An old fart should never trust his memory. Dug back in my notes and the
information about cattle fattening at Rochelle came from Russ Repetto, who as
many of you know, was a conductor on the C&I for years.
Russ talked about the heavy stock traffic in the fall. He recalled solid trains
of stock off the T&P--60 to 70 cars that were unloaded at the Q's stock chutes
at Rochelle, a job that took forever, he said.
Russ said the cattle were fattened adjacent to Calpak plant #110, which was
located on the north side of the main. They must have been shipped to the
Chicago slaughter houses in trucks, he thought. Russ also remembered a big
stock show held in Chicago in the fall.
I'd have to dig further in my notes to determine when Del Monte purchased
Calpak.
Bob
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, qutlx1@... wrote:
>
> Bob,
>
> I don't know where stock would have been unloaded other than at the the
> stock pens by the depot. Your post is the first reference I have heard or
> seen
> concerning Del Monte feeding stock. I do not recall anyone on the RR ever
> mentioning it.
>
> One thing I do recall is the Rochelle stock pens were large and the two
> stock tracks were rather long. We stored odds and end and work equipment on
> them in the 70s.
>
> Leo
>
>
> Leo,
>
> Do you recall where the stock was off-loaded at Rochelle? The retired Del
> Monte employee told me--I think--that it occured at the Q's stock chutes east
> of the depot. Assuming that this did not necessitate a cattle drive through
> downtown Rochelle to reach Del Monte, trucks must have been involved, or, he
> was mistaken and the stock was set out at Del Monte proper.
>
> Bob Herrick
>
> --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, qutlx1@ wrote:
> >
> > Bob,
> >
> > You are correct. Del Monte and silage were synomous well into the 80s. The
> > silage pile was west of the can plant and was primarily the corn
> > shocks,etc. It turned from light green to brown as it fermented. By the
> > 70s it was my
> > observation that it was trucked out to farms as silage feed. As the pile
> > was dug into for shipment it released one of those many smells that made
> > Rochelle famous.
> >
> > Leo
> >
> >
> > Rich and listers,
> >
> > I once talked to a retired employee of the canning plant about their side
> > business of fattening cattle on the by-products of vegetable packing, i.e.
> > the discarded vines et al. He said the cattle came in by rail and left by
> > truck for Chicago after they were suitably fattened for slaughter. I think
> > RR told me he recalled seeing piles of sileage at the canning plant. This
> > process must have ended long before Leo worked for the BN or I'm sure he
> > would have mentioned it.
> >
> > Bob Herrick
> >
> > --- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, rgortowski@ wrote:
> > >
> > > List,
> > >
> > > I'm modeling 1950, and I'm wondering if you would see live cattle inbound
> > > from Minneapolis/St. Paul heading east to Chicago? Also, would you see
> > > NP or GN stock cars heading east on the C&I? I could certainly see
> > > empties heading west to get them back to the home roads.
> > >
> > > Also meat related - the Swift plant in Rochelle received live beef/hogs
> > > from where?
> > >
> > > I appreciate any answers I can get.
> > >
> > > Rich G.
> > >
> >
>
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