Twin Star Rocket

CRI&PTWIN STAR ROCKETMinneapolis - Houston(January 14, 1945)1,363 miles

The Twin Star Rocket was a passenger train operated by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. It was the only new streamlined train permitted to enter service in World War II by the U.S. Government.cn|date=August 2008 The new train became the longest north–south train route in the United States with its northern terminal at the Milwaukee Road’s Minneapolis, Minnesota depot and southern terminal convert|1363|mi away at Houston, Texas. The name of the new streamlined train was derived from its terminal states—Texas being known as the "Lone Star State" and Minnesota as the "North Star State". The Rock Island assigned the two "Rocket" train sets from the "Kansas City–Minneapolis Rocket", and one train set from the Kansas City–Dallas "Texas Rocket" was transferred to the new "Twin Star Rocket". The other "Texas Rocket" train set then began operating a daily round trip "Rocket" service between Oklahoma City and Kansas City. While another of the three car "Rocket" trains operated a Oklahoma City–Dallas round trip daily. The new "Twin Star Rocket" operated the Minneapolis–Kansas City segment of the trip in daylight hours in both directions, so no sleeping cars were initially carried between those city pairs. At Kansas City the southbound "Twin Star Rocket" added a lightweight 8-section, 5-double bedroom sleeping car for the overnight run to Houston. The northbound train carried another 8-section, 5-double bedroom sleeping car between Houston and Kansas City. The two lightweight streamlined 8-section 5-double bedroom sleeping cars originally assigned to the "Twin Star Rocket" were "Forest Canyon" and "Thompson Canyon", the two cars originally assigned to the "Rocky Mountain Rocket" as Kansas City–Denver cars. The "Twin Star Rocket" route served St. Paul (Union Depot), Albert Lea, Des Moines, Kansas City, Topeka, Wichita, El Reno, Fort Worth and Dallas in route to Houston from Minneapolis. The Rock Island powered these three streamlined consists with EMD E6A units taken from other schedules. Each train set was assigned a heavyweight baggage-30-foot Railway Post Office cars, streamlined dining cars came from the "Golden State" and were known as the "Cactus" series as each was named for a cactus—#422 "Yucca"; #423 "Sahuaro"; and #424 "Ocotillo". It would be 1948 before the "Twin Star Rockets" would become fully streamlined.