The Rock Island was an important eastern connection for the Denver Rio Grade Western until "The Rock's" decline into bankruptcy and cessation of operations in 1980. Many of the Rock's lines have been taken over by major systems or short line companies. These two timetables from the later years are the only documents in my archives from this once proud railroad. The 1972 timetable covers only the Des Moines Division, no doubt acquired on a trip through Iowa that I recall making that year. The 1979 system timetable was the last timetable issued by the company before its dissolution. I do not recall where I acquired this document, as we had no reason to have Rock Island documents at Grand Junction, Colorado on the Rio Grande.

I have created a separate page for "The Rock" to share some additional documents from a very active group of Rock Island fans on the "IO Groups" website. To encourage use of the documents below, all the CRIP links in this section allow downloads. Additionally, as mentioned on my homepage, there is a fine newsletter about the Rock that is available: "The Rock Island Reporter". The website is: http://rockislandreporter.com The editor's email address is: editor@rockislandreporter.com. If you are interested in the Rock Island, I encourage you to check out the newsletter, and make a donation in support of that publication. The three timetables below were made available from Rock Island fans on the IO Group page for that railroad.

Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Official Guide pages

The section which follows contains links to the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific pages from the Official Railway Guides which I have available. From discussions on the IO Group website, I hope that there may be several ongoing research or data compilation projects which might benefit from some of the information in these entries. Most of the files are of a reasonable size, I believe the largest is twenty four pages. For those just wishing to peruse old pages of the guide about their favorite railroad, enjoy. To save space, just the year and month of the Official Guide are shown. All pages linked relate only to the CRIP.

The "Rock Island Train Picture" from the Denver Hotel in Glenwood Springs, Colorado