Rock Island the Rail

choi

Patrick Cooke, A Fabled Line, Off the Rails; as planes and trucks poached business from trains, railroads pleaded with Congress to deregulate their industry—to no avail. Wall Street Journal, Jan 14, 2014
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304591604579289410386509076
(book review on Gregory L Schneider, Rock Island Requiem; The collapse of a mighty fine line. University Press of Kansas, 2013)

Note:
(a) University of Kansas (KU): established in 1865; main campus located in Lawrence (western suburb of Kansas City, Kansas)

(b) "With some 7,000 miles of track from Chicago and St Louis to Galveston, Texas, and Tucumcari, NM, the line [Rock Island railroad, 'chartered in 1847'] built a latticework of influence across 13 states. The approach of a two-mile long 'Rock' brought with it the passing music of American prosperity. For generations it beckoned and comforted. A Rock Island train was that lonesome whistle in the night.
(i) Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago,_Rock_Island_and_Pacific_Railroad
(The company was originally founded in Rock Island, Illinois, and the railroad was popularized in the song "Rock Island Line;" Headquarters  Chicago; Also during the 1870s, the railroad acquired several "firsts" — the first dining cars and Jesse James's first train holdup; In March 1975 filed for bankruptcy and inAugust of that year Union Pacific withdrew its merger offer; in 1980 ceased operation; William M Gibbons, bankruptcy trustee in that case (1975 – 1984), "raise[d] more than $500 million in the liquidation, paying off all the railroad's creditors, bondholders and all other debts in full at face value with interest;"  Ironically, through the mega mergers of the 1990s UP ultimately ended up owning and operating more of the Rock Island than it would have acquired in its attempted 1964 merger)
(ii) Rock Island, Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Island,_Illinois
(now a city; "The original Rock Island, from which the city gets its name, is the largest island in the Mississippi River. It is now called Arsenal Island")

(c) "One of those beguiled by the railroad's song was Illinois native Gregory L Schneider, a history professor at Emporia State University"
(i) Emporia State University
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emporia_State_University
(state university; in the city of Emporia [108 miles (174 km) southwest of Kansas City, with Lawrence sandwiched in between; founded in 1857, drawing its name from ancient Carthaginian Africa (Wikipedia)]; established in 1863)
(ii) Shari Scribner (assistant archivist), Emporia, Kansas: From the Beginning. Emporia State University, Feb 25, 2013 (blog)
blogs.emporia.edu/faculty/specialcollectionsandarchives/posts/02/25/2013/emporia-kansas-from-the-beginning/
("Emporia, Kansas, was founded on February 20, 1857, by The Emporia Town Company. Emporia was named after an ancient Greek market center located south of Carthage [which is a present-day suburb of Tunis, Tunisia], in North Africa, in  hopes that the town would become a thriving business community")
(iii) Generally speaking:

Emporium (antiquity)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emporium_(antiquity)
(Emporia functioned much like European trading colonies in China)

(d) "But trouble was up the line beginning in the late 1950s, not only for Rock Island but also for the entire railroad industry. There were featherbedding labor unions. (The job of stoking the fire on a steam engine was protected until the 1960s, long after diesel engines came into use.) * * * Rock Island, a fair catch with thousands of miles of track across the agricultural Midwest, found a willing partner in the Union Pacific UNP in  Your Value Your Change Short position (of western trans-continental-railroad fame) looking to expand its reach to Chicago and St Louis. * * * the approval [from ICC] would take 11 years to achieve. There would be challenges from spurned suitors, particularly from Ben Heineman, chairman of the Chicago & North Western Railway, who feared the merger would decimate his own railroad if the combined companies were allowed to operate through Chicago. * * * By the time the merger was approved in 1974, the Union Pacific had lost interest in Rock Island. No one, in fact, wanted the railroad."
(i) featherbedding
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Featherbedding
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) "Union Pacific (of western trans-continental-railroad fame)"

