#quadcitiesrocket

Quad Cities Rocket

Another one of my earliest railroad images...

This is an eastbound Rock Island Quad Cities Rocket with E8 655 on the point. It was built for the railroad in March of 1952.

The location, of course, is the well known crossing with the ATSF and GM&O at Joliet, Illinois.

Which Rocket?

I put a question out to a knowledgeable group on Facebook—if it was approximately 6:00 PM when this image was made (based on the the sun nearly being down in early October), could we make a firm call on which Rocket this be?

Update: the FB group was quite firm with this train being the Peoria Rocket rather than the Quad Cities. One supplied an image showing the timetables for the two trains, which I’ll add above. The Rock Island was one of about four railroads that did NOT have their passenger trains folded into Amtrak in 1971.

Marley Road

Marley Road: Forty-Two Years Later

Here is a another place I was able to have made a photograph as a teenager: where Marley Road flies over the Rock Island, just a bit east of New Lenox.

The top photograph was made in the waning days of Rock Island intercity passenger train service. The train pictured is either the Peoria Rocket or Quad Cities Rocket. The second image was made when I happened to be in the area forty-two years later. The line in the distance is the former Wabash line down to Bement, Illinois.