1898 IANR/Rock Island Arch Bridge over Mud Creek at Vinton, IA

(Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

IANR = Iowa Northern Railway

Dan Sabin posted
Vinton IA BCR&N built Stone Arch Bridge still exists Dan Sabin Collection

Photo provided by Hank Zaletel via BridgeHunter

2017 photo by John Marvig via BridgeHunter

The stone abutments have not been covered with concrete.

2013 photo by Dave King via BridgeHunter
"View of the north side of east stone abutment."

The route was owned by Rock Island.

1954/68 Waterloos Quad @ 250,000

Bridge Hunter indicates the route is now owned by IANR, but rail.guide indicates CN.

rail.guide

IANR is still claiming this route.

Map via Dennis DeBruler

Rock Island Washed-Out Culvert in Enid, OK

(Satellite, my guess based on the topo map below.)

Note, this is old news. This was not part of the Aug 2026 flooding.

Another example of the importance of making a culvert big enough to handle a rare flash flood. If the culvert is not big enough, the embankment becomes a dam that gets overtopped.

It is common to replace a wood trestle with an embankment that covers up the trestle.

Fans of Rock Island Lines posted
Enid OK,  looks to me to be a washout after a culvert went in. I don't see anyway to get those cars there without a locomotive having made the crossing? either it crumbled as it passed or the engineer and fireman had one hell of a ride? It's not uncommon for the piles to remain buried under the berm. I always chuckle at the people on top of the cars.

Paul D. French: We had a 25 foot fill with three culverts each three times the size of the one in the photo. During a huge rain storm brush clogged the culverts. When the rear end crew walked up to the head end the water on the top of the fill was ankle deep. The whole will washed away. The crew did get the train across before the track was gone. It took a couple weeks to install a bridge.

Mike Nehring: When we filled bridge like this,we would install the culverts , fill in around the culvert up to the bottom of stringer cord, let stand for maybe 6 months to a year, then come back in & pull the stringer cord out & fill the rest in with ballast. It was totally different if it was some other factor involved. But yes that bridge/culvert washed out.

Note the contour lines that parallel the track over the creek. That indicates there was an embankment here.

1856/57 Enid Quad @ 62,500

It looks like the culvert got replaced by a bridge.

Satellite

UP now owns this route.

National Rail Network Map

1946-82 GM EMD Pullman (#2) Plant

Office Building: (Satellite)

Smokestack: (Satellite, building has been torn down.)

Four Bays: (Satellite)

EMD posted
As we can see here, worker are smoothing the seams as the Geep hoods moves along at West Pullman, Ill.
Electro-Motive Builder's Photo The Geep was probably trucked to plant 3 in Cleveland for final assembly. The F/E nose goes to plant 1 in LaGrange. This is at the former Pullman plant.
Dennis A. Livesey At first glance, they looked like screens on the loco side.
Looking closer, those are large reflecting surfaces for making, bright, even light so the grinders can see their work accurately, IMHO. (I am not a sheet metal worker so I am guessing.)
Greg Burnet shared
William H. Tolliver EMD facility was East of Cottage Grove on 103rd st. Locomotive subassemblies. Pullman plant was on 111th st. And Cottage grove.
Dave Ladislas Sr. William H. Tolliver,correct.The EMD shop at 103rd. was a former Pullman shop way back in the day.Pullman Shops went from like 103rd. on the N. to almost 115th. on the S.,including their Calumet Shops.
Dave Ladislas Sr. Mike Rusnak,when I was working at Pullman we had a lot of welders that also worked at 103rd. st.Welding 16 hrs. a day had to be brutal.
Ean Kahn-Treras Oh very neat! Had no idea this was down here. Must’ve kept the N&W quite busy.
Were they the main carrier providing service along the Pullman Connecting Railroad, or was it a big joint venture?
[Unfortunately, as of 23 hours later there was no answer.]
EMD posted
Recent Photo released by Progress Rail at Plant number 2.
Cabs as far as the eye can see.
Greg Burnet shared
Ed Elm: Bob Lalich when I worked there they did not assemble cabs any more we made crankcases, fuel tanks ,traction motor housings, fan frames ,and plow blades and many other smaller parts.
Bob Lalich: Ed Elm - I grew up near this plant. Until I saw this photo several years ago, I thought that Plant 2 made parts such as you describe. This photo was quite a surprise to me. I wonder how the cabs were transported to LaGrange?
Steven Marcyk: Geep cab being worked on is IC 8901 delivered May '51. 
The order, 5171-1 is written several places on it. 1951 would make everything in the photo a 7....F7, FP7, or GP7.
[Some comments indicate that the US government took it over during the war to make airplane wings. (Update: in 1946, EMD acquired a 700,000 sq. ft. facility that produced aircraft parts. [AssemblyMag])]

Daniel Bovino posted

GM Electromotive Plant, 103rd and Corliss. 

