--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, qutlx1@... wrote:
>
> 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
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
Leo: This note is just to express my gratitude to you for sharing this kind of
information with us. I appreciate the information and insights because they
are related to some of the traffic I could expect to see on the section of
Burlington that I am (trying to) modeling in N-scale., (between Flagg Center
and Galena Jct., with Rochelle and Dubuque in staging).
I wonder if you also have any knowledge or insights as to how things might have
changed from (say) the 1950s and 1960s to the times of your experience in the
1970s?
Best regards,
Paul
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