No, sadly, you won't find the Rock Island's Rocky Mountain Rocket AB6 in either glossy tome, but as I sent in the body-sniffing dog to see if I missed something in my initial page turning, I renoticed Lionel's 21" Rock Island cars. That made
me wonder when they went into service. I found a Rock Island Tech Soc. (Jan. 2008) "The Rocket", that showed cars
similar to these behind an E-3 on this new train in November, 1939, which reawakened my interest in these cars as that
was within my period of interest. (If I read it right, the passenger cars were delivered in 1937). That issue was largely devoted to the AB6, the special purpose diesel ordered by the Rock Island for its "Limon Shuffle". This where one section of the Rocky Mtn. Rocket split off with its own power to Colorado Springs, the main section continuing to Denver. The AB6 sounds like an EMD kitbashed E-6, so I am wondering if anybody had kitbashed an AB6, and whose E-6 (probably the B) model (has Williams done an E-6?) would be a good candidate? The AB6 (a "cabbed E6B") entered service in June, 1940, still within my modeling period. This is one diesel I could be tempted to buy or kit-bash. Apparently the two units
built went on to long, productive lives in Chicago commuter service, so were familiar to a large population.
