Nostalgia & History > Rock Island 644

It is the summer of 1973, and Rock Island 644 and its train are sitting at Joliet Union Station in Joliet, Illinois.
Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/22/17 23:16 by refarkas.

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Beautiful!!  The red and yellow is still my favorite Rock Island scheme!

Nice shot !
Looks like the Quad City or Peoria Rocket.
Gary

Posted from Android

Nice.  In very good paint condition and a nice view of the platform activity.
Brian Stevens

gcm Wrote:
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> Nice shot !
> Looks like the Quad City or Peoria Rocket.

​Most certainly is one of them. At this time, No. 5 (for Rock Island) and No. 11 (for Peoria) ran about 40 minutes apart, so sun angle isn't really going to help a lot.

​Both trains typically had two chair cars and a diner-lounge assigned, but if we could see the rear car we would likely get an answer, as in this era Butterworth Tours ran their first-class service on both trains. Ex-D&RGW, exx-C&O dome-observation BIG BEN almost always was the car on Nos. 5-6, while Nos. 11-12 generally rated ex-PRR observation THE REVELER or sometimes the former IC car BONNIE B.

​Great shot, Bob!

​NZ

Awesome photo Bob. Based on what I am seeing with the Conductor giving a highball and the brakeman looking on from the rear end, I am believe it is Number 11 to Peoria with a 4 car train. Train number 5 at that time carried more cars and usually had a Butterworth car on the rear end.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

There are a lot of people standing around in the station looking at the train. If it is leaving, might it be the train with the earlier schedule, and the people might be passengers waiting for the later train?