Railroaders' Nostalgia > RIP Les Rowse Former RI Trainmen

Former Rock Island Trainmen out of Cedar Rapids, IA  and Iowa Northerns First GM Passed Away over the weekend:

[url=http://www.murdochfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Leslie-Rowse/#!/ObituaryI got this from John Gohmann who knew Les:]http://www.murdochfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Leslie-Rowse/#!/Obituary

I got this from John Gohmann who knew Les:[/url]


thanks for this. We loved Les.. He was the  first GM of the IANR starting in 1981 when we opened the line from CR to Waterloo. We then  opened the north end about 6 months later. He then set up living quarters in back of the store front office in Greene, Iowa, where he had his refrigerator stocked with a quart of whiskey in the freezer, and he chewed tobacco all the time.. Was a real character.. He worked out of cedar rapids as a conductor on the Rock Island before that, and was the conductor on the last run of the Zephyr rocket - between Cedar Rapids and Burlington in Aprl of 1967..

RIP Les....

MILW86A