History of the Rock Island Rockets
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Welcome to my video on the Rock Island Rockets. Like the last video on the CB&Q Zephyrs, this will be a general overview on the Rockets and route specific videos will be coming out when they come out.
Yet another once proud fallen herald!
Around 1960 I road with my stepfather when he drove from St Paul to Des Moines on a business trip. I decided to see a movie and return to St Paul on the Twin Star Rocket (or maybe it was called the Kansas City Rocket at the time). The coaches were gleaming stainless steel but no dome cars like the CB&Q Zephyrs. After leaving the theater I noticed my wallet was missing as I was walking to the train depot. I returned to the theater and fortunately the usher found my wallet on the floor where I had been seated. Several years later my wife and I took the same train to Kansas City roundtrip.
A friend who has since passed was a Conductor for the Zephyr Rocket from Hannibal, MO to Burlington, IA. I miss the stories he told me.
Great history, my only Rock Island experience was Des Moines to Minneapolis in the early 60s.
The erie railroad passenger trains, just like the rock island railroad passenger trains were considered to be secondary passenger trains compared to the competing railroads.
The Rock zisland bridgevacross the Missisdippi was the targetbof a lawsuit by steamboats as a hazard. Had thecstramboaters won bridge construction would have been severly limited. Their winning attorney was Abraham Lincoln.
Your pronunciation was so poor we aren't 100% what town you were trying to talk about.
Good job on these. I watched three of them and subscribed.
If you have vids of these trains in action, that'd be cool to see. Haven't checked your vid list yet.
When they were a profitable company, up through 1965, their trains ran fast, over good track, and they looked sharp - all silver, with the coaches having silver trucks like Santa Fe outfitted their passenger trains.
Their attitude towards passenger service seemed to parallel Southern Pacific's: they went all out to present beautiful trains back when they thought they could make a go with that type of service, but later, absolutely wanted no part of the passenger business.
Thank you a thousand time over! The Rock Island is my history from age four until the end when I was at university. BTW, the diner no. 411 assigned generally to trains 5 and 6 was let go because of a cracked center sill. The diner 428 which was assigned to trains 11 and 12 was subsequently moved to 5 and 6 for the short remainder of its life and left us in January of 1976. Three friends and I had the bittersweet pleasure of eating the last dinners on the Quad City Rocket of 15 January 1976 between Ottawa and Geneseo, Illinois. One of the waiters sang a chorus or two of "The Party's Over." The Rock Island was shabby genteel and with its obvious financial embarrassment produced a homespun and welcoming act until the end. I could on and on, but I'll spare you. Cheers.
I rode the Rock Island "Peoria Rocket" from Chicago's LaSalle St. station to Peoria and back with my dad in October of 1975. The train consisted of just a locomotive, coach and diner. Shortly after departing Chicago one of the dining car crew members came into the sole coach to announce their car was open for dinner. My dad and I took up the invitation and I chose the jumbo burger with French fries (hand cut!) which was a really good meal. The only issue was that your china, coffee cup could only be filled about halfway to avoid having your coffee sloshing out the cup due to the rough track conditions. Happy memories!
Thank you for these amazing lectures full of great insight and information!