I was travelling northbound on I55 today between Bloomington and Joliet and near MP197 (south of Pontiac) there was an old Rock Island flat car.
It is being used as a bridge over a drainage ditch and is located on the east side of I55.
Anyone else seen it?
Also, the CPL signals were replaced several years ago on the GM&O route. Has anyone noticed how short those new signals are? They are probably half the height of normal signals, barely taller than the adjacent bungalows. Is this standard now for the UP to install short signals?
There is another Rock Island flatcar used as a farmer’s ditch crossing on the Southwest side of Fort Wayne. it’s been there over thirty years and is visible from I-69 near the 101 mile-marker.
Is it a just a coincident, or was there someone selling cheap bridges?
About two weeks ago, I saw a BNSF grain train come through town. All but about a half dozen cars were the dark red BNSF grain hoppers. One of the oddballs had a reporting mark unfamiliar to me. That car was still painted in THE ROCK blue paint. Ironically, the lead locomotive was a terribly faded warbonnet.
Quite a bit of ancient RI equipment did not go to new owners when RI met its end in 1980. Most of it would be scrapped, but flat cars are built pretty sturdily, and ideal for such reuse. You’ll probably find more flat-car bridges lettered RI than anything else.
Hey Murph that gtavel outfit out of Dell Rapids use to have a bunch of Rock Island hoppers in service use to see them alot in Garretson waiting for the twister to pick them up Larry
Just today I saw a blue ex-RI boxcar in a KCS manifest at Shreveport. The paint was faded but THE ROCK was still prominent. The car carried an HS reporting mark.
B&O-style CPLs were on exceptionally tall masts. (The Alton used a B&O signal standard because it was a B&O property at the time it established this signal standard.)
I’m not sure if what is there now is non-standard for UP – I don’t recall noticing that it was different the last time I was by – but it might be as a result of the IDOT PTC project.
The twister was the name of the BNSF local that runs daily betweeen Sioux Falls and Garretson and returns to Sioux Falls every day At least thats what I remember from afout 12 yrs ago Larry
At several crew-change points across the Union Pacific I’ve seen old, roller-bearing equipped ballast cars painted dark boxcar red, stencilled with C.& N.W. reporting marks, and the name “ROCK ISLAND” stencilled prominently on the car sides. I suspect these cars are assigned for emergency service (chiefly post-derailment track restoration) because they’re full and also covered with tarpulens to protect the contents from moisture and ice formation.
Amazingly enough the “ROCK ISLAND” name appearing on some of these cars shows very little fading.
Back in the early fifties my Dad bought a 40 and 30 ft flat car frames and added I beams for width for bridges and as far as I know they are still in use. They were bought at the NKL yard in Frankfort, In.
There used to be a Rock Island baggage car, in silver and not too bad a shape, in Union, MO. This was along the line behind the grain elevator. The track became SSW property and is now UP. The line was being used from St. Louis to Owensville to switch various industries that still needed rail service.
It’s been probably 15 years since I’ve been over there, so I can’t say it is still there. Looked like it was moveable, though. There was also a boxcar in Meta, MO, which is beyond the track that was still in use. I don’t know if they moved it, but the last time I saw it there was a full grown tree growing in between the tracks at Rosebud, east of there.
Those Rock Island “bankrupt blue bled white” covered hoppers seem to have quite a bit of life left in them, notwithstanding the amount of rust I’ve seen on a few specimens. Most of the sport “The Rock” lettering, with an occasional “Route Rock” making an appearance. Even rarer are the gray hoppers with the small RI speed lettering.
It’s interesting how UP, or whomever owns the ex-RI hoppers, has painted over the RI lettering a few years ago, only to have the paint quickly wear off. The cover up paint apparently doesn’t adhere well to the blue hoppers, while it sticks to the sides of the gray ex-RI hoppers pretty well. It must be in how the car is prepped before receiving the patch job.