First Transcontinental Railroad
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Transcontinental_Railroad
("the Central Pacific Railroad Company of California eastward from Sacramento to Promontory Summit, Utah Territory (U.T.) (690 miles), and the Union Pacific Railroad Company westward to Promontory Summit from the road's statutory Eastern terminus at Council Bluffs on the eastern shore of the Missouri River opposite Omaha, Nebraska (1,085 miles)")
(iii) Interstate Commerce Commission
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Commerce_Commission
(1887-1996)
(iv) Chicago & North Western Railway
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_%26_North_Western_Railway
(1865–1995; Headquarters Chicago; Successor  [mostly] Union Pacific [see map])

(e) "In March 1975, the company filed for bankruptcy in the forlorn hope that Congress would provide a bailout. After all, it had come to the rescue a year earlier when it created Conrail, a mash up of seven East Coast railroads. But that merger was already proving to be a corporate welfare case costing $2 billion in federal assistance in the first year alone. Taxpayers were in no mood to further nationalize the industry."

Conrail
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrail
(Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail; Nixon signed Regional Rail Reorganization Act [colloquially, 3R Act] of 1973 into law, whcih authorized the 1974 incorporation of United States Railway Association (USAR); taken over by two private rail companies (CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway), and split between themDates of operation 1976-1999)

(f) "the Hon[orable] Frank McGarr [was] the long-suffering judge who presided for nine years over the final liquidation of the company's assets. The author might have animated his tale a bit had he limned the personalities and motivations of a few key players"
(i) The bankruptcy proceeding of Rock Island spanned tumultuous years in the history of US bankruptcy law. About the judge and legal landscape, view the third posting (below).  
(ii) limn (vt; Middle English limnen to illuminate)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/limn

(g) "One illuminating surprise is the appearance in the story of an unlikely hero, Jimmy Carter, who signed the Staggers Rail Act in 1980, which brought about partial deregulation and helped revitalize the industry. Sadly, this white knight came too late to save the Rock Island Line. The railroad that had once been held up by the outlaw Jesse James found itself, in the end, robbed again."

Staggers Rail Act
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staggers_Rail_Act
(section 2.1 Sponsor)

choi

FK Plous, Day Trips; A Rare Ride on the Rock Island Line. Chicago Reader, Oct 11, 1990.
www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/da ... /Content?oid=876481

Quote:

"Rock Island's stockholders [hence creditors in a bankruptcy proceding, opposite a debtor] finally persuaded US District Court Judge Frank McGarr that their railroad--operating in bankruptcy since 1975--was worth more dead than alive [calling for asset liquidation].  

"The original end of the Rock Island line had been its namesake city on the Mississippi, site of the US Army's Rock Island arsenal. But the directors had ambitions. They extended the road to Omaha, the starting point of the railroad Union Pacific had begun building toward the west coast after the Civil War. Trying to reach Omaha may have been the Rock's undoing.

"four-fifths of the Rock's tracks are still being used. Metra, for example, carries 33,000 riders a day in the Chicago-Joliet commuter corridor, which it totally rehabilitated. * * * But the resurrected Rock has no passenger trains. Amtrak's sole Chicago-to-Omaha train uses the competing Burlington Northern tracks. That's something of a shame. Rail enthusiasts agree that of the six lines running west from Chicago to the Union Pacific line, the Rock's was the prettiest. The 61 miles paralleling the Illinois River west of Joliet are postcard stuff--mingled water, foliage, farms, and villages. West of Bureau the line leaves the river, twisting along the Illinois' tributaries as it climbs out of the valley and up onto the plateau of cornfields. For 15 miles it follows the old Hennepin Canal, which connects the Illinois with the Rock River. Recreational boaters sail through the old wooden lock gates into a time warp.

