For Sale
Stored equipment ready for sale at the yard at Silvis, IL. (date not exact)
Date:
4/15/1980
Location:
Silvis, IL
Map
Views:
4757
Collection Of:
Rob Kitchen
Locomotives:
CRIP 4310(GP38-2)
Author:
Rob Kitchen
Picture Categories:
This picture is part of album:
RailPictures 1970s-1980s
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User Comments
Name
Type
Comments
Date
Mark Taylor
General
The unit nearest the camera is "The American Railfan".
5/10/2006 10:10:41 AM
Zach Pumphery
General
Sure does suck...that was a good little railroad that didn't deserve that kind of death.
5/10/2006 10:06:30 PM
Sam Davey
General
i'll buy them all
5/11/2006 8:18:46 PM
Pat Huemmer
General
Get a piece of the Rock....
5/11/2006 10:46:56 PM
steven langsford
General
AWSOME PHOTO!!! WHY DID RI GO UNDER?
5/12/2006 2:28:33 PM
Keith B
General
Great historical shot
5/13/2006 12:31:01 PM
Brent Jackson
General
Wow.....how many locomotives have they got there? And also, how come the UP or Southern Pacific never bought Rock Island? It was a big road......and it wasn't totally abused like the Milwalkee Road.
5/13/2006 11:19:24 PM
Dan D
General
Start your own railroad special: "Buy 3 get one free"
5/14/2006 7:36:21 PM
Pedro Rezende
General
I think most of them will come to Brazil or another country in South America. Great!
5/20/2006 7:08:39 PM
David Cenci
General
23(?) GP38-2..most only 4 years old..what a shame. These look to be the ones the UP(?) got The CNW and MP also got a bunch. The P&LE also got some..as did the GTW(6)..the P&LE ones later also went to the GTW(4) and the HESR(4)..truley a sad site
6/1/2006 3:45:00 PM
Glenn Lawson
General
The Carter administration back in the late 70's felt The Rock was only a grainger road and was a redundant railroad. The trustees attempted numerous times to seek millions of dollars from the government to no avail. What really sucks is that the RI was starting to turn a profit prior to shutdown! The labor strike really took a big hit to the railroad as well. RI was doomed since 1975. When the merger with UP was finally approved, there was so much negative backlash from other roads, UP called the merger off. Years of deferred maintenance on the RI didn't help the situation either. RI had another order of GP38-2's in the works at shutdown the units were diverted to CNW. Also at shutdown, CNW obtained a large number of rebuilt GP7/9's from RI. UP had financed a batch of GP40's for the RI in anticipation of the merger. UP obtained those at shutdown. REMEMBER THE ROCK!
6/3/2006 2:11:48 PM
Brent Jackson
General
One other thought - if the Rock was sinking in 1975, why didn't the trustees try to get Rock Island into Conrail? That would have given CR another 7000 miles of tracks to work with, perhaps it might even have save them from getting cut up by NS and CSX in the 90s.
7/7/2006 5:29:14 AM
Carl Wilmoth
General
If you really want to find out what happened, talk to the folks at the Rock Island Technical Society. I think they probably can field most of the quesitons and answer them with as much knowledge as anyone can. I'm not a member of the RITS but have read some on their website and am very impressed with what I've seen. My father worked for the Rock Island for 50 years before passing away in 1964 and I had the opportunity to spend many an hour on "The Property" getting a first hand look at things from the inside. I could only speculate as to the causes of the demise but based on approx 25 years of perspective since they shut down, and having spoken with many former employees, I'm kind of the opinion and speculate that there may have been some corporate mismanagement going on.
8/2/2006 5:37:26 PM
Jim Kelton
General
NO WAY Corporate MISMANAGEMENT in todays day and age? Jon Corizine the govenor of NJ just cut our overtime 25% and reduced commuter rail service some 15 to 20 % on the former Erie & Lackawanna Lines now known as NJT, but never did they even have an inkling of a thought of cutting MANAGEMENT WASTE
8/7/2006 5:07:44 PM
Ken Roble
General
I know if I was taking the photo here, I would have tresspassed like crazy to get all I could!! The UP still got the ROCK anyway, just inherited most of the track and equipment thru the mergers with MP, OKKT, C&NW, SP-SSW, not to mention equipment they got directly via post-shutdown repos.
10/28/2006 3:58:02 PM
Bob Womack
General
Oh MY GOD look at all that blue!
9/20/2007 8:18:49 PM
Casey Burg
General
SPECIAL SPECIAL SPECIAL: buy 10 open hoppers get a GP38-2 FREE!
9/29/2007 9:52:21 PM
Ian Johnstone
General
Buy a line of NEW Rock GP's and get a free line of Rock switcher's for free! But wait if you call in the next 20 mins you can get a free line of Rock Island Hoppers FOR FREE!
7/20/2010 10:06:57 PM
Ian Johnstone
General
Buy a line of NEW Rock GP's and get a free line of Rock switcher's for free! But wait if you call in the next 20 mins you can get a free line of Rock Island Hoppers FOR FREE!
7/20/2010 10:08:22 PM
Chris Lubinski
General
Man, what a sad shot to say the least! It's been almost 34 years already! Hard to believe
1/22/2014 11:29:47 PM
Richard Piotter
General
Boy, this shot is enough to almost make a man shed a tear... Back when i was a kid, I LOVED seeing those bright blue railcars randomly placed in the middle of a CNW or a DM&E train... I never knew back then that I was seeing the remnants of a once great line that saw great misfortune befall it. I'm modeling DM&E in N-Scale, and I am making sure to include some Rock Island in the mix. (Only, on my model layout, RI never went bankrupt, and "The American Railfan" will still roll! :)
7/5/2018 4:27:15 AM
Danny fortenberry
General
I'm blue da BA Dee da BA daa
5/29/2022 11:27:07 PM
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