 The conversion of the Rock Island to diesel locomotives, completed by 1952, rendered portions of the Fairbury yards obsolete.The decrease in passenger railway traffic after World War II led to the reduction of service, the closing of stations, and the abandonment of track.In 1965, the Rock Island's Chicago-to-Denver "Rocky Mountain Rocket" train ceased to run through Fairbury; in that same year, the railway relocated its Western Division headquarters from Fairbury to Des Moines, Iowa.