Re: [CBQ] Last Steam Locomotive in Mt. Morris?

["Q5632West" <bill.diven@gmail.com>]

Hi all:

Engineer Henry "Hank" Fruit said when he first went firing on the old C&I line in 1920, he lived in Forreston and roomed with conductor Jim Kereven's family although more often stayed at a hotel. Also said he got the job because no one in Aurora would take it when he was trying to get back on the the Q after first hiring out before going into WWI. He worked Aurora, Streator and Galesburg for a while and came to Oregon after the Mt. Morris-Forreston portion of the line was abandoned in 1932.

I recall someone saying the Oregon job was based in Rochelle although maybe not for long after the line stubbed at Mt. Morris.

I have nothing on when the Oregon wye was built, but it was off what was called the CB&N track that ran between east and west Oregon along the southern perimeter of the property sort of off by itself. West Oregon was known as CB&N Junction. That has me wondering if the wye doesn't go back to CB&N construction ca. 1886. I don't know what facilities CB&N might have had in what was plenty of open space in the yard by the time I came along. Oregon technically was that road's eastern terminal even though the Q treated the C&I and CB&N as seamless parts of the overall operation.

Bill

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