Closet Rock fan here! One of my Facebook friends is a retired Rock employe, and he must have taken his camera to work everyday cause he has a pic of every piece of equipment the Rock owned; i.e. Loco's, Caboose's, Rolling stock, etc, for about a decade. :teeth:
I hope, I hope, I hope you have given him the link to this site so we can all see. Especially we Rock fans.
I'll chat with him and see if he may be a fan. He's got picks from every railroad in the mid-west from the 60's to the 80's.
I take my camera daily to work. I jsut dont get as many shots of the outside of the locos lol. Yes please invite him here! Would love to see some old Midwest rail pics.
I hope somebody is going to keep us updated on those two E units in Iowa. Hope they'll both be restored! Boxcab E50
Hey Boxcab I heard from someone ( on RITSLIST or RI Models) That Dan Sabine is going to start working on the E's soon! With the trouble the IANR had he was pretty focused on it at the time,but has stated the E's will begin their restoration! If I find the info Ill post it here later. Oh yeah an welcome Rock On!
I worked for the Rock Island for 19 years and still have fond memories. So yes, I guess I am a fan. Would like to model the Rock Island in N scale someday.
If anyone is interested, I have a bunch of RITS and Rock Island books, magazines, etc, FS on my web site. Link in my signature below. Boxcab E50
A younger Rock fan here. I wish sometimes that I was born much earlier than I was just so I could have experienced the Rock Island in all of her glory. But I was born 8 years after shutdown, so only track and rolling stock and some motive power left are what I get to see. I've got a Kato E8 going to be in the Yellow wing scheme of the commuter units. In primer right now, but will be red later today.
Hey Ghengis! Welcome aboard. I was born befor ethe Rock shut down adn grew up with her for 9 years.I grew up right next to Rock Island tracks,lived 20 minutes from Rock Island and had an uncle work there. Its a shame most of it is gone but as you say pieces live on. Heck I got to run a Rock engine last night.GTW 5850 I bet I can get some old Rock crews that would love to have her the way she is today. With auto start and shutdown and a cab AC unit!if only CN would "heritage" unit this one lol.
Hi, I'm kind new to Trainboard. When I was snooping around I came across this thread and just had to read on! I don't have any relatives who worked for The Rock, but I was born in a house about two blocks from where they entered the East side of Lincoln, NE. I crossed this section of the line many times when I went to my maternal grandparents farm North of town. On the the other side, my paternal grandparents lived in Fairbury, NE. Spend a lot time fishing the Blue River with my granddad setting on the bridge piers under the curved girder bridge just west of the yard there. I also used to ride my bike down to the depot and watch as they creeped and crawled though the yard, past the depot. In the late 80's when I got into modeling, I knew right away what road I needed to model. :tb-wink: About ten years ago, I chose the era and the geographic location. I think it was "Trains" that ran an article on the line that was know as the The Little Rock Line. It ran from Little Rock, AR to Alexandria, LA. Soooooo, my layout is set in the spring of 1983, three years past the shutdown. I started on the layout several years ago and just last Saturday, our local group held the first operating session on it. If I have this posting thing figured out, here is the link to the web page. The Little Rock Line [You'll need to start with the bottom album] Allen...
Allen- There was an article in Railfan & RailRoad about that portion of The Rock. Is that the one you are thinking about?
Yep, I stand corrected. That would be the one! I didn't think Trains sounded quite right. Thanks for the correction As much as I drooled over that article, one would think I would have it ingrained in my head!:tb-wacky: Allen...
I remember that article quite well, as I managed to get a set of (Eldorado) train orders from one of the crew. Also a single from Bernice. These were concerning the last train heading out and back, Extra 4471 South. This was March 27, 1980. And it returned the next day, extra north- The end. Sad. R&R Magazine, May, 1982.
Welcome aboard and yeah I have always wondered about the "lil"Rock. When I drove truck I got to see the remnants of that line.Very depressing to me. But at least I did get to see the area.Glad we have another Long live the Rock fan!
Thanks Fireball! Well at least you got to see the actual line. All I have is Google Earth and Bing maps. I'm surprised how much is still left in tact after doing some map searching. My biggest hurdle will be trying to match the topographic aspects of the area. Allen...
Well good luck with it! I am loving the pics you have on your site.I always wanted to do the Rock into the 80's as well and am slowly getting to it.
