Rich,
Well into the 1970s we were handling GN and NP carloads of feeders
into Polo,Milledgeville and I think even Chadwick. Also by that time many were
spotted at the Savanna stock yard and trucked over to the above points and
elsewhere.
I have a Bill Shoener photo taken from the highway embankment of the
eastbound wayfreight unloading two cars of feeders at Polo sometime in the early
1970s. One car is a UP and I cant remember the other.
When I worked at Rochelle in the 70s Swift was slaughtering truck loads of
beef all night long. But I also recall looking in a reefer one night and recall
seeing cases of bacon so hogs had to also be handled. Maybe during the day. Or
maybe it was brought in by truck and distributed from there ?
There were large stock pens at Swift with two tracks serving them but by
the 70s they were used for tank car storage only.
I suspect that in the 50s many of the other C&I towns would have also
received feeders.There were very large stock pens near the Rochelle depot with 2
tracks for handling.
Just speculation on my part but I would think stock would still have been
going to the Chicago Stock yards in the early 50s by rail and gradually fell off
as trucks took over the business.
While we're on the subject:
I recently interviewed a 92 year old retired farmer from the Yorkville
area. He recalled loading cattle from his barn alongside the F&IU south of
Yorkville directly into a car spotted on the main line. The carload of stock
went to the Chicago Stock Yards routed F&IU(Yorkville)Q. He had several
interesting tidbits about the F&IU that may become an article for the local
paper some day.
He also had a great tip on when and why grain left the rails and went to
water. Locks and dams paid for by the tax payers.
Leo Phillipp