Rich and Doug,
While not definitive this may help.
My book of Aurora Div track charts has a page dated 2-15-60 for Rochelle. On it there is no Ice track or spur into Swift. In fact the further most tracks on the east end of town are the pass and storage. Standard Oil is the farthest eastward industry at that time.
In Spoors volume on pg 52/53 there is a picture of cars on the Ice trk and the switch into Swift is
Clearly shown.
Having switched the plant many times I would have sworn it was much older than 1962.
Leo Phillipp
Sent from my iPad
Doug,
What I'm trying to determine is the location of the current Rochelle Foods plant the "new Swift plant" that the 1962 article talks about. If so, where was the existing plant that people say was the 1948 Swift plant? I have a circa1954 picture of the Standard Oil bulk fuel facility, and the meat plant is clearly not in this picture, so I believe the existing plant - just east of the bulk oil facility - is the "new" plant the Sycamore True Republican is reporting on in 1962. That would leave the question of where the existing plant was located in 1948.
Rich G.
-----Original Message-----
From: 'Douglas Harding'
doug.harding@iowacentralrr.org [CBQ] <
CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ <
CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Aug 30, 2014 9:37 pm
Subject: [CBQ] Re: Rochelle Swift Plant
According to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochelle,_Illinois (and other similar sites) Rochelle became a meat packing center with the Swift plant after WWII. Which would coincide with the 1948 date we have discussed before. Hormel purchased the plant in 1993 and did some expansion after that.
Somewhere I one time came across something that indicated that Rochelle Foods LLS built the plant about 1933. But I cannot confirm. Swift acquired the plant, apparently after the war. I have a reference that says Rochelle Foods had an auction, but I have no date for the sale. More than one plant did not survive the depression. And some sat empty for a while before being picked up by another company.
Doug Harding