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The Great Rock Island Route
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| This book contains 120 pages of Rock Island history. The steam engine section contains 22 photos dating back to before the turn of the century. Six of them are large photos displayed album style. There are 22 photos of floods and washouts including a flood at Topeka, Kansas in 1951. Four large photos show the building of the short line south of Des Moines in 1912. There are large photos of caboose and crew at Harlan, Mo. in 1895 and 8 railroaders by a bridge over the Canadian River near Logan, New Mexico before the turn of the century. The train accident section displays 18 photos of derailments and train collisions dating back to the early 1900's. It includes a photo of the yards at Silvis, Illinois, an unusual self-propelled weed burner, a panoramic photo of the yards and roundhouse at Amarillo, Texas plus several other interesting photos. There are many unique illustrations in this book dating back as far as 1877. An outstanding feature is a complete photocopy of a June 1899 public timetable with a beautiful color cover and a large folding system map.
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| Conductor Nick Chumbly and brakemen on Rock Island caboose 18148 on work train building a R.I. short line near Beech, Iowa, in 1912. |
$21.00 |
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| Pioneer Iowa Railroads - The Des Moines Valley R.R. and The Fort Des Moines & Minnesota R.R. |
| A great historical review of these two Iowa railroads that later were part of the Rock Island system. It contains an interesting 1865 travel brochure and two operating department timetables. The book is a typewritten history of the railroads edited by I. N. Brokow in 1951. Much of the book details the every day operation of the railroad and many newspaper articles from towns along the line. Some of these go as far back as 1853. Any true scholar of railroad history will find this publication very enjoyable reading. |
| $8.00 |