“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 →

In 1951, the Rock Island’s passenger trains were completely Dieselized while it still used both steam and Diesels for hauling its freight trains. At least, that’s the implication of this cover (which is the back cover), which shows multiple Diesels on the right representing the Rockets and a steam locomotive and Diesel in freight covers on the left representing “America’s Most Modern Freight Service.”

Click image to download a 21.0-MB PDF of this 36-page timetable.

In fact, this timetable shows numerous local trains, such as Horton Kansas to Fairbury Nebraska or Billings to Ponca City, Oklahoma. I suspect that many of these were still pulled by steam locomotives in 1951. Continue reading →