Rock Island Caboose 17120
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway (Rock Island) bay window caboose 17120 was one of 75 added to the railroad’s roster in 1967, the largest caboose order in the company’s history. Union Pacific Railroad (UP) purchased 130 steel cabooses during the 1967-1971 timeframe that were built by International Car Co. and leased to Rock Island, including 17120. These cabooses were returned to UP when Rock Island went bankrupt in 1980. 17120 was subsequently painted into the UP paint scheme, classified as a CA-13 type caboose and numbered UP 24538.
Our Rock Island bay window caboose was painted back into its red, yellow and black scheme in spring 2025. The “TUC POOL” designation below the number means this caboose served the Rock Island in its Tucumcari (New Mexico) equipment pool. Tucumcari was near the western end of the railroad, where its mainline from Kansas City (Golden State Route) and mainline from Memphis (Choctaw Route) converged and interchanged with Southern Pacific Railroad (SP) serving the southwest and Pacific Coast. Bay window cabooses became more popular as freight cars became larger, especially taller, in the 1950s, blocking the view traditionally available from the cupola atop earlier cabooses.
Rock Island’s origin dates back to 1847. In subsequent decades, Chicago-headquartered Rock Island expanded into a system with lines that stretched to Minneapolis, Minn.; Omaha, Neb.; Denver, Colo.; Dallas, Texas; Kansas City and St. Louis, Mo.; Des Moines, Iowa; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Memphis, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark.; and into Louisiana.
Rock Island served Wichita, Kan., on its line from Herrington, Kan., to Texas. Southern Pacific (SP) and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) railroads acquired Rock Island Lines in Kansas when the latter went bankrupt in 1980. MKT was purchased by Union Pacific (UP) in 1988 and SP was acquired by UP in 1996. UP operates on former Rock Island and Missouri Pacific (MoPac) lines in the Wichita area. MoPac was acquired by UP in 1982.