Bicentennial Independence Paint & History

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Last revised: September 10, 2026

By: Adam Burns

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific 652 is an Electro-Motive E8A, serial 15199, outshopped at La Grange in March 1952. For twenty-four years it was one E among the Rocket pool. In 1976 Chicago’s 20th Century Railroad Club won a contest to paint it for the Bicentennial. The flanks lettered Independence in white script on red. The nose stayed The Rock’s powder blue, with the R herald and the number 652. The club’s name went on the cab door. No other Rock Island passenger unit received a 1970s repaint. 652 wore that scheme on the Peoria Rocket and the Quad Cities Rocket until the railroad’s last intercity trains on December 31, 1978.

Rock Island E8A 652, lettered Independence, leads the Peoria Rocket across 16th Street in Chicago, March 1976. Rick Burn photo.

On this page:
At a glance ·
La Grange, 1952 ·
Rocket service ·
Independence ·
Bicentennial Rocket ·
Last Rockets, 1978 ·
Midland, Kansas City, Manly ·
Specifications

At a glance

Builder data from the EMD order book as tabulated on the American-Rails E8 roster and The Diesel Shop CRIP list. Information compiled September 10, 2026.

La Grange, March 1952

Electro-Motive introduced the E8 in August 1949 with demonstrator 952, which the Rock Island later bought as 643. The production A unit made 2,250 horsepower from two 12-cylinder 567B engines, rode a 70-foot 3-inch carbody, and weighed about 316,500 pounds. Farr-air grilles along the upper sides are the spotting feature against an E7. The type encyclopedia, including the full production roster, is EMD E8.

Rock Island took thirteen new E8As from the factory: 643 (the demonstrator) and 644–655. Order 2032 delivered 644–649 in June–July 1951. Order 2047 delivered 650–655 in February–March 1952, serials 15197–15202. 652 is frame 2047-A3, serial 15199, March 1952. A later E8A, 656, was a December 1953 rebuild of E6A 627, not a new locomotive. Union Pacific E8s bought used in the late 1960s became 657 and up; those are a different story, on the Rock Island diesel roster.

As-built, 652 wore the Rocket passenger dress: maroon (later described as crimson) with stainless and light trim. Electro-Motive issued a builder photograph of the fresh unit in early 1952; that print lives on the E8 page. The locomotive went into the pool that protected the Rocky Mountain Rocket, the Twin Star Rocket, the Golden State on Rock Island rails, Chicago commuter trains out of LaSalle Street, and, as the long-distance map shrank, the two Illinois leftovers that outlived Amtrak Day.

Twenty-four years in the Rocket pool

Photographs pin 652 to the work. In September 1962 it headed train 17, the Twin Star Rocket, north of Northfield, Minnesota. In June 1967 it was on the remnant of the Rocky Mountain Rocket through Pilcher Park between New Lenox and Joliet, with mail and magazine trailers in the consist. On March 29, 1971, it led train 6, the Quad Cities Rocket, at Joliet. By the mid-1970s the long-distance names were gone. What remained were two state-subsidized Illinois trains the Rock Island kept because it could not afford Amtrak’s entry fee: Chicago–Peoria and Chicago–Rock Island. The named-train encyclopedias stay on Peoria Rocket and Quad Cities Rocket. 652 was power on both.

Paint around it changed while the carbody stayed an E8. Maroon with chevrons gave way to a plain crimson dip, then to the bright red-and-yellow speed lettering that appeared on E8 648 about 1969. Freight units began coming out of Silvis in The Rock powder blue in April 1975, starting with GP7R 4508. Passenger E units did not get that blue as a class. 652 is the exception that was not blue all over.

Independence

Of 46 Class I railroads in 1976, 31 painted at least one diesel red, white, and blue. Most wrapped a hood unit in stars, stripes, and a 1776 or 1976 number. The Rock Island did not renumber 652. It did not apply a flag wrap. Chicago’s 20th Century Railroad Club held a contest for the scheme, the same method the Central Indiana Railroad Club used on Indianapolis Union SW1500 23. The winning design put The Rock’s new powder-blue nose and cab on an E8, the road’s R herald on the front, the number 652 in the numberboards and on the nose, and a red flank panel lettered Independence in large white script, with THE ROCK and 652 on that same red field. A light stripe separated the blue roof from the red side. The club’s name is on the cab door.

That mix is why the locomotive looks like no other Bicentennial. The nose is a 1975 Rock Island freight identity. The flanks are a name, not a flag. Railfans argued then, and still argue, whether the sides work. The front, in the 16th Street photograph, is the part that reads as The Rock in 1976.

652 was already in the scheme on regular Peoria Rocket assignments in March 1976, when Rick Burn caught it at 16th Street with two stainless cars and the interlocking tower behind. It was the only Rock Island passenger locomotive given a new coat in the mid-to-late 1970s. Everything else in the E pool ran in whatever red, crimson, or faded maroon it still had.

