Growing up in Oklahoma City in the 70s, I lived in what was then a newish neighborhood that had a local Rock Island branch running right through it. My earliest childhood memories of trains are being able to look to the end of my street and, between houses, see that train go by. As I got older, much of my time was spent along the ROW in a tree house we built next to the tracks and exploring the tracks on our bikes for a mile or so in each direction, all while waiting for that (sometimes) daily switcher run with an SW engine in the lead and a transfer caboose on the rear.
Going to my Dad's office downtown required crossing over the Rock Island main and, once we got onto I-40, you could see another grade crossing down the road from the highway. To this day, I have vivid memories of seeing Rock Island freights blasting through at both of those spots. Throw in annual visits to the State Fair, where the CRIP main ran right through the south end of fair grounds (and where the American Freedom Train parked in 1975), and the Rock Island was always a big part of my youth.
As an adult, I bought a condo about a half mile from my parents' house, just north of the same neighborhood where I grew up. And what bordered the north end of the condominiums' property? Yep, the abandoned ROW of that same Rock Island local branch I spent chasing in my youth. From that condo, many mountain bike expeditions were spent exploring that old ROW and many road bike rides were spent lapping around the old main line and circus sidings at the fair grounds. IIRC, there was still an old Rock Island signal present along the main (now operated by the UP) into the 90s and the Rock Island name is still clearly visible on a nearby bridge. (Forgot to mention another famous Rock Island spot nearby that survived its original owner by more than 35 years; The old Rock Island diesel service shop in El Reno. I last visited in 1994 and, after becoming a magnet for trouble in the 2000s, it was finally demolished by the city in the last five years or so. To see how it looked at the end, go here.)
When I got married (my wife's father worked on a Rock Island track gang in his youth in western Oklahoma) and knowing we'd be taking care of my parents, we looked at a house nearby in the neighborhood that had backed up to the old local branch line of my youth. Long abandoned after the UP took over MKT (and the then-OKT), the ROW had been ceded over to the adjacent property owners and a fence had been extended to the new property line. While that was certainly an attractive element to this buyer, sadly other parts of the house just didn't make the grade, and I missed my chance to own a piece of the Rock Island. We bought another house in the neighborhood instead however, and I was still able to show my son where the Rock Island once ran at many spots nearby.
Today, the old Rock Island main through OKC is the UP Oklahoma City sub, though it's basically a branch line serving local customers. The better part of the line westward from the yard east of downtown is now considered yard limits so, on the rare occasion when you do see a train, they're not hard to catch and photograph. On top of all that, a friend's house in Okarche, OK backs up to former Rock Island tracks and what is now the Union Pacific Enid sub between Wichita and Fort Worth. As he has a camera positioned to watch the weather (that also captures the tracks), I can still see trains running on that mighty fine line…
redrockbill
