Steve,
Sorry for my delayed response. Many thanks for the very interesting
description and your recollections of what happened at the Oregon, IL stock
pens
and yard. Like so many modelers I wish I could flash back to that mid
50's- 60's era to photograph events, take notes and make some measured
sketches. But not having that ability I am thankful that guys like yourself,
who were on the front lines of the "Q" operations, are around and willing to
share your knowledge and recollections.
Thanks, Dave Sarther Tucson, AZ
_sartherdj@aol.com_ (mailto:sartherdj@aol.com)
Dave
In the movement of livestock I would bet Oregon only had one chute to
load/unload into the six pens.
Feeder calves (18 months old) would move in from the open ranges out west
during
the fall to clean up crop lands. These would then move back out in the
spring
or when finished to market. When did Swift open the plant in Rochelle?
This
was a beef slaughter house similar to the Hog Plant in Monmouth ran by
Wilson
in the 80's(they had a couple old reefers used for storage)
Finished livestock would have moved from Oregon to Chicago markets. Oregon
had
the Carnation plant so there was dairy in the area with the bull calves
fed out
for beef along with the imported beef feeders.
Feeder lambs would move in a similar time frame with a lot finished for
the
Spring (Easter) Market times and again moved to Chicago markets.
The track being 10 cars long would have been used for storage if no stock
cars
were on it for loading
As for the end of movement it would depend on trucking taking over. This
is
what killed the rail movement as the livestock would move direct from farm
to
market. I did set some cars out in the depot at Aurora in the fall of '73
because the train would not fit. The switch engine was in the Hill Yard
and
came up on to the cars in the depot and shoved them down to the Stock yard
in
Montgomery. By then they were far and few between. A lot depends on the era
you want to model
Steve in SC
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