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| Dustin Holschuh posted in Facebook's Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Fans [Note the sharp curve in the signalling pipelines on this side of the tower.] |
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Dennis DeBruler: The comments on the post indicate this is Earlville, and Jeff says the photo is by his uncle, Laverne Hudson. |
A comment in Facebook indicated the tower was gone by 1963. Note the pipeline chase leaving the base of the building. These pipes move the switch points and the semaphores as the operator moves levers in the tower. The comments also indicated that the CB&Q branch that went to Rock Falls used the C&NW tracks north of town for about a mile. This topo map shows why the CB&Q used the C&NW. The CB&Q used to have a north/south route that passed earlville on the east side. A 1951 topo map shows that the CB&Q had already abandoned the route on the east side of town and used the C&NW to get to its northern branch.
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| 1971 Earlville Quad @ 24,000 |
I added a red line next to the landscars that shows where the CB&Q route used to be on the east side.
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| Satellite |
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| Marty Bernard posted 3. Rick took this from a CB&Q 4960 fan trip. We are looking at Earlville, IL tower at the crossing the CNW in December 1960. Rick Burn photo Marty Bernard shared Dennis DeBruler: I always appreciate a historical tower photo that captures some of the signaling pipelines. |
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Uncle Laverne on the job |
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| Andy Zukowski posted Chicago and NorthWestern Watchman tower, Looking North, Earlville, Illinois 8/16/1949 Thomas Whitt shared |
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| Jeff Mathre commented on Andy's post My Uncle worked this tower back in the day, his picture at work. |
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| Jeff Mathre commented on Andy's post Uncle Laverne Hudson working the tower. |
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| Sam Carlson posted Several miles north of Dimmick is Earlville, where the C*NW line we followed thru Dimmick crosses the BNSF (ex- CB&Q. A few hours after we photographed the 4322, we were in Earlville where we found the C&NW Troy Grove job Heading north after working the sand mine. This is the main reason the line exists. |
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| Sam Carlson posted NEVER forget to photograph the caboose! This is nprthward thru Ear;rville, IL in June 1974. Sam Carlson: This really is Earlville. Weedsville is a different place! Dennis DeBruler shared |
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| Andy Zukowski posted Two branch line trains meet Burlington Northern's local operating from Sterling to Earlville, Illinois, pauses just north of Earlville. The branch used to cross Chicago & North Western's Troy Grove line here on a diamond, but it now connects to C&NW 0.8 of a mile north of town, where BN has trackage rights to a connecting track at Earlville that curves eastbound onto the Chicago Division Second Sub main line running from Aurora to Galesburg. In this view at C&NW Junction on June 10, 1984, the BN local waits as a southbound C&NW train rumbles by. The BN local will enter C&NW trackage as soon as the C&NW Troy Grove train goes by. BN operated this former Chicago, Burlington & Quincy branch from Sterling to Earlville, Illinois, and by this date, trackage of the branch was deteriorating, with traffic dwindling. Soon, the local would be discontinued on this 46.8-mile long line, and it would be torn up in 1985. C&NW No. 4321 is a rebuilt GP9, while BN GP40 No. 3030 is the former CB&Q No. 630. Photo by Mike Danneman Ray Speerly: We would run specials from Earlville to Sterling and pick up an engine at Earlville. Because the tracks were so bad, you couldn't run more than 10 miles an hour on that trip. We would pick up empty steel scrap cars and then take them back to Earlville for pickup by Freight when it went through. It wasn't a regular job in the 1970s, so everyone would catch the job off the extra list. Mark Petersen: When I was a brakeman on the CNW in the early 1980s I worked the Troy Grove job many times using that very engine. The CNW 4321 was wrecked in a head-on collision near Sterling a few years later. Robert Weber: This is from Leo Phillipp ex-BN Conductor and BRHS Officer: Long before 1984 the “east leg of the wye” at Earlville was long gone. Here’s a quick and incomplete timeline of freight locals for the Rockfalls/Sterling branch. See BRHS bulletin 56 and the Cat/Earlville turn article for more details. Up until about the summer of 1965 the Rockfalls wayfreight operated out of Eola to Rockfalls,out one day and back the next. Sometimes it was one crew which worked to Rockfalls on Monday,back to Eola on Tuesday, made a Eola to Earlville turn on Weds and then another Rockfalls round trip on Fri and Sat. At other times there were two crews alternating,each making three round trips per week. The deciding factor was how much Northwestern Steel and Wire business the Q was getting vs the Northwestern. These runs used the “east leg of the wye” at Earlville to get onto/off of the CNW branch and head to Eola. But in 1965 the new Earlville turn was put on to handle CAT and everything from there to Earlville. The Rockfalls branch was now handled by the new Rockfalls wayfreight. According to the 1969 Operating data sheets book the job was based in Sterling and made a round trip to Earlville and back Mon-Fri. At some point by 1973 when I worked the Rock Falls wayfreight for a week it was based out of Mendota and made a round trip to Rock Falls(not Sterling) 5 days a week. Neither of these jobs needed to go east so sometime after 1965 the east leg of the wye was removed. Here’s how the work was handled at Earlville on the return trip to Mendota in 1973. The train would be somewhat substantial for a branch job. So after getting on the CNW branch another switch would be thrown just short of the Denver main which was the west leg of the wye. The train would pull down the westward siding. On the head end would be steel loads for points east. These would be shoved eastward on the westward storage track to its east end. These cars would be picked up by a secondary mainline train and taken to Eola. The wayfreight engine would couple back onto its train. Pull down to the west end of the westward siding and get permission to enter the main. Pull out and shove the way car and Mendota propers east on the main. Then set the westbound steel loads onto the westward siding for a secondary mainline westbound to take to Galesburg. The wayfreight would leave Earlville with a handful of cars for Mendota. At some point in the 1980s Northwestern Steel and Wire closed. There was little business on the branch other than a little fertilizer and I remember the elevator at West Brooklyn loading outbound grain. We also had grain coming off the Lee County Central at Amboy from time to time. We handled one car the week I worked the job. There were also rubber Goodyear tires coming off the IC interchange track at Amboy for Rockfalls or Sterling. Once NWS&W closed that was the final nail. The Rockfalls wayfreight stayed based out of Mendota. It went to Rockfalls one day and back the next. Track speed was 10 MPH. Steve Holding shared that he thought at one point after the IC mothballed the Gruber line the BN ran the Rockfalls job over the IC from Mendota to Amboy and then back onto the old Q from there to Rockfalls. Your photo shows the job still using the branch to Earlville in ‘84. My brother Ron was one of the last Conductors on the job and he states he doesn’t recall running on the I.C. Oh and for real old stuff the main traffic on the Rockfalls branch was actually handled via Shabbona up until 1932 or ‘33 when the line from Paw Paw to Shabbona was pulled up. There had been two passenger trains each way between Shabbona and Sterling with connections to C&I trains. The motor car lasted until the late 20s between Sterling-Paw Paw-Shabbona-Paw Paw-Earlville-Serena and then the reverse route all the way back to Sterling ! Leo |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Andy's post The oldest topo map that I could find was 1951, and the CB&Q route on the east side of town had already been abandoned. 1951/52 Earlville Quad @ 62,500 |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Andy's post CB&Q used to be all over the northwestern part of Illinois. A 1902 map, https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/knx_rail/id/298 |
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| Craig Holmberg commented on Andy's post 3/1/1959 |
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| Rob Conway commented on Andy's post I ran that job a few times. On one of the trips, we brought the NWSW steam engine from Sterling to Amboy. She is now on display at the Amboy depot museum. |
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| David Cenci commented on Andy's post, cropped 1906 |
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