Messages In This Thread

• OT: My father's slides from the 1970s of the Rock Island RR in Illinois
  • Brian, neat pics.....I still can't get over the fact that railway tracks run thru the centre of towns without any barriers or crossings..........I suppose its expected that you should be able to see something as big as a loco, stop & let it pass........lol. *NM*
    • There are standard grade crossing warning signals with gates that pivot down to block traffic, as can be seen in the pictures. *NM*
      • That said, you should go to YouTube and look up videos of "street running" trains. Those lines run down the middle of the street, with regular freight or passenger trains. Those tend to be unprotected, and yes, sometimes there are incidents. *NM*
        • When I lived in downtown Anaheim, CA a connector line from the SF to SP ran down the middle of one of the streets. *NM*
  • FYI, I just found one of my father's albums. The location of the yard by the Dodge dealership seen in a couple of the pictures above is either Ottawa, IL or closer to Peoria. *NM*
  • I wonder if early robber barons who laid the track sat around to come up with names that would sound good in country songs?
  • Some great stuff there!!!! RI is one ........ *PIC*
    • One more...... *NM* *PIC*
    • As they used to call it: "Bankrupt Blue". LOL. *NM*
    • Very nice! *NM*
  • Re: OT: My father's slides from the 1970s of the Rock Island RR in Illinois
  • Neat pictures, I caught one of those blue GP-9s on a siding in Muncie Indiana in the early 80's. The N&W had purchased some in the liquidation and it was in MoW service.
  • Cool pics.... Having grown up in the Quad City area, I remember seeing dozens of those Rock Island locos, in the Silvis yards every week when I would go shopping with my parents.