What railroad can be considered the unofficial, de facto successor to the Rock Island, which was liquidated in 1980? Iowa Interstate can be a contender since they operate on former Rock trackage in Illinois and Iowa. But so can UP, since they have former Rock EMDs and rolling stock. In fact, a bunch of former Rock rolling stock ended up on C&NW, which in turn is on UP. Last year I spotted a Rock blue centerflow hopper in a consist on BNSF trackage. Amazing that there’s still a handful of unrepainted Rock rollingstock on the rails. Had UP acquired the Rock in the late 70s instead of letting it languish to liquidation, we would be seeing a UP SD70ACe painted for the Rock alongside the other heritage ACes. Judging by the other Heritage ACes, UP probably would have chosen a paint job derived from RI’s 1950s-60s color schemes.
Former Rock boxcar with CNW #716238 reporting mark. Source: railcarphotos.com
In my view, the Rock should have gone to the SP rather than the UP–or at least significant portions of the liquidated routes. I suspect the SP would still be around today were that to have happened.
In this area, hands down, it was Kyle who got all of the Rock west of McFarland (Topeka/Manhattan) and Mahaska/Fairbury (Omaha) from Mid States Port Authority (who goes away this year)…including GP-18 1340 , still in Rock Island maroon and yellow which sat at Belleville, KS for years.
Well, I recall that at least a significant portion of the “Golden State Route” segment did go to SP/ Cotton Belt in the early 1980’s, which then spent a lot of money rehabbing it - almost a total rebuild.
Gabe and Mudchicken, I was going to post something about that rehab anyway, as being a prime example of the “track sledding” operation described so well the other day by MC in response to your separate “How do you rehab the ballast ?” thread. I just wanted to first retrieve and review one of the mags from back then - either Progressive Railroading or Railway Age - to confirm my recollection, but here it is now, for what it’s worth.
DM&E has at least 2 blue Rock Island grain hoppers. They spent most of the summer in storage at the Holabird, SD siding, but I’ve seen them in the Huron yard lately.
I had a new experience last night. I caught up with a train on US 14 on the welded rail between here and Iroquois. I knew it would be quiet, but I had my windows up and I didn’t hear a thing until I passed the locomotives. It was a loaded mile long grain train still trying to get up to speed and the 4 engines were just roaring.
Believe or not, my first encounter with welded rail. I’m probably going to miss the rumble.
Just to clarify a point, the UP did not allow the Rock to “languish to liquidation.” The Government, through indecision and inaction, allowed the Rock to go under.
Wasn’t the Rock Island, for the most part, a three component railroad, with a lot of feeder branches? 1) Through Iowa 2)Line to Tucumrari(sp?) N.M. 3) The Spine LIne(?)
The reason I have always liked the Rock is that it had that gothic-granger element of seeming to go everywhere. That, and its poor financial condition gave it a bucolic/rustic/quant look that made for great photography.
Although you probably listed most of the Rock’s more-profitable lines, you exclude at least 65% of its mileage. I still think that the coolest thing about the Rock is that it went all the way to Galveston Texas. Also, don’t forget the Santa Rosa - Memphis line (I bet BNSF wishes Santa Fe hadn’t forgot about it when it had a chance to purchase it). You also exclude the Denver/Limon extension (currently KYLE and I am told by Rail America’s CEO, one of its more promising lines), the Kansas City line (also still in use), the Saint Louis line (still entact, but it would take an act of Congress to get it hauling traffic again), the Clear Lake - Sioux Falls South Dakota extension, and my personal favorite, the Peoria Sub (also still alive and kicking).
I assume the Rock’s Texas lines are all gone? Is any part of the Memphis line still in use? Is the Clear Lake - Souix Falls South Dakota line still entact in any spots?
Gabe
P.S. Oh, how could I forget the Little Rock - Eunice Louisiana extension. I assume there is nothing left of this line?
