[RITSlist] Brass Switchkey railnews, V.14, #52, Sep 30, 07-6 (fwd)/RI 4-6-2

Thu Oct 4 00:01:25 CDT 2007

Jerry -

  Thanks for posting the story by Jim Johnson about Rock Island PACIFIC not  Hudson # 886 (actually # 887) and its relation to Peoria, Illinois.  I often wondered how it got from Glen Oak Park to a private museum.  Now I know the story.

  Les

Gerald Berwald <glb141072 at mchsi.com> wrote:
  Forwarded from the Brass Switchkey Railnews for your info. 

Jerry Berwald

                Remembering the RI's Peoria Rocket ~ Jim Johnson

    Referring to the article re the leaking rail tank car at Oskaloosa, guess I should have forwarded the article to you from the Oskaloosa Daily Herald where I worked some while a student at William Penn Univ. (it was College then).  This is, of course, former M&StL trackage, and would have included the Oskaloosa Shops where my grandfather toiled for three decades as an M&StL machinist.  Had this occurred while I was at Penn from 1959 to 1963, they probably wouldn't have even bothered to evacuate a campus of 250 students (it has 10 times that today).
    I HAVE forwarded you an article from the Peoria Journal Star in regard to Rock Island #886, a Hudson with a storied past AFTER it was retired and donated to the city.  The locomotive was placed below the hill in Glen Oak Park, where the only visitors it attracted were vandals.  Eager to rid themselves of an aging derelict, the Peoria Parks Supt. asked the infamous James G. Pate, head of public relations for the Rock Island, if they could get a scrap dealer to cut it up.  The mostly idiotic Pate told them they had his blessing as long as they first painted over the Rock Island logo and identification.  So, the parks director took the request to the Peoria Parks Board, among his members was the astute Louis B. Neumiller, CEO of Peoria-based Caterpillar Tractor Co., and who recognized the value of the railroad (any Cat executive, among whom included both my father and my future father-in-law, who dared take Ozark Airlines instead of The Peoria Rocket to Chicago could go fi!
nd a job at John Deere.  Thus, Cat employees on Cat business were frequent riders of The Rocket (and HATED it when the conventional streamlined Rocket was replaced by the Spanish-built Talgo "Jet Rocket," which was like riding a rattlesnake).  Fortunately, when the Jet Rocket, during a Board of Directors special, caused a cup of coffee to be dumped in the lap of a CRI&P board member, the lurching import was relegated to suburban service and conventional equipment returned to The Peoria Rocket's two daily Peoria-Chicago round trips, much to the delight of my dad.
    But getting back to Mr. Nuemiller, he was ALSO on the Rock Island's board, and was in serious disagreement with Pate's OK of the parks director's dumb request.  Both escaped with their jobs and little else.  Meanwhile, the 886 was moved to Detwiler Park, which borders Illinois 29 between Peoria and Chillicothe as well as the CRI&P right-of-way, where it stayed until some idiot allowed the private museum to buy it, move it, and force folks who used to view it for free to pay a fee to get in and see it.  Too bad Neumiller didn't live forever -- but I do not doubt that he rolled over in his grave!

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