My arrival on Q property was in the sixties. The Rock Falls wayfreight was run
out of Eola and powered, almost exclusively, by GP's. The occasional NW was
usually one of the ATC equipped engines going to, or coming from, inspection.
The two engines, 9208 and 9209, were assigned to Clyde RH. Fred Huntley was my
first Engineer on this job and the "Great White Hunter" was the Cond. though
the hunting expeditions had ceased by this time. Later times saw changes in
Engineer's, Conductor's and Brakemen as well as the job itself..
A certain, un-named, Brakeman was known to have, on several occasions, line the
derail under the waycar in his haste to restore the mainline switch at the east
leg of the wye in Earlville. These devices were, as it happened, pipe-connected
which means that to operate the switch was to operate the derail also, oh well,
they usually made it over a derail when going into a track. The portion of the
trip that ran over the C&NW seemed exceptionally long, actually it was very
short, just slow.
In later years two SD's were the standard power. In even later years NO power
was the standard.
The Rock Falls Yd., such as it was, used to be located just south of Dixon Ave.
about a half mile. There were two tracks and the main line. One of these tracks
was known as "the Great Eastern" and the other, I believe, was No. 1. The
enginehouse was situated at the edge of the Illinois-Michigan canal and the
tracks crossed the canal right by the house. The turntable was an air operated
affair and was a dream to use. Occasionally one of the NW's would show up going
the wrong way so we'd have to turn it. When "piggy back" service came to that
part of the world there were also a few flats that needed turning.
One of the many tasks expected to be performed by the Rock Falls switch engine
involved a trip to Illinois Forge, just over Rte. 30. This was one of the
places that hammered Craftsman tools out of the endless coils of rods produced
by Northwestern Steel and Wire. The cars of rod and the returning loads of
scrap were handled by GTW 0-8-0's sporting whistles from some of the
unfortunate O5's that made a one way trip to Sterling.
It's hard to imagine that the RR is all gone in these two towns when one
remembers the very large amount of work there was for the switch engine. Before
the end it was a regular event to be relieved by the agent wherever time caught
up with you. In the morning you would be driven to the engine so you could
start up where you left off the night before.
Karl
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