Photo by the late Dr. Gene Ossello.

Paul Jevert shared with the comment: "GM Plant at Pullman"

Andrew Urbanski posted four photos with the comment: "Looking to see if anyone recalls or has knowledge about Electro Motive in Pullman region. Found these pictures on Facebook. Their main facility was in LaGrange, IL."

Robert Petit: EMD used the Pullman Building off of 103rd Street for a number of things. Sub Assembly of Cabs, Cab Bases, Short hoods, Wiring Harnesses.

Andrew Urbanski: Thank you for sharing that, any knowledge on how those assemblies got to LaGrange from there? Certain rail line?

Bob Lalich: Andrew Urbanski - EMD Plant #2 was served exclusively by Rock Island. The LaGrange plant was served by IHB and B&OCT. Rock Island likely delivered to IHB Blue Island Yard or B&OCT Barr Yard for final delivery to LaGrange.

[This source says the subassemblies were trucked.]

Ron Stanek: This was at EMD's Plant #2 on 900 E. 103rd St. In Chicago almost next to Gately Stadium. This photo would have been on the east side of the plant (old Pullman facility). Shuttling materials in & out. Like Robert Petit says in his comment, Plant#2 built sub-assemblies Fuel tanks; Engine blocks; wheels; Cab assemblies; fabricated many parts, had a paint shop & primered assemblies and shipped everything to Lagrange where they put it all together. 15-20 Minutes into a shift, you couldn't see one third of the way through the Plant, do to welding smoke. Building had 4 or 5 long building (Bays we'd call them) each Bay having a few overhead railed 10Ton caged operater cranes, along with many poled cranes throughout to lift by most operations. The Bays(buildings) were about 700 feet long by about 50 foot wide. Worked there late 70's &early 80's.

After NAFTA, EMD sent most of the work to Canada and closed up EMD Plant#2.

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3

4

The smokestack in Daniel's post still stands. That manufacturing building is gone. But four the the "long buildings" mentioned in Ron Stanek's comment are still standing.

Street View, Jul 2019

Satellite

1953/55 Calumet Lake Quad @ 24,000

Back when Pullman used the facility, it also had connections to the Illinois Central.

1929/39 Calumet Lake Quad @ 24,000

Lost/Rock Island Trestle over Fitch Creek near La Fayette, IL

(no Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Trent Briggs posted

Dennis DeBruler commented on Trent's post
I presume the trestle crossed Fetch Creek. 1983/84 La Fayette Quad @ 24,000

Dennis DeBruler commented on Trent's post
It appears that the embankments are extant: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kHHwXoAFZCtNp9ox5.

UP/MKT/OK&T/1889 Rock Island Bridge over Cimarron River near Dover, OK, collapsed Sep 18, 1906

1889: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter is broke; no Historic Bridges)

Replacement: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

MKT = Missouri-Kansas-Texas (Katy)

OK&T = Oklahoma, Kansas & Texas It operated the route between Dallas and Salina, KS.

Charlene Hagen posted two photos with the comment: "Dover, Oklahoma achieved notoriety on September 18, 1906, when the Cimarron River bridge collapsed, allowing Rock Island Number 12, a passenger train, to crash into the waters below. The loss of life, at least one hundred, made this one of the nation's worst train wrecks**.    There are numerous conflicting reports however, with some stating only 4 people perished in this accident, but we will never know the true number.  The engine is still under there to this day."

David Heinrichs: According to what I heard overloaded train with quite a few families on it. There was something sticking out that was on the train that caught the bridge support causing the bridge to collapse. The train is still there sunk down in like quick sand. Guy from Dover my age said you could swim down and touch and see the train.

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Street View, Oct 2025

The Rock Island bridge was a "temporary" bridge built in 1898 to replace a wood trestle that was wrecked when heavy rains shifted the sandy river bottom. "Eight years later, the temporary bridge was still there. So was Dover, and its residents had spent nearly all of the intervening years demanding that the Rock Island replace their bridged with something built to last, something that would be safer because it would rest atop piles driven under the water, through the sand, and deep into bedrock. But . . . nothing happened until 1906." [okielegacy]

I presume that is the collapsed wood trestle in the background of this newspaper photo.

ODOTdatabase

Oklahoman explains why UP sued a contractor to leave the locomotive in the sandy river bottom.

I could not find anything on what replaced the 1906 trestle nor when today's steel-girder bridge was built.

Bonus

There is a 1921 truss bridge preserved about a couple miles west of Dover.

