If the railroad was an up-to-date, modern operation it quite likely would have been profitable. Unfortunately, the company's newfound freedom was short-lived. There was also an extension to El Reno, Oklahoma while a direct route from Denver to Omaha was established via Belleville, Kansas and Lincoln, Nebraska. Riley has even bigger plans for the reborn Rock Island for the future, including passenger excursions. The Rock Island's final years were sad to witness as the road attempted in vain to produce a profitable railroad beneath decaying infrastructure and a mountain of debt. However, just as quickly work slowed considerably due to financing and a national recession. When the merger was announced, Chicago & North Western's Ben Heineman immediately challenged the UP-Rock Island marriage. In truth, the ICC was only part of the problem. Gary Morris photo. While such scenes provided fascinating subjects for the camera they more vividly illustrated the railroad's plight. An aging set of Rock Island FT's lead a manifest freight train past the station at Ottawa, Illinois on June 10, 1962. In addition to creating a depot, which provided passenger and freight service, the railroad also created a railhead, providing a shipping point… I just cant seem to get a steady flow of lumber to Rock Island. It also arrived in other important cities after its competitors reaching Kansas City in 1879 over rails of the Hannibal & St. Joseph (Burlington) and did not achieve access into the Twin Cities until its 1885 acquisition of the 368-mile Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern (which also reached eastern South Dakota at Sioux Falls and Waterton). Rock Island FA-1 #154 (with its "RF" or "Rocket Freight" decal) and an FTB make a set-out of cars at Cadiz Street in Dallas, Texas during the early 1950's. Prior to coming to Mississippi, the locomotive worked for the Iowa Interstate and GATX. The amount of information found there is quite staggering; historical backgrounds of wheel arrangements, types used by virtually every railroad, preserved and operational examples, and even those used in other countries (North America and beyond). In one of the industry's great ironies, most of the railroad's principal routes survive today. A date of June 1, 1869 was set for this to occur and if it not met the road would lose its land grants across Iowa. These trains were adorned in an attractive livery of two-tone maroon with silver/aluminum pulled by matching locomotives, a unique four-axle passenger model from Electro-Motive known as the TA (#601-606). In the end, the parties were too far apart and the property was abandoned. Unfortunately, for all the Rock's fame it was not quite as glamorous in reality. He loathed ignorance and brought quick retribution upon anyone who could not thoroughly answer questions. Back along the Rock Island's eastern fringes service opened to St. Louis via Kansas City and finally accessed Galveston when the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railway was leased from the Colorado & Southern in 1906 (later known as the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad). The Rock Island Corridor is a 144.3 mile section of the former Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad that runs from Windsor, Mo., to Beaufort, Mo. Its purchase of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad gave it the beginnings of a transcontinental route along the thirty-fifth parallel and the beginnings of a route to the Gulf of Mexico at New Orleans. The physical plant was an equally sad situation with rotten ties, insufficient rail, slow orders, and derailments a common occurrence throughout the system. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. As the book "Iowa Railroads" (the essays of Frank Donovan, Jr., edited by H. Roger Grant) points out, the M&M also planned branches to Muscatine and the Minnesota border via Cedar Rapids; the former opened on November 20, 1855 but the latter was not reached until some years later. His layout is extremely well designed, prototypical, and meticulously executed. Unfortunately, the 1950's were a tough decade for the entire industry which dealt with declining traffic brought about through increased competition (highways and airlines) and a 1958 national recession. The internet as Doug Kroll 's photo at Joliet, Illinois, of... At this website this Union and as the Arkansas-Oklahoma railroad followed by 151 people on Pinterest significant financial problems developed... In Mississippi on June 24, 1917 as the Arkansas-Oklahoma railroad agriculture was always the Rock 's.! Collapsed during its final decade and a national recession took over the Missouri River from Council Bluffs was,! 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