Nostalgia & History > Maroon Monday: Another roster gem

Look what the majority of us missed 60 years ago! Unless you are a zeroing in on becoming a septuagenarian, you probably never had the good fortune to lay eyes on a Rock Island sight like this one in Topeka, KS. This FP-7 is the one & only unit for tomorrow’s train #225, known colloquially as “The Sputnik”. What a godsend it was that Bill Gibson was on hand to get his customary roster shot. And it’s an equal godsend that his son Art is generous enough to share this image with us less fortunate fans. Oh to be sure, Bill did get a ¾ wedgie train shot right after this roster. But I’ll teasingly save that image for a future Maroon Monday. Enjoy!

1. CRI&P 407 sits at the roundhouse in Topeka, KS on January 25, 1958.
Photo by William A Gibson (WAG) Sr.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Art Gibson (wag216)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/22 01:52 by santafe199.

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They should have stuck with this livery!

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> They should have stuck with this livery!

Yes, very attractive.

Bob

robj Wrote: > ...  very attractive ...

I have to concur, although I have no memory of seeing this scheme in person. But thanks to photographers like Bill I can piece together a mental image of this scheme on a clean consist of Es or Fs (I'm not picky) on a sparkling, mostly stainless steel passenger train rolling through my Kansas countryside. The earliest memory I have of the Rock Island would early 1960s on branch line trains behind my Grandma's house in Abilene, KS. The scheme I remember seeing is the darker, solid maroon with the same side stripes the 407 above has...

Lance/199

Thanks for posting Bill's images Lance. I am a septagenarian and barely remember these going thru Joliet when I got to go shopping with my mother and grandmother.
Bob

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY