Rock Island October 1957 Timetable

Rock Island timetables stunningly shrank from 36 to 20 pages in 1957. We’ve previously seen a 36-page timetable from November 1956 and a 20-page timetable from May 1957. If there were any timetables between these two, they were probably also just 20 pages.

Click image to download an 10.8-MB PDF of this 20-page timetable.

The full-page ads on the front cover and inside back cover both disappeared along with two pages of interior ads. The centerfold map was reduced to fit on one page and moved to page 5. The station index and list of train equipment were both reduced from two pages to one and the little pictures of sleeping car accommodations, which took two pages in the 36-page versions, were completely eliminated from the 20-page editions. The condensed version of timetables shown near the beginning of the booklets were reduced from four pages to two. Continue reading

Rock Island May 1956 Timetable

A full-page ad on the inside back cover of this timetable celebrates Rock Island Line, which became a hit song in 1955. According to Wikipedia, the first version of this song was written in 1929 and performed by members of the Rock Island Colored Booster Quartet, a groups of Rock Island employees in Little Rock. The song was first recorded being performed by inmates at an Arkansas prison in 1934 and was later covered by Lead Belly and Odetta, among others.

Click image to download an 20.3-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

All of the above performers were black, and as was typical of the times the song didn’t become a hit until it was recorded by a white, specifically a Scottish musician named Lonnie Donegan. This timetable ad pictures a 45 record with Donegan’s name. Continue reading

Rock Island February 1956 Timetable

While most of the front-cover ads on Rock Island timetables presented here in the last nine days have featured the Golden State, this one advertises a Rocket — and not just any Rocket but the Jet Rocket, whose Aerotrain-like locomotive was designed to look like a jet. Unlike the Aerotrain, whose cars were manufactured by General Motors, the Jet Rocket‘s cars were made by American Car & Foundry.

Click image to download an 19.7-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The Jet Rocket started service on February 11, 1956, which was the day before this timetable went into effect. The train traveled two round-trips a day between Chicago and Peoria, making the 161-mile trip in 2-1/2 hours for an average speed of 64 mph. Like the other ultra-lightweight trains introduced in 1956, the Jet Rocket proved unpopular with passengers and after less than two years Rock Island cut it back to the 40-mile route between Chicago and Joliet.

Rock Island November 1955 Timetable

A full-page ad on the inside back cover of this timetable highlights the “Rock Island States of America,” fourteen states served by that railroad. This reminds me that the Rock Island and the Burlington were very similar railroads serving largely the same territory. An objective look at just their routes in the mid-1950s might make one conclude that, if one were to survive and other disappear, it would have been the Rock Island that survived and the Burlington that would disappear.

Click image to download an 19.5-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

Both served the same core states: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. Both also reached a corner of New Mexico and one end of South Dakota. Rock Island had a strong network in Kansas while Burlington reached Kansas only on a couple of minor branch lines. Rock Island went to Memphis, Tennessee while Burlington went to Paducah, Kentucky. Continue reading

Rock Island January 1955 Timetable

“Train travel approaches perfection” on the Golden State, gushes the ad on the front cover of this timetable. The ad mentions El Paso, Douglas, Tucson, Chandler, Phoenix, and Palm Springs as important destinations between Kansas City and Los Angeles.

Click image to download an 20.4-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

I can understand most of these cities, but why is Douglas on the list? Its population was only about 10,000 at the time and it wasn’t a resort town; it was an industrial town whose reason for existence was a copper smelter owned by Phelps-Dodge. While the populations of Phoenix and Tucson more than quadrupled in the 1950s, Douglas’ population grew by only 26 percent. Continue reading

Rock Island October 1954 Timetable

“When Old Man Weather gives you the cold shoulder, there’s only one thing to do,” says the advertisement on the front cover of this timetable: “hie yourself off to Southern Arizona or California, where Nature has done such a noble job in providing year ’round, pleasure-loving ‘spas.'” The “hie” is in reference to the accompanying illustration, which shows cowboy- and cowgirl-dudes and their horses. According to the Oxford Dictionary, however, “hie” has its origins in Old English, not the Old West.