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

The bridge is 800' (244m) long because of a large floodplain on the south side. I picked this view to emphasize the floodplain. And the trusses are pin connected.

Street View, Sep 2023

It looks like it has its original railings.

Street View, Sep 2023

Rock Island Overview

BRHS posted
The first train on the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad was operated on October 10, 1852, between Chicago and Joliet, Illinois.
Its predecessor, the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, was incorporated in Illinois on February 27, 1847, and an amended charter was approved on February 7, 1851, with construction beginning in Chicago on October 1, 1851.  Construction continued on through La Salle, and Rock Island was reached on February 22, 1854, becoming the first railroad to connect Chicago with the Mississippi River.
Michael Riha's post has the same comment

Tucumcari, NM, was where the Golden State passenger train interchanged between the SP and the Rock Island. The Golden State ran between Chicago and Los Angeles.

Jack Robertson posted

"While the Rock Island had many glory years, it was caught up in a cycle of competition, excess capacity, flat revenue, and increasing costs in the decades after World War II. The railroad attempted to merge with the Union Pacific in the 1960s, but every other Midwestern railroad filed protests over the proposed merger. The merger was finally approved in 1974, but by that time, the railroad had deteriorated to the point where Union Pacific was no longer willing to make the investment to keep it running. The Rock Island attempted to continue operating. It finally collapsed after a strike all but stopped the trains in August, 1979. The courts rejected the bankruptcy reorganization plan in early 1980, leading to the liquidation of the company." [John A Weeks III (I lost the link reference)]

 

Chuck Mountain posted
Restored map: Rock Island Lines 1923
Gregory Cramer: Matthew Levi Morris Santa Rosa, NM, the furthest west of the Rock Island "Golden State Route." The Southern Pacific handled the passenger train west from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles.

Chuck Mountain posted

Dan Sabin posted
1932 Rock Island Freight Density Map
[I wish this was higher resolution.]

One of twenty images posted by Cam Aulds from an article about the "Last days of The Rock."

Andy Kowalxzyk posted
"The Great Rock Island Route" (original version of "The Wabash Cannonball")
Sheet Music and route map
 https://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/collection/057/135
Larry Candilas: The Rock Island went to Milwaukee? [That caught my eye as well.]
Harold J. Krewer: That line into Wisconsin was the Racine & Southwestern, which actually got built and ended up part of the Milwaukee Road. Wasn't abandoned as a through route until 1980, Davenport-Savanna and east to Kittridge, IL (SW of Freeport) is still active as part of the CP's Chicago-KC route.
Ned Carlson: Harold So The Rock had some through car or trackage rights arrangements on the route?
It must have been taken over by the CM&StP pretty early, that's why the street in front of what was the Beloit station is called St Paul Ave.
I'd give my other front tooth to see a photo of a Rock engine or train in Wisconsin.
Harold J. Krewer: In the late 1800s, it was not uncommon for competing railroads to embellish their magnitude and reach by advertising and promoting friendly connecting roads as part of their "system," even if no formal ownership or control existed.

Ross Warnell posted
I have a question. It has been said Rock Island went everywhere its competition did, but the long way around (St Louis - Kansas City). What, then, was the rationale for that long north-south line from Little Rock to Eunice, Louisiana. Other than the Southern Arkansas oil boom in the 1920's, I can't think of any reason at all.

Bill McCord: CRIP had some good routes. A Chicago-Memphis and Little Rock -Dallas route would have been helpful. Given all the lines that survived that are now main lines it is too bad the Rock didn’t survive. The Memphis- Tucumcari line should have been saved.

Keith Pomroy: Bill McCord as stand-alone major railroads, the Midwestern grangers (Rock Island, Milwaukee, Northwestern, and Burlington) were facing problems in the 1960s in both raising enough capital or earning enough to cover capital needs—maintenance and modernization, mostly—to provide both a dense network of agricultural branches AND a set of fast and productive mainlines. Merger with transcontinental connections was deemed the answer, and that worked well for the CB&Q. The C&NW was able to diversify into reasonably profitable other industries, while keeping the railroad going. The Milwaukee began radical retrenchment in the 1970s by scaling back on its electrification and then altogether on its Pacific Extension (which was unable to match BN or subsidize the branches). The UP and SP wanted the Rock, but ICC dithering and connecting railroad opposition delayed things so long that by 1975, there was little hope.

Bill Pollard: The original plan for the line extending south of Little Rock was to reach New Orleans.

[There are a lot more interesting comments on this post. Too many to try to copy.]

