Just to add a small bit to Stock Yard thread, most of the cars from
the various stockyards at Montgomery and Mendota (along Route 34 East
of town) we interchanged to the Chicago Union Stockyards at Congress
Park (Maple Avenue in Brookfield). I lived block and a half from the
road crossing and saw many thru trains set out strings of cars, many
stock cars to the IHB. Many times the IHB had engines waiting at
their end of the interchange track ready to take the cars immediately
away. This obviously ended in 1971 with the closing of the stockyard
that year. There were those hot summer nites when you knew there were
stockcars on the interchange track. You could hear the pigs and cows
and smell them too.
In the late 60's much of the slaughter and packaging was done more at
origin in Denver, Omaha and KC. Fewer stock cars were set out. Then
the BN (or late CB&Q prior to the mereger) started running it Beef
Express out of Devner as a special train. For years afterwards there
were strings of running Mechanical Reefers set out on the interchange
track for the East. You could also hear those reefers running on
those hot summer nites. I left the area in 1974 and lost track of the
operations. But by then many of the traditional traffic patterns were
changed with all the various Run-Thru agreements taking place. The BN
and later BNSF no longer sets out at Congress Park. Now, IHB climbs
the grade on the interchange track and runs thru on the old CB&Q to
Cicero Yard.
Hopes this adds a bit to the story and where the cars went after they
left Mendota and Montgomery.
Richard Forst
-- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, qutlx1@... wrote:
>
> Rory,
>
> What follows applies to most of the yards history,not just the
fifties based
> on what I saw and was told by those who were there over the years.
I'm sure
> Steve can fill in any blanks from his days at the tower and at
Montgomery.
>
> Both mainline and C&I through frts set out cars of stock on the
"sheep yard
> lead" which was exactly at the apex of the 'V' where the two lines
met. This
> required a long back up move from the Aurora Depot to the lead. I
believe
> this track was the "old North main" from pre-elevation days and let
me tell you
> it was in the same condition. I wouldn't want to take a road unit
one inch
> farther than necessary on it. Light rail and cinder ballast. This
could be one
> interesting move if the occupants of the cars were called by nature
to do
> certain things. It was also often cold,rainy,snowing or just hot and
smelly. At
> least one of my "brothers" tells the story of hanging on the side of an
> ancient stock car while some cow let go and he climbed back up into
the engine cab
> soaked. The C&I crews had the longer move as they sometimes had to
go out
> over Main St before getting a reverse signal. The mainline crews
could cut off
> at the "stove works board" to make their move. The cars were set
just in far
> enough that the engines cleared the board(signal) to get an
indication to come
> back out. If there were cars already on the track you just tacked
yours on.
> By the time I was around we were setting out only feeder cattle and
sheep.
> Nothing was being fed and reloaded for the Chicago Stock Yards.
> But the old timers and my grandfather often talked about being
ordered as a
> yard crew from Eola to go to Montgomery and unload 30 and 40 cars of
stock.
> Typically if there just a few cars set out the Lyon Job,Aurora job
or one of
> the set Eola jobs would be told to go down and spot them. But if
business was
> heavy; my Eola roundhouse engine assignment sheet shows extras
being ordered
> from Eola to Montgomery for the express purpose of unloading stock.
Bones
> Mathers told of more than one occasion of going down to spot 30 or
40 cars.He
> even told a story of getting "buried" because while down at the
chutes a
> mainliner s/o another block of cars on top of him and they had to
go out via
> Montgomery to get around the cars. I worked the Sat. and Sun.
Aurora job in the
> early 70's one summer and we always had to check with both the
Mainline and C&I
> dispatchers before taking our early quit to ensure no stock was
enroute.
> Imagine switching passenger cars one move and the next your shoving
around stock
> cars !
> I don't recall anyone talking about going down to reload stock for
Chicago
> but for decades this would have been a normal operation.
> The mtys would go to Eola and be picked up from there. Whenever I
spotted
> stock on a yard job the stock folks from Montgomery and the
Consignee were there
> waiting and they did the actual unloading. See Steve's dissertation
about
> crawling into a car and unloading sheep in an early BB.
>
> Leo Phillipp
>
>
>
>
> ************************************** See what's new at
http://www.aol.com
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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