Review: Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line

Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Fine Line by Gregory L. Schneider
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Those who are interested in the history of the Rock Island Lines likely would begin their studies with a company-friendly history from the early 1950s called “Iron Road to Empire”. In that book, the author describes the founding of the railroad and on through the growth of the company into the 1950s, where the future looked exceedingly bright. “Rock Island Requiem” could be volume 2 of a complete history of the company, starting at its apex in the postwar 40s and 50s and through its decline and eventual liquidation in the 1980s. Except for a few good years, the Rock was in decline during this time described in this book. Notable were the political and legal machinations of the Rock and a few of its regional competitors, with the biggest issue being the prospective merger of the regional Rock with the national powerhouse Union Pacific. This merger is caught in governmental bureaucracy and legal challenges for many years, eliminating over time the value of the Rock to the UP or any other line. The weakened railroad went bankrupt, but operated in bankruptcy for many years until losses sealed its fate. The post bankruptcy liquidation was quite successful, though, leaving a rail car leasing company that was subsequently purchased by Maytag.

Author Schneider describes the action quite thoroughly throughout the period covered. “Iron Road to Empire” portrayed the early history of the railroad using substantial references to financial terms of mergers and operations. “Rock Island Requiem” similarly relates the later history of the Rock through the use of documentation of governmental and regulatory meetings. This story revolves around lawyers. This could have been extremely dry reading, but the author was able to inject some of the personality of the lawyers involved so that the reader could at times predict what reactions would occur after meetings. There were times when the author repeated anecdotes, but thankfully this didn’t happen often. I feel the author did a reasonable job with dry source material, but I can also imagine a more personality driven take on the decline of the railroad could be quite interesting. Seems like the makings of a miniseries in this story.

There were a couple of takeaways that I had from the book. First, the question at the end of the book is whether the Rock’s unions killed the company, or if the strike that marked the company’s demise was too late to have made a difference. The author describes both sides of that argument well. Union management doesn’t shine in this description, but their actions may well have been too late to matter.

Second, I grew up in Rock Island County not far from the Rock’s Silvis yards. My uncle worked for the Rock most of his career, and lost his job during the bankruptcy. I expected much of the story would take place in Rock Island. I was very wrong. There is barely a mention of the area I’m from – just some talk about the Silvis yards and the Rock Island Rocket passenger train route between Rock Island and Chicago. A majority of the events here happen in courthouses and meeting rooms in Chicago and Washington DC. I did get some small-town enjoyment out of reading where some of the rail segments that were split off of the Rock’s trackage and sold or abandoned began or ended in various nearby small towns in Northwestern Illinois and Eastern Iowa. There are probably not very many books that mention Bureau Junction, Illinois. This is one of them.


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