“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.

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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).

Plus the Rock Island had many unnamed trains. Des Moines, for example, was considered important enough to rate a third, unnamed train to Chicago. Twin Cities-Kansas City also had a third train with the generic name of Short Line Express.