Roger / Jim,
First let me say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
I am a list member but have been very busy this summer and fall so haven't paid
much attention to the postings on any of my groups for the most part. Hoping
things slow down a bit and I can be more active with RR related stuff. Jim had
called me concerning the Mt. Morris branch line and it does have a very
colorful history. And I'm sure Steve Harding will give us some very good
detail on motive power over the years that I can't give. I know there was
different power over the years that the Q used to switch Mt. Morris, but I
never have been one to pay much attention to the different locomotives leaning
toward enjoying the different paint scemes used over the years. I do remember
power idling on the Carnation track in Oregon when they wern't out switching
and it seams that I recal seeing a cow/calf working different times on the
branch. I remember the station here in town and spent many a day visiting with
the agent whom also taught me the
code. It was on the way out but still in use and he'd let me tap it out to
the agent in Oregon which may have been Harold Nance whom lives in Oregon. The
agent here in town was Tom Teasdale and he became a close friend. I also
remember a trip or two riding the turn back to Oregon in the cab but don't have
a clue how I got home other than they may have had to make two runs to town to
get all the cars up the hill?? Leo, you worked this job I think..any memories
for us??
But back to topic, I was born in 51 and remember the RR as early as the mid to
late 50's.
I remember fondly dad taking me and the family evenings to the Oregon depot to
watch a few trains at the platform. Of cource we also would ride the Zephyrs
to and from Chicago when my folks wanted to go shopping which was often so I
got to do a lot of riding as a young boy. I even rember a Train trip that we
took to California and we actually rode the caboose from Mt. Morris to Oregon
to catch the train to Chicago to get the California Zephyr. Must have been
some sort of a package trip deal I think..still have my dads slides from that
trip.
OK..getting back on track here..sorry...during the 50's period you were asking
about Roger, the following businesses and industory were serviced here in Mt.
Morris.
We had 2 lumber yards, Buser Lumber and McGee Lumber. Both yards recieved
boxcar loads of lumber and may have shared load space on a car at times. Both
firms also had construction divisions of their lumber yards so they probably
recieved a lot by rail. Both had docks to recieve from. Both are gone today,
most of the buildings at McGee's are still there and you can see where they
were serviced but the siding and switch have been removed years ago. Buser
Limber closed in about 68 or 69, the buildings remained untill just a month or
so ago. The siding that served Buser also serviced the Farmers Elevator just
to the SE of the lumber yard where they mostly sent grain from outbound.
Mostly in box cars. I worked for the elevator in 69 as a teenager and boarded
up and loaded cars with corn to be shipped. If we were lucky we had the
cardboard with steeb banding to use to board them up but if not we had to use
lumber that the RR may have supplied.
Really a dirty job but it was kinda fun doing as a teen. That track was also
removed I believe in the late 70's ot early 80's as the lumber yard had closed
and the elevator stopped shipping by rail. We would respot cars for the
elevator with the endloader and sometimes had to use the loader to open or
close a bad door on the car.
Buser Lumber also further to the NW had some coal bins that were still in use
as well and I remember coal being delivered to the house just across the street
from us in the winter. There was also the Kaufman Elevator standing on another
siding but I believe it was out of business by the early 50's. A local farmer
did use it in the late 60's for his own grain but it was all by truck. I
helped him dig the grain leg out so he could use it after a long silent spell
from its comercial days. A little further on the same sput was a small
Standard Oil bulk plant but by the mid 50's it stopped recieving loads from the
RR as well. The bulk of the traffic was the Kable Printing Plant at the NW end
of the line. There was and still is a small yard before the plant to sort cars
in and be able to run around the train for the return trip to Oregon. In the
early years of the Printing Plant which I will refer to as just the ' plant'
they recieved fuel oil
to operate the boilers in the plant. That came to an end when natural gan was
installed years prior to the 50's. The plant had four other sidings, track one
was inbound paper for the flatbed presses and also shipped waist paper from
also. This track went inside and there was room for perhaps 3 or 4 cars. The
track one trainshed is still there, tracks are still in the building, not
outside, and is used by the Rochelle disposal for their compactor today. Track
two recieved paper rolls by boxcar for The Roto printing dept. and also still
serves as the loading track for outbound waist paper from the bailer room.
Most of the time they would bring in empty cars for the waste paper as some
RR's wouls not let you ship anything else in a car that carried newsprint rolls
of paper. Rolls are shippen sitting on end and anything on the floor could
damage the rolls and that is a big NO NO! Tracks 3 and 4 were also inside
tracks with a wide inside dock
between them and were shared between recieving paper rolls for both Roto and
the Offset pressrooms. These tracks were not there in 1950, probably were
added during expansion of the plant in the earlie 60's. Both tracks were also
used to load mail from the bindery directly into boxcars being supplied
directly by conveyors fron the bindry production lines. Several people would
load from the conveyor into the cars. In it's day it was a very modern
operation. Track 3 has been filled in to dock level but track four is still in
operation recieving inbound paper for the Roto print room with ofset paper
using track 2. No finished product has been shipped by rail since the 60's by
boxcar when trucks took over this job. Track 3 and 4 shared piggy back loading
of trailers which contained mail sacks so yes..product was shipped out on
piggys. That lasted into the mid to lat 70's but was gone when I went to work
at the plant in 1979. All ink used for
printing was hauled by truck and still is today. The future of the plant not
good at all...after this coming March the only thing to stay in operation in
the entire plant will be 3 Roto presses. Every other department will be
closing and I understand that ann the presses and binders will be torched for
scrap. Quad Graphics from Wisconsin bought the pland about a year ago and it
looks like their plan is to close this plant and move the little bit of work we
still do, to some of their other newer plants.. They are still running the job
to town Monday thru Friday with fron just a few cars to a max of 11 cars. So
their is still some good shots to be taken yet of Mt. Morris railroading.
Maybe not much longer..anyoned guess at this time.
Thats what I can tell you about Mt. Morris RR history...it's still good to hear
the whistle when they come to town which can be most any time of day. Guess it
depends on work at the sand plants in Oregon and when they can get permission
to cross the main over to the branchline to Mt. Morris.
Roger, I think you still live fairly close to Mt. Morris...I've been looking
but haven't found my full sized trackplan for Mt. Morris by the CB&Q that would
be accurite for the timespan your interested. Not sure if I can get it copied
but your welcome to stop by and see it and do a hand drawing of it for sure.
Contact me off list sometime.
Also Jim, if your still reading thanks for the call on this matter...it's fun
to recall all the things about MM RRing over the years
Jerry Stauffer
Milw261 Crewmember
Mt. Morris, IL
milw265@yahoo.com
milw_261@comcast.net
--- On Sun, 11/21/10, rgortowski@aol.com <rgortowski@aol.com> wrote:
From: rgortowski@aol.com <rgortowski@aol.com>
Subject: [CBQ] Mt. Morris Track Plan
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, November 21, 2010, 9:10 AM
List,
I searched the files sectiion and didn't find anything on Mt Morris. I'm
interested in the industries served (around 1950) and a layout of the tracks.
Can anyone help out?
Thanks,
Rich
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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