Leo
Incredible interesting info. Looking forward seeing more here and in print.
Dan
On Aug 30, 2010, at 3:55 PM, qutlx1@aol.com wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> Let it suffice to say that as a young brakemen,conductor or engineer on
> the Aurora extra list you rarely lacked for work. If anything you begged for
> a day off. Have you ever doubled or tripled out in a single day ? Except
> in January when you starved. No guarantees back in the day.
>
> It's hard to imagine the amount of work that once existed in Aurora/Eola
> and the wayfreights operating from there or on the Aurora Div.. We've just
> scratched the surface in our previous discussions.
> If you ever bump into Roger Field ,I believe his hire date is 1965. He
> started at Eola. Or Izzy Jr at Rochelle who is like a early 1960s something
> hire date.
> Oh and if you work the dinlkies find Dick Temple before he finally
> retires. His BN hire date is around 1971 or so but before that he worked the
> CNW
> mainline passenger trains in the 60s.
> Darro Reppy can tell you about his first couple summers on the passenger
> extra list at Aurora. His wife would hand up clean clothes as they unloaded
> passengers at Aurora. He wouldn't be home for days as he got his rest at
> the away terminal of Savanna,GT or Burlington. He would get a message while
> in route to protect such and such upon arrival at CUS.
>
> By the way both Cat and Lyon received coal for the power plants,inbound
> plate and shipped scrap out back in the day. On the Earville turn in 1974/75
> we pulled no less than 3 and up to 6 loads of scrap per day from Cat. Old
> "frenchy" was the crane operator on the Cat scrap dock and had been doing
> it for like 30 plus years there and at Peoria. He could look at a load and
> tell you w/in about a ton how much was in it !
>
> The Armour Job,Nabisco PM,Earville Turn,Fox River were almost a daily race
> to get in before going dead on the law. Imagine riding hand brakes at
> Sheridan for hours while weighing loads of gravel ?! Then going to Wedron to
> switch it out.
> The Irish Mail for decades was a 15-16 hour ringer 6 days a week. When the
> "mails" came on w/General Mills in West Chicago there were 3 jobs a day
> and all were on OT everday.
> Then we ran extras on Sundays to clean things up !
>
> I was called more than once to work a yard extra at Eola just to help the
> 2-3 assigned jobs/shift keep things fluid. Yes there was an East,West, and
> often a Roustabout engine. Not every shift but fairly steady. And add an
> extra just to keep things really crowded.
>
> In the past there was a frt house job at Aurora that was a 16 hour
> ringer,besides the Aurora engine. The Alley job was the highest seniority
> job in
> the Eola/Aurora terminal. Stay tuned as I keep making progress on that
> research that has been 30 plus years in the works. I have an orginal
> drawing of
> the Alley crew going to work done by fireman Mike Meketti in 1948. It
> once hung in the "old" Eola yard office. One look at it says everything as
> the
> burro looks exhausted.
>
> Speaking of roustabout that was also the name of the afternoon Fox River
> for years. They would use the same power that came off the morning Fox
> River. But they went over to Earville via Baker/Catherine until the kids
> burnt
> the bridge down. When it came off it was replaced by the Ottawa-Catherine
> Turn. 85/86 ran everday from Cicero to Streator.Then became 11811-812 under
> BN
> and made the round trip each night.That was one interesting job.
>
> Then there was the IV&N W/F from La Salle to Zearing which I was told more
> than once by Red Lynch worked 16 hours/day,even on the day it came off.
> Cement and perishable connections were the reasons.
>
> The Rockfalls w/f worked out of Eola to Rockfalls/Sterling 2 round trips a
> week and made an Earville turn on Weds. Then it shifted to a Mendota base
> and the Eola-Earville turn came on.
> Check out some of the older Q photo books for shots of both jobs at
> Earlville together.
> The moonlight job ran Cicero to Barstow via Mendota and Denrock. 2 turns.
> Then kept getting shortened up.
>
> There were yard engines at
> Ottawa,Streator,LaSalle,Mendota,Rockfalls/Sterling,Rockford. There were even
> extra lists at these points to protect
> vacancies. Most were multiple shift locations..
>
> There were way freights on the C&I,around the horn,to Rockford. Road
> switchers at Rochelle(up to 3 depending on the year or time of year), and
> Oregon.
>
> C&I and mainline frt pools.
>
> And this was in the 50-70s. Going farther back you add in all the
> C&I,Mainline and branch passenger jobs. I even have info on the motor cars
> and milk
> trains,baggage jobs and mail trains.
>
> "Nothing is so constant as change"
>
> Leo Phillipp
>
>
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