About Chicago Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.
The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, widely known as the Rock Island Line or simply “The Rock,” was a Chicago-based Class I railroad whose 1948 corporate incarnation succeeded an older system with roots reaching back to 1847. Its predecessor reached the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois, in 1854 and helped establish the first railroad bridge across that river in 1856.
From Chicago, the Rock Island grew into a sprawling network across the Midwest, Great Plains, Southwest, and Texas. The line was known for freight, commuter service, and its stylish Rocket passenger trains, including the Peoria Rocket, Quad Cities Rocket, and Rocky Mountain Rocket. At the start of 1948, the reorganized company operated roughly 7,650 miles of track in fourteen states.
The Rock Island’s last decades were rough track, lean finances, bankruptcy, and a long, unsuccessful proposed merger with Union Pacific. It entered reorganization in March 1975; liquidation was ordered in January 1980, and systemwide abandonment followed that June. Its trains stopped running in 1980, but pieces of its former network survived under other railroads.
Our Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad collection celebrates the crews, commuters, shippers, railfans, and collectors who remember the red-and-yellow shield, the Rockets, and a railroad that left a very large ghost on the American map.