Note:
(a) Omaha, Nebraska
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omaha, Nebraska
(the largest city in the state of Nebraska [wose capital is Lincoln]; The word Omaha (actually Umoⁿhoⁿ or Umaⁿhaⁿ) means "Dwellers on the bluff")

(b) Joliet, Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joliet,_Illinois
(a city; located 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Chicago; French Canadian explorer Louis Jolliet, who in 1673, along with Father Jacques Marquette, paddled up the Des Plaines River [emptying into Illinois River; see map] and camped on a huge mound, a few miles south of present-day Joliet)
(i) Jolliet
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jolliet
(note the French pronunciation)
(ii) Note the city name has one letter L, whereas the explorer name has two.
  
(c) Bureau Junction, Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_Junction,_Illinois
(usually called Bureau; a village in Bureau County, Illinois; Bureau Junction was the point where the Rock Island Line railroad's branch line to Peoria split; section 1 History: The village is named for Michel or Pierre Bureau. Their original surname was probably Belleau. [Little else can be found about them online; The brother(s) ran a trading post near where Big Bureau Creek empties into the Illinois River (hence the place name "junction")])

* Illinois River
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_River
(This river flows west across northern Illinois * * * [In] Bureau County it turns south at an area known as the "Great Bend," flowing southwest)

(d) "For 15 miles it [Rock's track] follows the old Hennepin Canal, which connects the Illinois with the Rock River. Recreational boaters sail through the old wooden lock gates into a time warp.
(i)
(A) For the Hennepin Canal, see Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hennepin_Canal_Parkway_State_Park
(an abandoned waterway in northwest Illinois, between the Mississippi River at Rock Island and the Illinois River near Hennepin[, Illinois--a village on the Illinois River];  
(B) Richard W Steiger, Hennepin—First US Canal to Use Concrete for Locks, Dams, Viaducts; A commercial failture becomes a recreation success. The Aberdeen Group, Oct 1, 1992 (publication #C920729)
www.concreteconstruction.net/ima ... crete%20for%20Locks,%20Dams,%20Viaducts_tcm45-342463.pdf
(section heading "First concrete in US canals" on page 1; section heading "Railroads cause demise of the canal" and map on page 4)

Quote:
(ii) Rock River (Mississippi River)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_River_(Mississippi_River)
(approximately 299 miles (481 km) long; "joining the Mississippi at Rock Island. It was on the Rock River in Dixon where Ronald Reagan served as a lifeguard")
(iii) "the old wooden lock gates"
(A) Wht do they look like?

Jim & Judu Buzzard, Sunday Morning July 22, 2012 Ride on the Hennepin Canal. Trek by Jim & Judy, July 24, 2013
buzardjj.blogspot.com/2012/07/sunday-morning-july-22-2012-ride-on.html
(caption of photo no 7: "Lock 16 Miter Gates")
(B) Navigation Lock and Dam: Miter Gates. Management Measures Digital Library (MMDL); Floodwalls, levees, and dams, undated  
library.water-resources.us/docs/MMDL/FLD/Feature.cfm?ID=25
("A miter gate has two leaves that provide a closure at one end of the lock. The miter gate derives its name from the fact that the two leaves meet at an angle pointing upstream to resemble a miter joint. Horizontally framed miter gates have many advantages over other gate types and have been used on more locks than any other type gate. Miter gates are rugged and do not involve complicated construction problems. Miter gates are also easily serviced and fast operating. The only drawbacks arise from the inability of the gates to operate under head and to withstand reverse head")  
(C) miter joint
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miter_joint
(D) mitre
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre
(iv) Dixon, Illinois
(A) Ronald Reagan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan
(1911-2004; Born in Tampico, Illinois, and raised in Dixon)

Quote: "He attended Dixon High School * * * His first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park, near Dixon, in 1927. Over a six-year period, Reagan reportedly performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard, notching a mark on a wooden log for each one.

