History of the Rock Island's Twin Star Rocket

[@garythac1304]

Thanks for sharing.

[@TexasRailfan21-RailfanRyan]

It’s historically noted that originally the twin star rocket had a streamlined train that was similar in design to the pioneer zephyr, but slightly different in shape that had a special logo, depicting the twin star name on the front

[@danielboone3770]

I love the Twin Star Rocket!

[@davidboehmer4359]

I rode it as a kid to KC from Houston Texas

[@ronclark9724]

I rode the Twin Star Rocket from Fort Worth to Minneapolis. I don't recall ever waiting for a freight train riding her Nothing got in the way of the Twin Star Rocket. Nothing...

[@TikiIsland]

Rode it several times between 1955 and 1964 for trips between Houston and Des Moines to visit my grandparents in Boone Iowa. The last trip in the late summer of 1964 yielded the sad information told to me by the conductor of the upcoming cutback of service to Minneapolis to Ft Worth. Two years later it was cut back to Kansas City.

[@PixicsAdventure]

You really took a deep dive, nice presentation. I would give you an A.

[@thetrainhopper8992]

Thank you. I'm all about the deep dives.

[@intercityrailpal]

Should only be your start of research not the only research. This train is major gap in the Amtrak system today.

[@xprezeu]

My great grandfather was a conducter for the Rock island out of Arkansas ? It eventually went to California. His last name was Culver but I can’t find him. Marion Culver was his name. Anyway I can find him and it a picture ? Thank you 😊

[@jerryjessejamie]

Mu great grandfather came to rock islandabout 1900 and he worked for rock island line abd retired from there he lived until 1978 at 93 he passrd

[@DillonMcadams]

Pronounce it TIG -lol! You should visit our museum here in Teague sometime in the old depot. We have lots and lots of photos from the T&BV era as well as BRI and everything in between.

[@osmanjeffrey]

Good overview of heartland rails, TH. I got some chuckles from your descriptions of the chicanery performed by the local "chambers of commerce" in terms of land use/station locations/general outlook on humankind. Side note: the remains of the Twin Star ran until 1969 as "The Plainsman" trains 17 and18 between the Twins and K.C. Your ongoing history of dining service is a topic I truly enjoy. One of life's simple pleasures is eating in the diner gazing out at places not seen before or old familiar sites. I've only been in a diner galley once, and that was on a car that was being moved from the yard to a private site downstate (yes, on the Rock Island) and have often wondered at how the magic of cooking meals really works. Let's face it, there ain't much room to work in, let alone mess things up and have to Undo the mess. In your research, does it appear that galleys were pretty standard across the board. Given that the builders were basically three companies and the economics of standardization would play a big role in manufacture, I suspect a chef could leave his job on the New York Central and start the next day on the Burlington and already know the layout. Thoughts? Thanks again for enlightening us fans and the otherwise curious.

[@thetrainhopper8992]

I'm not sure if there was consistency between kitchens. I'd imagine each railroad would have a standard layout to make crew assignments easier, but I'm not sure if they were consistent beyond that.

[@intercityrailpal]

Train was delayed by slow orders, and loss of mail and packages killed this like thousands of others. Plus remember the ticket taxes used to help build airports and highways at the railroads expense. Mail under 1000 miles was just as fast as air. Most mail moves less than that. It's all truck today and being moved to XPO trucking which being controlled by De Joy. Is a conflict of interest. But he was a Trump donor, so it's OK to ruin the Post Office and use his truck line./