506 someday.