The Arizona Limited was a kind of semi-train: semi-streamlined, semi-daily, operated only half the year (actually just three-and-one-half months), and by two railroads using two train sets for only two years. Each Pullman-only train set consisted of a heavyweight Rock … Continue reading
Category Archives: CRI&P
Just like the 1957 timetable, this one has 20 pages with its red cover on the back. But there are a lot fewer trains in this edition. Click image to download a 14.4-MB PDF of this timetable. Train 1 now … Continue reading
A reader named Bruce Adams sent scans of some of the items in his collection for us, including this timetable for the Rock Island. Like the 1938 timetable, this one has a bright red cover (which, like the 1938 edition, … Continue reading
Ranging from Chicago to Denver and from the Twin Cities to Galveston, the Rock Island Railroad had an extensive network of Midwestern rail lines. The equipment pages of this timetable list 18 named trains and at least a dozen more … Continue reading
Gary, Indiana is a steel town, having been created in 1906 by the United States Steel Corportation and named after that company’s chairman, Elbert Gary. So when the city celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1956, what better way for the … Continue reading
This is Rock Island’s 1928 entry into the Colorado travel booklet competition. The turquoise cover and theme is brilliant (though Colorado skies are no more turquoise than skies anywhere else), and the theme is continued on the inside with the … Continue reading
If the Rock Island’s claim of being the best road to Yellowstone was shaky, it at least had a viable claim to be a good route to California. This 1927 brochure advertises that people can take either the Golden State … Continue reading
This 1923 brochure makes the difficult case that people should take the Rock Island to Denver on their way to Yellowstone National Park. From Denver, travelers could take Rock Island “connections . . . to any of the four Yellowstone … Continue reading
The Rocky Mountain Limited was Rock Island’s pre-streamlined entry into the Chicago-Denver market. Likely a distant third after the Burlington and Union Pacific, Rock Island had the slight advantage that its line split in eastern Colorado, allowing direct service to … Continue reading
The Apache was a joint Rock Island-Southern Pacific train that ran over the Golden State route between Chicago and Los Angeles from 1926 to 1938. A 1937 timetable posted by the Rock Island Technical Society actually shows three trains on … Continue reading