Leo,
Thanks for sharing the operating memories.
It's always great to hear about how the railroad actually worked.
If anyone has similar memories about the K-line freights or Keokuk switching,
I'd love to hear!
Duncan Cameron
----- Original Message -----
From: qutlx1@aol.com
To: cbq@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2011 9:44 AM
Subject: [CBQ] Rochelle,IL-was Chgo Div Loco Assignments
Jon,
Questions about Rochelle,IL:
Here's a lengthy answer from first hand memories and conversations from
the distant past. I did work at Rochelle for several weeks in 1973 and 1974.
If I find anything more specific in the files I'll let you know.
The engine assigned to Rochelle would have been a NW or GP7 based out of
either Eola or Cicero. It would shuttle on the secondary thru trains or the
wayfreight when due for inspections/maintenance. Generally it was parked
on House 1 when not in service. All through the 70s it was a GP-7.
The Rockford wayfreight continued to run each night but turned at Flag
Center. It brought cars down to Flag where they were picked up by east and
westbound runs and it took the Rockfords s/o by the through trains. Only
occasionally did the Rockford wayfreight come downtown after the road
switchers
were put on. It went from a long winded OT job to an early quit.
As to how the work was organized at Rochelle. Road switcher(s) with limits
of Steward Jct and Flag Center. I believe it started as one and became two.
When first proposed it was going to cover Rochelle,Oregon and Mt Morris
and as far east as Shabbona. It didnt happen that way.
Day road switcher-the west side of town,Del Monte and the can plant(2
switches),Stockley,the C&NW transfer,etc. The job switched its cars out of
the
s/o on the pass and storage on the east side of town and then spent the
balance of the day on the west side of town. Came back downtown late in the
evening and placed it's outbound cars on the pass. They did a really nifty
gravity drop on their cars using the mainline and can plant yard tracks. It
was a thing to see. They would also occasionally make a drop right in front
of the depot into the passing track or pocket.
Night road switcher-The east side of town: Carnation,Swift,New
City,Rochelle Furniture,Caron Spinning,Standard Oil,etc,etc. Switched its
cars out of
the pass and storage and made up the outbound pickups on same for the east
and west through trains. Carnation was an absolute bear to switch. 4 tracks
and I recall 8 spots each and every car had a spot. By that I mean a car in
the Carnation yard would be assigned to 'A' track spot 4. You had to make
up 32 cars in exact order each night. If Swift had an outbound tallow car
it would have to go Rockford to be weighed. The night job took it to Flag
and the Rockford wayfreight took it and returned it on another night. The
night job switched all the 199s out of the s/o's and delivered them to 199.
This was usually one of the first things done as it cleared a lot of track
space.
Of course either job could be found covering for the other if something had
delayed service. Some times the exchange between the day/night job was
literally a step on/off at the depot. Both jobs worked large amounts of OT.
The day job was Monday-Sat and the night job Sun-Fri.
199-Was on a yearly revolving basis between the 3 RRs. When it was the Qs
turn the jobs engine was tied up on the west end of the Kennedy track and
the job spent almost its entire time on duty down in 199. Whoever was
switching 199 made up cuts of cars for each RR to come down and pull out of
the
199 yard.
Milw: Had trackage rights Davis Jct to Steward Jct. and from that there
was agreement that they had a crew based at Rochelle. Their engine was always
on the Kennedy across from the depot. They switched Carnation during the
day and Std Oil. The Milw leased UTLX tanks and had large numbers of them in
diesel fuel service. I seem to recall that they took their cars to Rockford
as I dont recall any Milw wayfreights picking up or setting out at
Rochelle. The Q men were always watching to make sure the Milw didnt get any
more
work than had been agreed to .
All the Q/BN units were fueled by a local oil company and the Rockford
mechanical man would come down and inspect the units.
Leo Phillipp
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