Rock Island Arsenal rail yard

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

i’m planning a move which will give me a larger space for a layout. my “prototype” is the rock island circa 1948-1952, so my plan is to model the illinois side of the mississippi on one side of the room and iowa on the other.

i hope to make one of my peninsulas the rock island yard on what’s now called arsenal island, and separate that peninsula from the other “legs” by modeling the mississippi’s muddy water. i’ve been trying to find some pictures of that yard with no success. i’ve been to the rock island technical society website and there’s nothing there that i could find referring to that yard.

can anyone out there point me in the right direction?

2

As a starting point you can use the computer program Google Earth to look at a modern satelite picture of the the RR layout at the Rock Island Arsenal. The tracks and buildings have probably changed since 1952 but you can get an idea.

If you do not have Google Earth you can download it from the internet.

3

Or simply do a Google search for “rock island arsenal,” choose the map from the search finds, then switch it to “Satellite” view. You can zoom in and follow the tracks. I doubt many new tracks have been put in, more likely tracks have been removed since your projected time frame.

4

Try Live Search Maps, the Bird’s eye view if available is very helpful, I have found it more detailed than Google earth which I use as well.

http://maps.live.com/

5

i’ve seen the views of the current arsenal island, and it doesn’t show more than a few remaining tracks. what i was hoping for was an old aerial photo of the actual yard. i know i’ve seen it somewhere,…but i sure can’t relocate it.

6

HABS-HAER Library of Congress site:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=hhsheet&fileName=il/il0200/il0278/sheet/browse.db&action=browse&recNum=0&title2=Rock%20Island%20Arsenal,%20Rock%20Island,%20Rock%20Island%20County,%20IL&displayType=1&maxCols=2&itemLink=D?hh:30:./temp/~ammem_Tw33::

Search on “rock island arsenal” on the home page, hundreds of pictures of the buildins, some drawings of the buildins, pages of notes, etc. etc.

Dave H.

7

i don’t know where i ever got the idea that it was a railyard… it sure doesn’t seem that it was. thanks for the link.

8

What you’ll see on any military base would be a small yard near the interchange, probably an engine house, and trackage going to several warehouse-like buildings. It’s closer to industrial park trackage than just a simple yard.

9

The line to the Rock was off the RI main and came behind our Marine Naval Reserve building. Went across a grassy field and into a building there. Also a spur branched off to the right to an area where coal was unloaded. This was circa 1991 to 1996.Back in the late 80s there was a “tower” like structure that had a locomotive parked next to it.The most the yard was at that time was just for storage.

I have wanted to do RI yard. I thought about Silvis to Mo Div Jct.But I dont know how that would work.

Good luck with your project.Remember the bridge can do a 360 turn in either direction lol.

10

Somewhere around here I have a complete listing of the Army’s railcar and locomotive fleet broken out by where they were assigned (as of about nine years ago). Can’t remember if there were yard diagrams for RI or not. I’d recommend USGS maps, and some of the on line satellite photo services. One problem you’ll face is that the rail sidings on the military’s bases have changed quite a bit over the last decade or so.