Hey, Gargoyle - those are great sites, but I still didn't find the answer to the first question. Maybe it's there and I missed it - did they stop the trains and charge tolls according to the cargo? I've always wondered about that.
-Joe Offer-

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Here's what the Traditional Ballad Index says about this song:

Rock Island Line (I), The

DESCRIPTION: "The Rock Island Line is a mighty good road, The Rock Island Line is the road to ride." About life in general, engineering on the Rock Island Line, and anything else that can be zipped into the song
AUTHOR: unknown (heavily adapted by Huddie Ledbetter)
EARLIEST DATE: 1934 (recording, Kelly Pace et al)
KEYWORDS: railroading train nonballad floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Cohen-LSRail, pp. 472-477, "The Rock Island Line" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 102, "Rock Island Line" (1 text)
DT, ROCKISLL
ADDITIONAL: Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, pp. 80-81, "Rock Island Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #15211
RECORDINGS:
Lead Belly, "Rock Island Line" (on ClassRR)
Kelly Pace & group of prisoners, "Rock Island Line" (AFS 248 A1, 1934; on LC8, LCTreas)
NOTES: How much of this is genuinely "folk" is hard to tell. The earliest version collected [was] at Cummins Prison Farm (Arkansas) in 1934. The collection was made by John & Ruby Lomax; Lead Belly was their driver. Working from this and perhaps some floating material, Lead Belly created a song which he interspersed with patter about railroad work. The Weavers regularized this, and Alan Lomax added "new material"; one wonders if the prisoners would have recognized the result. - PJS, RBW
The core of the song performed by Lead Belly on his Library of Congress and early Asch recordings hews pretty closely to the version recorded by the prisoners; the Lomaxes' additions, if any, seem to have been minimal. - PJS
One of the verses found in revival versions is present [in the Pace recording on 1934], ("Jesus died to save me in all of my sin/Glory to God, we goin' to meet Him again"), as is the standard chorus.
Mr. Pace's name is spelled "Kelly" throughout LC8, but,"Kelley" on LC10. I have no idea which is correct. - PJS
Cohen uses the spelling "Kelly Pace," but of course he may have had the same problem.
Cohen also documents the evolution of the song, which apparently began as an Arkansas work song. Lead Belly, as noted, probably learned it in 1934. When he recorded it for the Library of Congress in 1937, he used a subset of the Pace verses, with a line of patter about cutting trees; the song is still a work song.
When Lead Belly recorded it again in 1944 for Capitol, he had added a couple of verses not from Pace ("I may be right and I may be wrong"; "A-B-C double X-Y-Z") and had a new line of railroad patter. Soon after, he recorded it for Folkways, in what seems to have become the canonical version, ending with him telling the rainroad agent, "I fooled you."
It's unfortunate we don't have more information about how Lead Belly performed the song in concert in these years. It's quite a demonstration of "live fire" folk process, though. - RBW
But we do; Lead Belly's only known live recording, made some six months before his death in 1949, includes "The Rock Island Line." He performs the patter as he does on his Folkways recordings, along with the additional "A, B, C" verse from the Capitol 78. He introduces the piece as a work song. -PJS
Last updated in version 3.5
File: FSWB102

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The Ballad Index Copyright 2016 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

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Here are the lyrics we have in the Digital Tradition:

THE ROCK ISLAND LINE (is a mighty fine line)
(Huddie Ledbetter)

A-B-C double X-Y-Z
Cat's in the cupboard and she cain't find me

cho: Oh the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine line
Oh the Rock Island Line is the road to ride
If you want to ride, you gotta ride it like you're flyin'
Get your ticket at the station on the Rock Island Line.

Maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong
Lawd you gonna miss me when I'm gone.

Jesus died to save our sins
Glory to God I'm gonna see Him again

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore
Smotin' the water with a two-by-four etc.

@railroad
filename[ ROCKISLL
TUNE FILE: ROCKISLL
CLICK TO PLAY
RG

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There's another Rock Island Line in the Digital Tradition that's a completely different song - and a very interesting one. Take a look.