Re: [CBQ] California Packing at Rochelle

["Richard Gortowski via groups.io" <rgortowski=aol.com@groups.io>]

Leo,

That magazine cover was a lucky find.  It's a great picture.  Looking through my Ritzman photos from Lake States, I see that in 1956, the interchange track is still to the north of the Q tracks.  Another 1962 photo shows it has moved to the south.  I don't have anything in between those two photos, but it was pretty early.  The Dick Neumiller photos from Bon French we used in the calendar shows the C&NW reefers for Plant 109 on the north track.  I believe those were from 1953.

Rich

On Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 05:18:15 PM CDT, CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> wrote:

Rich,

Nice photo of the Del Monte facilities in 1949 !. Much came later as you know.

When did the Q/CNW interchange move to the south side ? In my on property experience it was in the NW quadrant of the diamond through at least 1979.

Leo

On Sep 30, 2026, at 3:07 PM, Richard Gortowski via groups.io <rgortowski=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:



Glen,

Here is an Aerial of the California Packing Plant 109 circa 1949.  This was part of Del Monte and was, indeed, on the SW corner of the Q diamond at Rochelle.  At this time, the Q/C&NW interchange track was on the north side of the track.  It was later moved to the south side.  The operation was extensive, and there were additional buildings on the north side (Plant 110 a little further west) and others.

Flag Center is at Milepost 86 and the Rochelle diamonds are around 83.7.  Plant 110 would be around MP 84,5.  Flag Center (or the correct spelling - which the Q didn't use - Flagg Center) is a lot closer to Rochelle than one would think.  I'm modeling both of these on my layout.  An interesting sidebar, Flag Center is where the Milwaukee Road, using Q trackage rights, would use Q track between Flag Center and Steward Junction to get to their so-called Ladd Line down to Central Illinois.  In my 1950 modeling date, they were still using L-2a Mikados for their motive power.

Rich

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On Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 02:32:28 PM CDT, CBQ@groups.io <CBQ@groups.io> wrote:

Since this question is related to updating the Rail Network on the website, I am posting it to the BRHS List as well as the CB&Q List.

Leo Phillip, you may be the best person to know the answer to this question.

The FSAC List of Station numbers lists a station called California Packing Co. at Rochelle, Illinois, with an FSAC number of 00085.  That number suggests it was somewhere in the vicinity of MP 85 west of Rochelle (only about a mile from Flag Center) .  I think this is way off.

Every source I can find indicates that California Packing was formerly Del Monte.  If so, I believe Del Monte was south and west of the CB&Q/C&NW diamonds at the west end of Rochelle.  The Q served this industry from a switch (on Main 2 south track) just east of the C&NW diamonds at MP 83.69.

Am I correct?

 

Glen Haug

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