I am in Rockford Il for a couple of days. About 430pm an ICE northbound train passed my worksite. I jumped in the jeep and followed it north and got a picture and enjoyed the train pass by.
Surprizingly it was a decent sized train with 59 cars, lots of lumber and scrap plus boxcars.
Ok, can someone give me a rundown on the operations of this line. It comes up from Davis Jct. Where does it terminate? Janesville? All of those cars for Janesville and area or are they interchanged with WSOR? I dont have an old OG with me so I dont know the heritage of the line. Was it Milwaukee Road? Do we dare start another Milwaukee Road thread?
The line seems to parallel the Rock River adn seems scenic.
Yep, that’s the Milwaukee. Comes up from Davis Jct. The end of the line is in Janesville. Beleive it or not , this line was never embargoed by the Milw.
Actually, the line from Davis Jct up to just north of the station (now gone) on S. Main St. was CB&Q. Milw. had rights. Q came up from Flagg Center (Rochelle). Milw. had rights down to Steward, and went south from there to Ladd. At one time, Milw. had separate line from S. Rockford that headed southeast.
I grew up in Rockford. Saw many freights pass while playing golf off of N. Main St. The tracks ran along the 5th hole. My Dad and Grandfather had a grocery warehouse in the 50’s into the 60’s that was served by the Milw. (old furniture factory - Rockford was a major furniture making center up til the Depression). The skilled craftsmen turned to machine tool making and fastener mfg after that. A lot of coal moved to a power plant between Beloit and Janesville. I think the plant is closed now. Fairbanks Morse locos were made in Beloit. FM still makes ship engines there. Lots of auto carrier traffic would move south from Janesville Chevy assembly plant. Sonoco waste paper plant was at Rockton. I think there’s a transload facility there now. My parents would ride on Univ.of Wisconsin football passenger train specials from Rockford to Madison.
I am staying just north of hte golf course on Riverside at the river. I ran along the river last night and this am. Nice area. The railroad tracks are about 20 feet from my hotel room. No trains last night.
It sure was a heck of a train yesterday, so there is some business somewhere on the line.
I happened to see the ICE train ready to leave Janeville one morning last summer and spoke to the crew as they were picking up “supplies” at the convenience store near the tracks. The train works north one day, is yarded in the Janesville WSOR yard overnight and works south the next day. As I recall, they were starting with only a very few cars, but that would by no means indicate the general level of business that is handled on the run.