Nostalgia & History > Remember Big Ben? Found Him Again

10 years ago I posted a photo here of a Rock Island Commuter Train with Big Ben summing up the rear.  It's at https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,3305155  You will probably have to cut and paste this URL into your browser.  Or search Train Orders for my post Maroon Monday with Big Ben

Today I found this slide (below) of Big Ben in Larry Anglund's collection belonging to the Iowa Chapter of the NRHS.

Could someone write a caption of where he is and when.

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/24 19:50 by MartyBernard.

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MartyBernard Wrote:
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> Could someone write a caption of where he is and
> when.

The car's paint scheme and the car coupled ahead of it indicate that this is during or very shortlty after its stint in the "Quad City Rocket" dinner train service circa 1989-90.  This was a short lived dinner train experiment that operated on the Iowa Interstate out of Rock Island IL, west to Wilton IA where the train would turn back to RI.  They did Fri/Sat/Sun evening trips and one on Sunday afternoon.  I was luckily able to get home on leave while it was operating and rode one of the Sunday afternoon trips before they quit running it.

As far as location of the shot, that is a tough one.  It is almost certainly somewhere in Rock Island and may be west of the old depot by the old RIMCO (Rock Island Millwork Co.) plant where it was stored during the week.  The only thing is the welded rail on the main line seems just a bit too good to be the "BN Industrial" track through the IL Quad Cities, but that indeed may be it.  There's just not enough to go on for an accurate location, but in the city of Rock Island would be correct.

Here are 3 photos of the train that my dad took at Wilton on the day I rode with my grandparents, one showing Big Ben before the red stripe was added; that's me watching the runaround move on the old Wilton House track from the vestibule.

Andy

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