Click image to download an 20.9-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The ad notes that the Golden State offered, among other luxuries, “Complimentary hors d’oeuvres for Pullman passengers.” Passengers from the east could take a through sleeper from St. Louis or a through sleeper or through day-night coach from the Twin Cities, which cars would be “entrained” into the Chicago-originated Golden State in Kansas City. Continue reading

Rock Island May 1954 Timetable

The front page ad on this edition promotes not only the Golden State and Rocky Mountain Rocket but also the Twin Star Rocket, which went between the Twin Cities (in the North Star state) and Houston (in the Lone Star state). “If the cool North Woods of Wisconsin-Minnesota are calling and your geographical location permits you to ride it,” says the ad, “then we know of no finer train to recommend than the Twin Star Rocket.”

Click image to download a 20.8-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

What great advertising copy! “If your geographical location permits you to ride it,” it’s a great train, otherwise “we” wouldn’t recommend it. It seems like that caveat would apply to every train, but Northwest railroads urged people in Chicago to take their lines to California even though it added a day to their trips. Perhaps the Rock Island, like the Macy’s sales people in Miracle on 34th Street, was trying to impress customers by being more honest.

Rock Island October 1953 Timetable

The Golden State was “the train to the Southwest,” says the front cover ad, “where the sun shines in Arizona and southern California.” As savvy ticket agents might tell travelers, the Santa Fe might also have gone through Arizona, but the northern part of the state served by the Santa Fe was much cooler in winter and didn’t see as much sunshine as the southern part of the state.

Click image to download a 20.7-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The Golden State and Imperial carried passengers from Chicago to Los Angeles. Via the Cherokee, the Imperial also carried passengers from Memphis to Los Angeles. Rock Island also had a line from St. Louis to Kansas City that would have allowed a St. Louis section of the Golden State or Imperial, just as the City of St. Louis, going over the Wabash, was in essence a St. Louis section of the City of Los Angeles. Continue reading

Rock Island May 1953 Timetable

According to Classic Trains magazine, the last Rock Island steam locomotive was retired in December 1953. In anticipation, the railroad introduced a new timetable cover showing Diesels pulling both passenger and freight trains.

Click image to download a 19.7-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The front cover ad on this timetable gives equal billing to the Golden State and the Rocky Mountain Rocket. This seems like a mistake: the Golden State served winter vacationers to Arizona and California. The Rocky Mountain Rocket served summer vacationers to the Colorado mountains. Put the Golden State into a fall or winter timetable and let the May timetable focus on the trains to the mountains.

Rock Island February 1953 Timetable

“For complete travel satisfaction,” says the front cover of this timetable, “you can rely on the Rockets. The Golden State and the Rockets were Rock Island’s premiere trains, so since yesterday’s October 1952 timetable advertised the Golden State on its front cover, it is appropriate that this would should advertise the Rockets. The list of “Rocket Routes” includes seven Rockets and the Golden State, a faint reminder that it would have been the Golden State Rocket if Southern Pacific had not cancelled it.

Click image to download a 22.0-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

The Rock Island had plenty of other passenger trains, of course. Named trains included the Des Moines Limited/LaSalle Street Limited, #5 & 6 connecting Des Moines with Chicago; the Mid-Continent Special, #15 & 18 between the Twin Cities and Kansas City; the Imperial, #39 & 40 to Los Angeles; the Choctaw, #51 & 52 between Memphis and Amarilla; and the Cherokee, #111 & 112 between Memphis and Tucumcari with through cars to Los Angeles on the Imperial. Except for the Choctaw and Cherokee, these were all secondary trains to one of the Rockets or the Golden State (and the Choctaw was secondary to the Cherokee). Continue reading