(B) History. Ronald Reagan Boyhood Home & Visitors Cente, undated
reaganhome.org/history
("The white house at 816 Hennepin Avenue was built by a man named William C Thompson, who built the house for $1,500 which included the barn out back. The Reagan family moved in on DEcember 6th, 1920, just 2 months shy of Ron turning 10. The Reagan's [sic] rented the home for $15 a month until 1923 where they then moved to other homes in Dixon. The Reagan's [sic] rented every home they lived in until Ron bought them their first house in California")

(e) "two Quad Cities housewives, Pam Siegert and Rose Ann Hass, decided the railroad was too good to be wasted on railroad men. They established Rails to the River and began chartering a special Amtrak excursion train to bring Chicago day-trippers to Rock Island each year during the height of the fall color season. They also chartered the paddle wheeler Quad City Queen to give their passengers a three-hour river cruise and lavish buffet lunch as the centerpiece of the trip."
(i) Quad Cities
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_Cities
(The name "Quad Cities" for a group of five has resulted from the history of the community [for that , see section 1.2 Evolution of an identity])
(ii) paddle wheeler
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddle_wheeler
(section 3 History, section 3.1 East Asia: The Chinese used the paddle-wheel ship even during the First Opium War (1839–1842) and for transport around the Pearl River during the early 20th century)

(f) "As the train rumbled over the drawbridge at Joliet, you could see that the surface of the water in the Sanitary and Ship Canal was higher than the roofs of the houses next to the dike--sort of like New Orleans or Holland. At Starved Rock the river behaved as rivers should, running safely between natural banks, placid and beautiful. At Sheffield the train passed a gigantic pig farm, where 50 or 60 piglets, unaccustomed to a speeding passenger train blaring its air horn, fled to their farrowing sheds"
(i) drawbridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawbridge
(ii) Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canalen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Sanitary_and_Ship_Canal(Before completion of the canal in 1900, the sewage in the Chicago River flowed into Lake Michigan, the city's drinking water supply)
(iii) And I thought Yellow River is the only river in the world whose riverbed is higher than its vincinites.
(iv) Starved Rock
(A) Starved Rock Lock and Dam
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starved_Rock_Lock_and_Dam
([constructed between 1926 and 1933, and] managed by the US Army Corps of Engineers along [within, but next to river bank of] the Illinois River)
(B) Starved Rock State Park
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starved_Rock_State_Park
(Located just southeast of the village of Utica, in Deer Park Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, along the south bank of the Illinois River; section 2 History, section 2.4 The "Starved Rock": There is no historical evidence that this siege ever happened)
(C) Starved Rock State Park - Voted the #1 attraction in the state of Illinois!
www.starvedrockstatepark.org/

Click "History" at the top horizontal bar.
(v) Sheffield, Illinois
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield,_Illinois
(a village in Bureau County)
(vi) farrow (v): "to give birth to (a farrow)"
farrow (n): "a litter of pigs"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farrow

choi

(a) Frank James McGarr
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_James_McGarr
(1921-2012; a federal judge on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois [1970-1988]; went into private practice after retirement in 1988)
Northern Pipeline Construction Company v Marathon Pipe Line Company
(b) Northern Pipeline Construction Company v Marathon Pipe Line Company
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Pipeline_Construction_Company_v._Marathon_Pipe_Line_Company
(inchronological order: (i) Under Bankruptcy Act of 1898, the federal district courts served as bankruptcy courts and appointed “referees” to conduct proceedings, so long as the district court chose not to withdraw a case from the referee. (i) Congress enacted Bankruptcy Act of 1978, created bankruptcy courts, eliminated the “referee” system and allowed the President to appoint bankruptcy judges [who will not have the protection of Article III judges] with the advice and consent of the Senate. (iii) Ruling Bankruptcy Act of 1978 was unconstitutional, United States Supreme Court held that Article III jurisdiction could not be conferred on Article I courts; )

United States Constitution has seven articles: Article I (Congress), Article II (executive branch), Article III (judiciary), among others.
(c) After this landmark decision, Congress scrambled to revise Bankruptcy Act of 1978, so that a bankruptcy judge would be appointed by United States Court of Appeals.
(d) Under the 1878 law, United States Attorney General appoints a United States Trustee to represent the interests of United States (US Trustee usually does not get involved in individual cases). Then in each bankruptcy case, a private bankruptcy trustee represents debtors and is paid with a portion of money recovered from bankruptcy estate.