Rock Island E8A 652 at the 47th Street Shops in Chicago, circa 1977. The 20th Century Railroad Club’s name is on the cab door. American-Rails.com collection.

The Bicentennial Rocket, May 16, 1976

The club’s public debut was Railfair ’76. On Sunday, May 16, 1976, 652 headed the Bicentennial Rocket, an eight-car excursion from Chicago to Bureau, Illinois, and return. Bureau is where the Peoria branch leaves the Chicago–Rock Island main. John Dziobko photographed the train leaving Chicago at Roosevelt Road. George Strombeck had it through Ottawa. Ken Carlson had it at New Lenox. The trip is the official maiden voyage of the paint in fan-trip service. The locomotive went back to trains 5, 6, 11, and 12 afterward. John Dziobko had it on the Quad Cities Rocket at Geneseo on June 15, 1976, and on the Peoria Rocket west out of Chicago later that year.

December 31, 1978

The Rock Island had filed bankruptcy on March 17, 1975. Illinois kept a subsidy under the two remaining Rockets. Track was slow. Consists shrank to a couple of cars. 652 was still the celebrity on the point when a photographer wanted the Independence scheme, and still just another E8 when the shop needed a unit that would start. The last revenue runs of the Peoria Rocket and the Quad Cities Rocket were December 31, 1978. A deadhead back to Chicago on New Year’s Day, in a blizzard, closed the passenger book. The Rock Island itself was liquidated in 1980. Chicago commuter trains on the Rock Island District passed to what became Metra. They did not need an E8 named Independence.

Midland, Kansas City, Manly

652 survived the Silvis scrappings that took most of the E fleet. It went to the Midland Railway at Baldwin City, Kansas, and ran tourist trains on the former Santa Fe Baldwin City–Ottawa branch for about a decade, often with E6A 630. A cab ride on 652 was recorded there on October 19, 1995. The pair were sold in 2009 to the Manly Junction Railroad Museum, founded by Iowa Northern president Dan Sabin, a former Rock Island man. A condemned bridge left them landlocked. In early 2012 they moved to Mid-America Car in Kansas City. The shop repainted 652 into a simplified 1960s Rock Island red-and-silver—the Rocket look, not Independence. A first attempt at the stripes had to be corrected from the as-built drawing.

The two units reached Manly, Iowa, in 2017 and made a public appearance at the Hub City Heritage Railroad Museum in Oelwein on August 19, 2017. They sat on a back track in the Iowa Northern yard at Manly for several years, still the last remaining Rock Island E units. On January 31, 2026, 630 and 652 were shoved into the new Manly Junction Railroad Museum building. That is where they are as of this writing. Iowa Northern’s roster still lists 652 as an E8A, March 1952, on display, built as Rock Island 652. The short line is Iowa Northern.

Specifications (E8A 652 as built)

Dimensions and weights are EMD E8A class figures from the American-Rails E8 data sheet, applied to this serial. 652 was not rebuilt to a later E rating.

Related reading on American-Rails.com

Sources

• EMD order 2047, serials 15197–15202 (Rock Island 650–655), February–March 1952. 652 = serial 15199, frame 2047-A3. The Diesel Shop CRIP all-time roster (revised March 18, 2025); American-Rails E8 roster and data sheet
• American-Rails.com, “Bicentennial Locomotives.” Rock Island 652 roster line: serial 15199, name Independence, designed by the 20th Century Railroad Club. 47th Street Shops photograph circa 1977
• Trains.com, “Bicentennial diesel locomotives photo gallery.” 20th Century Railroad Club contest for Rock Island E8 652
• Railfair ’76 / Bicentennial Rocket, Chicago–Bureau, Sunday, May 16, 1976. Photographs: John Dziobko (Roosevelt Road departure); Ken Carlson (New Lenox); George Strombeck (Ottawa)
• Rick Burn photograph, 16th Street, Chicago, March 1976, 652 on the Peoria Rocket
• Last Rock Island intercity passenger trains, December 31, 1978 (Peoria Rocket and Quad Cities Rocket). Illinois subsidy; IDOT cutoff January 1, 1979. Passenger Train Journal / Peoria Journal Star contemporary notices
• Midland Railway, Baldwin City, Kansas, operating era (including October 19, 1995 cab ride). Sale to Manly Junction Railroad Museum, 2009 (Dan Sabin / Iowa Northern). Mid-America Car, Kansas City, 2012. Arrival at Manly, 2017; Oelwein public appearance August 19, 2017. Move into the new Manly Junction Railroad Museum building, January 31, 2026
• Iowa Northern Railway roster: 652, E8A, March 1952, on display, built as Rock Island 652. Companion E6A 630