[(-D] I’ve never thought of the Rock Island that way. To those of us too young to remember RI (a majority on this forum, I would think), RI seemed like the underdog railroad
Well…The most intact part I’ve seen, is the RI tracks poking up through the parking lot at work. The passenger depot is a storage building for an insurance company, and the 2-stall roundhouse is an auto junkyard shop.[xx(] Around here, RI was like a 7th wheel on a car.
Although I am only 33, I can remember hearing a news cast about the Rock going under when I was very young. Thus, I can’t really remember anything about it either. Moreover, although it was close to being close to me via its Saint Louis and Peoria extensions, I am sure I never saw a Rock Island freight in my life. Come to think about it, I wouldn’t be surprised if I have never seen a train on former Rock Island track (although I tried to catch one on the Peoria, Illinois sub once). Wait, there is an ex Rock bridge over the Dan Ryan in Chicago that I have seen a coal drag on–so I take it back.
In any event, I am not contending that the Rock wasn’t the underdog. I am just contending that its incredible size gave it a gothic element. How cool is a railroad that runs from mid-Minnsota to the South
The UP/RI merger was kind of like a guy proposing marriage, while continuing to date others. In the 1960s they financed some track and rolling stock, but not much traffic. In the early 1970s UP’s Kenefick proposed to send enough traffic via RI to make it profitable. In return, the RI would short haul itself by not soliciting traffic via Denver or Santa Rosa/Tucumcari. This after the merger had dragged thru the ICC procedings.
The CNW jumped at the offer. In hindsight, the RI probably should’ve done this. At the very least they should have realized the merger wasn’t going to happen and looked for other options. Talking with ex-RI people, too often they say the attitude of RI’s management was don’t put a lot of money into the railroad, let the UP fix things when they got the RI.
Gabe, I think you may mean Spirit Lake. Clear Lake is over by Mason City and wasn’t on the RI. They did go thru Clear Lake Jct on the Short LIne.
If I had to say the biggest successor to the Rock Island it would be the Iowa Interstate. It isn’t as busy as the UP, but IAIS is a growing regional, they own the two Chinese QJs, and they have strong ties to the history of the Rock Island. Even their logo is identical to Rock Island’s with the exception of the lettering. They are doing good enough business to get a dozen GEVOs, and traffic is projected to increase big time as new ethanol plants come on line in the next year. Sometimes they need to run extra trains now because there is too much tonnage for the two road freights at times.
I don’t know if there could–or should–be a real successor to the Rock Island. But the Iowa Interstate, without a doubt, is the railroad that preserves most of the essence of the RI.
(Probably the busiest successor to the RI would have to be Metra. [;)])
I would agree with all about the Iowa Interstate being closest to the RI. At least one of the original founders had been a RI officer. I think I’ve also read that Henry Posner, head of RDC and IAIS’s owner also once worked for the RI. If the core system proposed to the bankruptcy court had been accepted, the IAIS would have been a big part of it.
I remember hearing once that the Chicago Pacific Corp (what the RI became after leaving bankruptcy court) had some money invested in the early IAIS.
Speaking of riding the Rock, I had three real rides (I also had three on the suburban service–Chicago to Joliet, Blue Island to Chicago and Chicago to Blue Island, both on the suburban line).
The first was from Kansas City to Minneapolis on the Plainsman in September, 1968. It was a pleasant day trip, complete with lunch and dinner in the diner, and a friendly flagman north of Des Moines. The second was on the Peoria Rocket in February, 1972, with a seat in Golden Divan ( I do not recall that anyone else was in the parlor car). Of course, not much could be seen at night. The next day, I rode a bus to Rock Island so I could take the Quad Cities Rocket to Chicago. I wanted to ride in the dome car, but the agent in Rock Island really preferred that I ride coach (I learned later that the man who owned the dome car had been somewhat lax in paying the Rock to pull the car). I had a good breakfast in the Club Diner (I have never learned the significance of the term), and watched the cold landscape go by on the way to Chicago.
) barbarous or crude."