Glad to see interest in one of my favorite trains (47-48) that I rode in
the baggage cars from Rock Island to Savanna and back. I'm going
to take the liberty to add some additional information concerning 47-48.
First, it was true that John Deere personnel used the trains frequently prior to
better roads and air transportation. Deere & Co. (the name for John
Deere's corporate headquarters in Moline then and still now) and six of it's
John Deere manufacturing units were located at that time in Moline and East
Moline. Also, in the late 40's and early 50's Deere had sales
branches in Moline, St. Louis and Minneapolis. It was obvious
why this particular train was advantageous for Deere personnel to travel between
all these locations.
To more correctly describe how the train moved let me add a comment or
two for that purpose. The train entered the Tri-Cities (now
Quad-Cities) going North from Barstow then through Silvis, East Moline, Moline
and stopping in Rock Island to pick up the Pullman. This was almost all on
CB&Q trackage. The Burlington and the Milwaukee did have, since early
in the Century, control of the Davenport, Rock Island and Northwestern Railroad
(DRI&NW) which had parallel trackage most of the way and provided
the Milwaukee access to the same areas. This will be covered more
thoroughly in a future Bulletin. Out of Rock Island the train proceded
over the Crescent Bridge and into Davenport's Union Station. After
Davenport the train pro- ceded up the west side of the Mississippi River on
DRI&NW trackage to Clinton, Iowa. At Clinton the train utilized the
C&NW bridge to again return to the Illinois side and continued to
Savanna, Illinois.
At Savanna the train was broken up with the RPO, certain coach(s) and
Pullman being transferred to the Minneapolis/St. Paul
bound Blackhawk. The crew members and the other equipment would
remain in Savanna for the Chicago bound Blackhawk a few hours later and the
whole process reversed. We actually slept in one of the baggage cars for
those few hours.
As already indicated by the mid 1950's the schedules had
been considerably changed and part of the route was even handled for a
short time by a gas/electric out of Rock Island.
I hope this further clarifies 47-48, but to make it more
interesting, through the war years there was a sister train 51-52 that left
St. Louis and started this run in the evening. I never saw anything on
these trains except HW cars.
Jerry Lundeen