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classictrains — Rocketing out of Town
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Published: 2009-04-12 03:03:33 +0000 UTC; Views: 849; Favourites: 34; Downloads: 37
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Description
A Rock Island "Rocket" pulls away from Chicago's LaSalle Street Station in February 1966. The engine in the lead is a one-of-a-kind. It is a re-engined ALCo DL109 still in service after almost every one of it's peers have been stored or scrapped.I previously posted a nearer view of this Rock Island Crossbreed .
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Comments: 15
Look at the variety of cars! The manufacturers must have loved them, looks like they bought on of each type that had been offered!
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Could this be the last DL-109 in existence, the one that died under the Penn Central?
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I don't know. Interesting research project. It would be a shame be there wasn't one someplace.
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I heard somewhere (don't remember where) that there aren't any left. Shame, I would have liked to have seen one.
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Between the Rock and ATSF, I'm not sure who screwed around more with hybrid power setups.
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And don't forget the EJ&E centercabs.. [link] also Baldwins re-engined by EMD. But they had such poor visibility from the cabs and the controls were so bad (they had double controls 
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Don't forget the C&NW [link] and the that EMD took a lot of trades and used trucks off FA's under 2nd generation Geeps.
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This is true, but EMD was also smart enough to adapt anything to anything in order to make it work and keep costs down (which I why I think there were so many adaptations on the road during the 70s and 80s).
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It often makes me wonder if the Rock Island might have survived if it had been more consistent with its motive power purchases over the years. It must have cost a fortune to keep spare parts on hand for all the different kinds of engines in the stable.
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I used to ride my bike to where the Rocket would come into the Moline station, then race it to Rock Island.
Thank you for these wonderful photos which bring back important memories!
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You are most welcome. That is a large part of why I do it. Brings back my memories too!
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One of many reasons I loved the Rock Island was the unique power like this one.
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and all the different paint schemes...they had more than the BNSF does today!
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That is very true! And the only one I never liked was that blue "The Rock" scheme at the very end.
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