With interest having been shown in the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad lately in the forum, it seemed proper to begin a threat about modeling the historic Rock Island. Of course, the joke is that the entire railroad is historic now, it ceased operation in 1980 in its original form, which is now 46 years back, long enough to be historic in itself.
But anyway, in its day, as the song says, the Rock Island line was a mighty fine road. And in the present day, the name lives on.
But for the moment at least, the focus will be on the pre-1980 Rock Island railroad.
My own interest in the historic Rock Island is that, what very few people are aware of, is that the Rock Island ran a line due south from Little Rock to Eunice, Louisiana, only 40 miles or so from the Gulf of Mexico.
When this line was originally built, Rock Island control was with a tycoon named BF Yoakam, who also controlled the Frisco at the time. The Rock Island joined the Frisco in Eunice in an attempt to cobble together a major north south-carrier from Chicago to the Gulf to compete with the Illinois Central and the Gulf, Mobile in Northern.
This attempted empire collapsed right before World War I, and the Frisco was separated from the rest of the Yoakam operations to become the Gulf Coast Lines which 10 years later was folded into the Missouri Pacific. Yoakum had intended to run over the Frisco to New Orleans to get his gulf port access, but with this gone, the Rock Island’s Louisiana lines struggled along as a bit player until abandonment in the late 1970s.
My interest in this is that the Rock in those days intertwined with my own railroad of interest, the Missouri Pacific, in several locations in Louisiana, and I therefore on my layout operate some Rock Island equipment from time to time.
Let’s hear from those who are interested in the Rock Island as a subject for their layout. I always thought it was as worthy of subject for modeling, as was the Santa Fe of the union pacific, but after radiating from Chicago, it was a spreading network that didn’t have a very definitive terminus at the other end like the Santa Fe, Union Pacific or the Southern Pacific …. for example, ending in Tucumcari, New Mexico.
