Re: [CBQ] Ore Train derailment-Rochelle Oct. 1965

["Leo Phillipp via groups.io" <qutlx1=aol.com@groups.io>]

Tom,

The oral history I've heard from Aurora Div.Q men was ore trains headed toward Chicago area traversed the C&I. I’ve never heard of an ore train nor coal train going around the horn. Not saying it didn’t ever happen.

 In parts 1 & 2 of working the C&I pool articles in Friends of the BN, I discuss taking unit potash trains around the horn. I also discuss spending three days on a work train picking up broken rails between Denrock and Mendota. We filled many,many gons with them. 

Gravel and cinder ballast,shortened,relaid former mainline rail and that branch lines topography would likely have resulted in many more pictures like the Rochelle photo had ore trains gone that route.

On the other hand,the part two article,which is at the printer or in the mail, has photos of train orders I abided by one day when we worked hot shot #3 around the horn westbound. Imagine a TOFC train with a ridiculously generous horsepower to trailing tonnage ratio on the Mendota-Denrock branch ! Neither my time book nor my daily diary note exactly why we went around the horn on #3 that day. Most likely there was a wreck on the C&I. I cant imaging adding running time to #3 just so a track gang didn’t have to open up for it. Other than the way freight, running westbound on the branch was a very,very rare occurrence.

Leo Phillipp

On Jan 7, 2025, at 7:53 AM, Tom Mack via groups.io <thommack=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:



I have tried to document every picture of Q ore trains I have found in books and on the web and it is interesting just how many were in the summer months.

 

1. I have an eBay photo download of a Q ore train with GP35 993 and U25B 102 at Newport, MN on 06-02-1968. The same photo is found in Great Northern in Color, Volume 6, p. 101.

2. In the book Burlington Northern and Its Heritage there is a photo on page 21 of a Q ore train crossing the Sinsawa River bridge with Q U28B 145 leading two more U28B's. The photo is date 06-22-1967, the first car is actually an empty gondola, and the caption says the train is headed to Granite City [Steel] near St. Louis.

3. I have an eBay photo download of a Q ore train at Hartford, IL dated 06-1966. F3A 168-C leads a GP35 and GP30 on that train. Hartford is between Alton and Granite City, so this one is definitely headed to Granite City Steel. 

4. Spoor's Burlington Route in Color, Volume 2, p. 69 shows an eastbound ore train passing through St. Paul on 06-02-1968. Power is CB&Q GP30 949, GP20 916, GP35 994, followed by two Q U28B's. This photo is also found in BB52 on page 54 and Great Northern in Color, Volume 6, p. 101.

5. The book Trackside Chicago 1960-73 on page 56 shows an ore train "at E. Dubuque on Hot Day 1967". So clearly no winter! Power is GP30 977, U25B 105, a GP40, and another GP30.

 

When I find this much actual photographic evidence of something (in this case ore trains in the summer months) I usually take that to mean this was not an unusual occurrence. So I think it is safe to say the ore trains actually ran pretty much year round. Of course Granite City Steel makes sense year round since they aren't on the Great Lakes. But depending on scheduled or available ore boats, it wouldn't surprise me that ore trains also headed to Chicago in non-winter months. For some reason I thought there was a photo of an ore train at or near Oregon, IL in one of the books, but I can't find the reference. If it was pre-1965, though, I would not have it in my spreadsheet since I try to keep the photo references to my modeling era. I was under the impression that Chicago-bound ore trains went around the horn, so that one would be interesting.

 

--

Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH
Modeling Chicago-Mpls/StP 1965-merger

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