| CRI&P GP38-2 4317, Blue Island, Illinois, October 1979, photo by Chuck Zeiler. By the date of this photo, the Rock Island's freight was being moved by crews of the Kansas City Terminal, under a court directed order. The Rock had been struck by employees over back wages in August, and the future of the railroad was in the hands of the bankruptcy courts. As early as 1963 the UP and RI proposed a merger, which produced suits and countersuits as competitors attempted to prevent the UP from direct access to the Chicago market. A couple weeks later, the C&NW proposed its own merger plan with the RI (and the Milwaukee Road), but let that plan lapse in 1966. Meanwhile, the Rock Island's physical plant began to deteriorate because of deferred maintenance, and by 1974, when the UP-RI merger plan was approved by the ICC, the UP withdrew, in part based on the conditions imposed by the ICC as a result of protests by competing railroads, no doubt the deferred maintenance was also a factor. By 1975, the RI declared bankruptcy, the physical plant continued to deteriorate, and by the date of this photo, trains were barely moving. This photo shows the condition of the yard at Blue Island in October 1979, a few months before the Rock Island Railroad was dissolved by the courts on March 31, 1980. |