A lot of writers seem to have a soft spot in their heart for the Rock Island. Johnny Cash seemed to think it was a mighty fine line. I've read where it went everywhere the Burlington did, but slower (?). Were there some things that The Rock Island Line excelled at?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
The Rock Island many times built later to a destination, and did not have the best route. The eventual 'Spine Line' from MSP to KC that the UP now owns was one of the better routes, but it did not find it's full potential until late in the Rock's life. There was a lot of duplication in Iowa, and the Rock many times was the odd man out.
The winners were the Rock's Chicago to Omaha line, the mentioned 'Spine Line' and the Tucumcari line.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I'm not sure how much of a winner the Chicago-Omaha line was, considering that the C&NW and the Burlington were the major competitors. Rock Island did not have a very good Chicago entry, having an awkward connection with IHB/B&OCT and entering Clearing Yard from the east.
Rock Island at least hit the population centers across Iowa, which was reflected in a passenger trade that was healthy for a good long time.
ndbprrIt also served grain farmers and silos meaning freight traffic was extremely cyclical. Flat out for a couple of months and almost zero at other times. Leading up to its demise and shortly after Trains had several articles about the Rock and its problems
Can't speak to the Rock Island's performance in other areas, but growing up in the Memphis,Tn. area the Rocks presence was definitely not overstated there. They operated what had been a named passenger train into the late 1950's it was "The Choctaw Rocket", It ran from Memphis to Albuquerque on the west. I rode it on several occasions topoints in Arkansaw and Oklahoma City. Over time as itsa role was de-emphasized, it went down to a single diesel( it was the first dieselized passenger train out of Memphis, and a coupe of cars, with one passenger car, its last iteration was with RDC's which if I remember were lettered for another railroad. Western Pacific(?) I forget.
Their freight terminal was just east of the Downtown, and was relatively small with just a few tracks, and never very many cars, they seemed to have very few customers in the area.
After the Memphis Union Station was torn down, The Rock Island moved its passenger termin to a facility on the South Bluff ( it had been the Memphis Terminal for the Iron Mountain & Memphis RR- Name on one of the crossing signals at that point) The line across Arkansaw to Little Rock was relatively straight and parallel to what was US Hwy 70 and the I-40 to the north of it. It had originally been the Choctaw,Oklahoma & Gulf...I think it was about 1900 that it came into the Rock Is. system(?)
jrbernier The winners were the Rock's Chicago to Omaha line, the mentioned 'Spine Line' and the Tucumcari line. Jim
The Cedar Rapids & Missouri River RR (later part of the C&NW) got to Council Bluffs in 1867, while the Rock Island arrived in 1869.
Murphy Siding jrbernier The winners were the Rock's Chicago to Omaha line, the mentioned 'Spine Line' and the Tucumcari line. Jim Which railroad has the Chicago-Council Bluffs line now? Was that the first line to got to Council Bluffs, or was the Northwestern there first?
Which railroad has the Chicago-Council Bluffs line now? Was that the first line to got to Council Bluffs, or was the Northwestern there first?
Des Moines, it was the only railroad offering proper service to this city of a quarter million people. Certainly better service than the Milwaukee, Burlington, C&NW and Wabash(N&W). The Rock was always thought of as Iowa's railroad.
Sorry to do this, but I can't think of the Rock Island Line without thinking of Stan Freberg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYKbCN-zWjs
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"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
And let's not forget Lonnie Donegan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXQgG98VSOs
Rich
Alton Junction
Perhaps passenger service, from what I've read - the Rockets, and Chicago commuter service, etc. Certainly Trains has had many articles about them. One of the few (2 ?) railroads to buy and run GM's Aerotrain.
- Paul North.
The RI+SP Chicago-KC-Tucumcari,NM-Southern California line was an important route for refrigerated fruit traffic east. The Rock also served a number of livestock growing areas and packing plant centers, with significant traffic in both livestock and dressed meat. Those two businesses lead it to operate the largest fleet of 4-8-4's of any North American railroad (85) - a surprising fact to me when I learned it as I expected UP, SP, or ATSF to have had more.
Unfortunately in most other areas it was an also ran (as was stated earlier, it went everywhere the Burlington did, but with a longer less efficent route). Once the overhead fruit and meat traffic dried up, the traffic generated online wasn't sufficent to keep it in business.
Rock Island's N-S line from Kansas to Ft. Worth was picked up by UP. And I beleive BNSF still uses the RI/FW&D joint line to Houston.
aricat The Rock was always thought of as Iowa's railroad.
The Rock was always thought of as Iowa's railroad.
Yes, which is probably why Meredith Willson had his drummers riding it in his love song to Iowa, THE MUSIC MAN. (The Rock Island also ran into his home town of Mason City.)
richhotrain And let's not forget Lonnie Donegan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXQgG98VSOs Rich
Song leads to the question, since the Rock didn't run into New Orleans, why do Rock Island Line trains have to pay a toll at a toll gate?
