Trip to Rochelle, Ill. Thurs.
Oct. 10, 2013

by Dave Ingles

With the good weather of October's 2nd week continuing, and being tired of the "same old stuff" locally with CN, CP, and Amtrak trains, Carol and I set off for Rochelle on a quick day trip. Ultimately we didn't see that many trains, but it was an enjoyable outing nevertheless.

Usually the drive straight thru to Rochelle takes about 90 to 105 minutes, but as we got on I-90 at Beloit and headed to Illinois, there came Union Pacific's Beloit job eastward at us. This is a train that I believe still originates in Janesville, and we've seen it before switching customers just west of I-90, but never had time to stop. This day we did. This is the Beloit end of a remnant of Milwaukee Road's "Southwestern" line, originally from Racine on Lake Michigan thru Sturtevant on the Chicago-Milwaukee main, Burlington (Soo Line crossing), Bardwell Jct. (Chicago-Janesville "J line"), through Beloit and on to the junction of Kittredge, Ill., on the Chicago-Omaha route. Passenger trains in later days ran between Savanna, Ill., and Milwaukee, connecting at the former with mainline trains. Portions of the "southwestern" still in include: Waxdale (C&NW Milwaukee Sub, aka "New Line") jct. to Sturtevant, still used by CP to serve Johnson Wax; Sturtevant west to Kansasville, Wis., still in CP's system but out of service; Burlington, Wis., from the Soo (later WC, now CN) main to the west end of town, where CN serves several customers with local L504 from Waukesha; Elkhorn-Bardwell Jct., part of Wisconsin & Southern's system; and Clinton (jct. with UP's ex-C&NW Chicago-Janesville line) into Beloit, and a connection with CP's Davis Jct.-Janesville branch (also ex-MILW).

The train was approaching the I-90 underpass, so we exited at Illinois 75, the next exit, and wound back thru the industrial park, crossing over I-90 and then a grade crossing, to the extension of I-43 into Beloit. We turned right, crossed over I-90, and could see the train ambling along at a slow speed. We exited onto the old highway (Wis. 15 back in the day, now a county road), and using the GPS, turned right on the first road, Walker Road, which had a grade crossing about a mile to the south. After maybe 5 to 8 minutes, the train showed up: GP15 UPY 731 with 12 covered hoppers, at 10:30 to 35 a.m. We considered this, the "coup" of the day, regardless of what we'd see, or not, around Rochelle.

It wold be 2 and 1/2 hours before we'd shoot another train. Hearing of nothing on the scanner, we exited on Hwy. 64 and went west, then south to the BNSF C&I line (Aurora Sub) at Chana, first passing siding west of Rochelle. Nothing lined up. We mooched along on back roads to Oregon, found no unit near the BNSF depot to handle the Unimen plant switching west of town (on the BNSF, but switching rights given to a short line, now Illinois Railway), or at Unimen. The branch to Mount Morris appears to be unused, since the printing plant there closed. We took the time to stop in Oregon at Subway and went back to just west of Chana to eat it trackside. Finally an eastbound signal cleared, and after lunch, this stack train showed up at 12:59, engines 5297/9608 with 40 wells.

We moseyed about halfway to Rochelle, in fact perhaps as far as Flagg Center, with no other action apparent, so we returned to the Chana area, and finally heard of another eastbound. (As you can surmise, we were after BNSF and paying no attention to the UP.) We set up at the first crossing east of Chana siding, at the beginning of a curve where the angles to the crossing are both wide open. What showed up was an eastbound oil train with, surprise, an NS Heritage unit in the middle of 3: units NS 8059/NS 1066 (NYC)/BNSF 4543, with 96 cars at 1:33 p.m.

This oil train went thru Rochelle and parked at the crossovers a mile short of the end of two main tracks at Steward, a crossover inaccessible for photos but visible across the fields. So, since he was awaiting a westbound, we sat up at Elva Road, the crossing just northwest of Steward. He was unseen to the east when an exchange on the radio between a trackman and the train caused us some excitement -- he called to verify the train's i.d. (lead unit) number, and twice (!) said "NS 1074." Well, that's the Lackawanna Heritage unit, so we were all a-quiver. Nope. Sorry, microphone breath, and although it WAS another oil train (empty), the units were NS 1034/1054, both in Thoroughbred black. He was by us with 97 cars at 2:40, and no complaints -- we'd already nabbed a branchline freight and another NS Heritage unit, albeit one I'd seen leading a CP freight thru our home area. And I saved a bunch of trader slide frames!

Our loaded oil train did not budge after the 1034 West passed, so we sat tight for another westbound, choosing to stay rather than go into Rochelle and miss a 2nd shot when the 8059 East left, and remaining at a spot with a better sunlight angle than east of Steward. This time, it was one of the intermodals we'd expect this time of day -- used to be, there were 3 in a row, but I haven't had that luck recently, just 1 or 2 -- with engines 7445/703/4029 (the middle one a former Warbonnet) with 77 trailers or wells at 2:50.

We shot the oil train again at Elva Road, but I didn't shoot digital as I was concentrating on more trader slides for my fellow curmudgeons around Milwaukee who shoot mostly, or exclusively, slides. The train left at 3:10, and we went into Rochelle, making a potty stop at the Railroad Park. Alas, both UP and BNSF were quiet. In killing time, we shot the local BNSF switcher, 2668 (ex-Santa Fe, perhaps?), tied up by their office (east of the old depot site), and even went out to the Global 3 engine parking area, where, surprise, we found our second "Heritage" unit of the day, UP's C&NW 1995 which I shot thru the fences just for the heck of it, at 3:30. Wanting to get home at a decent hour, with a Steak n Shake supper en route at Rockford, with still no action apparent on either main line, we reluctantly called it a day a little after 4 and struck northward on I-39.

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