NEWSFLASH: Changes at the ROCK

- NewsFlash –
May 31^st, 2013

On Friday, May 31^st, the Rock Island Railroad: Illinois Division officially shut down.

The notion to build the Rock Island Railroad: Illinois Division was conceived in April 2010.  By May 28^th, 2010 construction had begun.  In six short months, the layout was operational.  For the next two and a half years, the railroad operated eleven times, by eight different operators moving a total of 166 freight and passenger trains.

In late January this year, the CEO of the Rock Island Railroad began exploring ideas of building a new model railroad.  As research was gathered, it became evident that change was eminent. 

The Board of Directors met behind closed doors debating for some time the viability of a new layout, quickly nicknamed 2.0.  It was not an easy decision to make as it met great opposition.  In the end, it was decided it was best to focus on modeling the Rock Island prototypically verses having a larger layout that exhibited no real identification of the ROCK. 

- Newsflash –

June 1^st, 2013

Effective, June 1^st, the Rock Island: Ottawa Sands (2.0) has been created.  Steven Johnson, CEO of the Rock Island: Illinois Division has been nominated as CEO of the Rock Island: Ottawa Sands.  Steven will oversee the transition to the new layout.  The railroad expects to be offline for approximately one year during this transition period. 

There will be a liquidation of quite a few assets from the Rock Island: Illinois Division as they will not be required on the new layout. 

The CEO reports the following surplus equipment will be for sale.  Please contact the CEO if you would like more information:

·         Various DPM city/town structures

·         Other various industrial building kits (mostly assembled)

·         Union Pacific & Southern Pacific Wheels of Time passenger cars

·         Various Rock Island locomotives

·         Various vehicles and tractor trailers

·         (61) Various freight cars mostly from the late 70s era

·         Tunnel Portals

·         Kato Bridges

·         (22) Micro-Mark Car Card Boxes

Destruction of the Rock Island: Illinois Division will commence in early July.  The CEO projects that benchwork on the Rock Island: Ottawa Sands layout will begin sometime in August.

- News Update -

June 3rd, 2013

The blog is in the process of being updated to represent the new Rock Island: Ottawa Sands entity.  Some pages have already been updated as well as the overall appearance of the blog.