(There are fees that change hands between various railroads for various uses of a carrier's trackage - some fees are based on car counts, other fees can be based on tonnage, while some are simple train counts.)
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
MidlandMike Rock Island's N-S line from Kansas to Ft. Worth was picked up by UP. And I beleive BNSF still uses the RI/FW&D joint line to Houston.
Former RI/CB&Q joint line, the FW& D.
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BaltACD Song leads to the question, since the Rock didn't run into New Orleans, why do Rock Island Line trains have to pay a toll at a toll gate?
Besides which, a toll tender who can't tell the difference between the asserted stock cars of "all livestock" and gondolas (?) of "all pig iron" would soon be out of a job.
Did the passenger train situation Rock Island had relative to other lines help or hinder the railroad when Amtak was formed? Wasn't Rock Island one of the lines that didn't join Amtrak- probably because they couldn't afford to pony up the entry cost?
The Rock Island was helped, because its service -- like that of the Southern and Rio Grande, the other non-joiners -- was already shaved down to the point that it was cheaper to soldier on than to join up. Eventually, all were off the hook, period -- the Rock Island in (I think) 1978 or '79.
The worth of the Omaha line for passenger service was restated when Amtrak started work on a new service to the Quad cities. They hoped to extend it to Iowa Ciy and eventually Des Moines, but Iowa was not interested in passenger service that they had to spend money for.
The Rock Island was better than the Burlington at being the victim of bad management. Did the Rock Island ever really recover from the Reid-Moore Syndicate in the early 20th Century?
CSSHEGEWISCH I'm not sure how much of a winner the Chicago-Omaha line was, considering that the C&NW and the Burlington were the major competitors. Rock Island did not have a very good Chicago entry, having an awkward connection with IHB/B&OCT and entering Clearing Yard from the east.
Good enough to get and keep GM autoparts business, at least until the strike. I was told it was supposed to come back to the RI (during the period afterwards when it was operated by the KCT) but never did.
The RI (in the late 1970s, don't know how much is still there) had a lot of industrial business between Joliet and Bureau. Which is why B&OCT eventually picked up this line. The Quad Cities and Muscatine also had a lot of business. (The Milwaukee Road picked up a lot of this, plus for a while the Quad Cities to Iowa City. That "triangle" of exRI was providing half the revenue of the Milwaukee's paired down core system.) Unfortunately, the farther west and southwest you got, business mostly became agricultural related. Some pockets of industry here and there, but not a lot on line. Partly because one of the RI's presidents during the 1880s decided to not make acquiring land for industrial development a priority. He thought to let other railroads serve the industries and let them interchange the business to the RI for the road haul. Also why the RI entered many major cities on other railroads or belt lines.
The early 20th century saw the Reid-Moore syndicate take control of the railroad. They used RI cash to try to build a railroad empire around the RI, SLSF and C&EI. Their financial manipulations resulted in the 1915 bankruptcy.
Those two periods in the RI's history is what started the decline. Management decisions, or maybe indescisions, beginning in the late 1950s/early 1960s kind of sealed it's fate.
Jeff
MidlandMike The worth of the Omaha line for passenger service was restated when Amtrak started work on a new service to the Quad cities. They hoped to extend it to Iowa Ciy and eventually Des Moines, but Iowa was not interested in passenger service that they had to spend money for.
Showing that not all politicians, everywhere, are stupid. Megabus has the Iowa population centers on that route flat COVERED with fast, frequent, cheap express service. A rail passenger service would be left with the West Liberty-Grinnell-Atlantic crumbs.
You can't vacate the passenger business for almost 50 years, as rail has on this route, without the public making other arrangements.
BaltACD richhotrain And let's not forget Lonnie Donegan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXQgG98VSOs Rich Song leads to the question, since the Rock didn't run into New Orleans, why do Rock Island Line trains have to pay a toll at a toll gate? (There are fees that change hands between various railroads for various uses of a carrier's trackage - some fees are based on car counts, other fees can be based on tonnage, while some are simple train counts.) Let me get this straight. You think "The Rock Island Line" represents historical fact? Please don't ever listen to The Wabash Cannonball or The Big Rock Candy Mountain or you'll become terminally beflustered & confloosed. Tom
The Rock unquestionably have been better off if it had had no intercity service prior to Amtrak. Yes, it soldiered on, but passenger service simply was another cash drain, a sop to unions and train nuts but nobody else.
billio The Rock unquestionably have been better off if it had had no intercity service prior to Amtrak. Yes, it soldiered on, but passenger service simply was another cash drain, a sop to unions and train nuts but nobody else.
The last two intercity trains were partially subsidized by the state of Illinois. When the subsidy ended in December 1978, so did the trains.
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