I worked the Rock Falls branch from the extra list in the early to mid 70s
as vacation fill in. Also when mgmt decided to turn the C&I pool crews into
"dog catchers" ended up on the branch several times.
Have a Sterling/ Rock Falls agents instruction listing to switch crew from
the 70s that lists industries,etc. I'll try and find it. This was a big OT job
serving the customers,and making up the Denrock and Mendota outbound cars.The
steel mill had its own famous switch engines.
Also have a "time study" from the UTU files on motor cars on the branch that
I hope to turn into a Zephyr or Bulletin article someday. Those motor cars
were maids of all chores. Ray Prince once told me a story of working the Rock
Falls job and about to go "dead" on the law during a tough winter,a Condr(who
will remain unnamed) called the DS and asked for instructions. It was decided
to cut the train in half and proceed into Rock Falls. The Condr left the
merchandise,heating oil,produce,etc and proceed in w/coal and scrap for the
mill. That was in the 1940s and the story was being told in the mid 70s because
the Condr had just about "left" me on a platform in the burbs because he had a
habit of leaving town when he felt like it. Ray Burnell saved me that day by
popping the door back open. After that I was back on the step two minutes
early when working w/this Condr.!
At the time I worked it,the job ran Mendota-Rockfalls and return with side
trip to Baker as needed.Had a very clean Q painted NE13 for a w/c and an
SD7/9(or 2 ?) for power. Previously it had been a pr of Geeps. I seem to
recall 30
mph track speed. Radley still had 40 ft box cars stored for the next grain
shipments off the branch.
West Brooklyn still loaded grain in CHs. Gerry Barlow saved my head from the
grain spout there one day. Every town had an elevator and track but I only
remember West Brooklyn as active. Amboy had a FS plant that received a fair
amount of ferts. business, The Lee County Central would come down and meet us
at the east end of town with their Plymouth or 44 tonner (can't remember for
sure) for the boxcars for grain loading. The IC interchange was still used. I
believe it was primarily Goodyear tires in box cars. The mobile agent for
the branch was based in the Amboy depot. The thing most striking about the
branch was how little grading had been done on the line; it was a like a
miniature roller coaster except where the big cuts had been made. They filled
in
nicely in the winter.(see prior posts about the plowing adventures in the late
70s).
At Rock Falls the job pulled into a clear trk in the "new yard" on the east
edge of town and then back up a clear trk or the main and doubled over to the
w/c.
When the Sterling-Denrock job was taken off all BN business then went via
Earlville and the light branch trk really went downhill fast. One of big
changes
I remember is sizeable blocks of coal hoppers that previously had gone via
Denrock.
As others have stated it was Northwestern Steel and Wire that kept the
branch alive and Dillions famous moves playing the CNW/Q off each other,etc.For
more details read "12,000 Days" by Gene Lewis from the CNWHS. It was their
scrap and retired railcars inbound(BRHS member J.F. Schmid was just reminiscing
this week w/me about working the Rockfalls job ,then Eola based,hauling retired
steam engines into town) and the outbound fencing,nails,etc that was the
mainstay.
By the 80's the branch was down to 10MPH or less and the crew would
routinely go dead both ways over the road. Zab used to talk about being able to
walk
behind the w/c and keep up just nicely.
Leo Phillipp
**************Worried about job security? Check out the 5 safest jobs in a
recession.
(http://jobs.aol.com/gallery/growing-job-industries?ncid=emlcntuscare00000002)
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBQ/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:CBQ-digest@yahoogroups.com
mailto:CBQ-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
CBQ-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
|