1878,1938 Vehicle/Rock Island Bridge over Old Des Moines River Channel near Harvey, IA

(Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

"Built 1878 by the American Bridge Works. for the CRI&P Railroad; Converted for vehicular use in 1938." The 600' (183m) long bridge has four wrought-iron spans of 149' (45m). [BridgeHunter]

I included the label "metalIron" since this bridge was made with wrought iron.

Jeff Badger, Juhn 2025

Emily Willis posted

Harvey Railroad Bridge in Harvey, Iowa

It’s an old railroad bridge that now serves as a narrow level B road over an old channel of the Des Moines River. During the summer, the trees nearly cover the top of the trusses, making a canopy over the bridge. It’s an interesting place to explore. You’re welcome to drive across the bridge or you can park just before the bridge and explore by foot.  Brian Abeling / Iowa Road Trip

Dennis DeBruler commented on Emily's post
This 1912 topo map of the Pella Quadrant shows Harvey Island. The bridge used to belong to the Rock Island Railroad.

Note that there are more tie-bars near the middle of the span than at the ends. That is because the tension forces of the lower chord are highest in the middle of the span.

1017 Photo by John Marvig via BridgeHunter

Unfortunately, this description is wrong. The CB&Q never crossed the river; and, according to a satellite map, that route still exists. Rock Island owned this bridge and abandoned it before 1938.

After the Des Moines Valley Railroad was completed in northeastern Marion County in 1866, the citizens of Knoxville began agitating for a railroad line that would link the southern and central parts of the county with a national railroad. A line named the Albia, Knoxville and Des Moines (AK&D;) Railroad was planned, and in 1870 Liberty, Indiana, Knoxville and Pleasant Grove Townships approved a special tax to help defray the construction costs for the proposed rail line. But the railroad fell short of completion, and after a period of litigation, the subscriptions and subsidies were acquired by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (CB&Q;) Railroad in 1875. With far better financing than the AK&D;, the CB&Q; was able to complete the line to Knoxville, with the first train rolling into town in December 1875. The following year the town of Harvey was platted near where the CB&Q; line crossed the Des Moines River. The railroad first employed ferries or a temporary bridge over the river at this point. In 1878, however, it contracted with the American Bridge Company of Chicago to fabricate a wrought iron truss as a permanent bridge for this crossing. The structure consisted of four pinned Pratt through trusses, supported by stone abutments and piers. It is not known whether American Bridge or the railroad itself erected the trusses, but the Harvey Railroad Bridge was completed by the time the line was completed through the county to Des Moines in 1879. It carried railroad traffic until 1938, when the county purchased the bridge and adjoining right-of-way and converted it into a county road. Although the river itself has been re-routed to the north, leaving the bridge with nothing to cross, the Harvey Railroad Bridge continues to function in place in unaltered condition. It is today a well-preserved example of early railroad truss construction in Iowa (adapted from Fraser 1992).

[ArchivedBridgeHutner]

Rock Island Southern Trestle and then Lake Matherville Dam

(Satellite)

Retro Quad Cities posted
This photo showing a wooden trestle for the Rock Island Southern Railway, would eventually be backfilled and became the dam for Lake Matherville!!!

Mike Robinson: And I believe that a few miles more south on that line was one of the longest wooden trestle railroad bridges at the time. Located south of Gilchrist. I only heard it from old farmers in the area.

[Several comments provide newspaper clippings.]

Nick Barman commented on the above post
The original post card says building to aledo which is neat

1953/57 Matherville Quad @ 24,000 

Rock Island and "Wagon" Bridges over Hennepin Canal in Milan, IL

(Satellite, the crossing is now just an embankment in the canal.)

Hennepin Canal Overview

After crossing the canal, the Rock Island had to cross the Rock River.

John Vize posted
The railroad bridge over the Hennepin Canal at Milan, Illinois Jan 6, 1916.
Lloyd Scott Hardin shared

Retro Quad Cities posted
The Hennepin Canal bridge on Big Island, taken in 1957.
[There are several comments about fishing here.]

In the left background is the Rock Island bridge over the Rock River.

Keith LeMay posted
Photo is dated 10/11/70 the swing span on Big Island just before demolition facing Rock Island from Milan

1950/50 Milan Quad @ 24,000

Update: Miles comment confirms that this was the adjacent road bridge. The lady is fishing at the same spot that the comments on the above 1957 photo talks about, we are just facing the East and instead of West.

Retro Quad Cities posted
This young lady and her daughter enjoy fishing in the Hennepin Canal near the 1896 wagon swing bridge at Milan. IL.

Miles W. Rich: Bill Wingler that is the highway bridge, that was replaced in 1949-1950. The photographer is either just in front of, or on, the railroad bridge that was replaced with a fill and culvert circa 1970.

Retro Quad Cities shared