Rochelle Diamond Games

[CShaveRR]

Speed difference? No...in fact, that crossing, with its 35-mph speed limit (timetable... don't know if a slow order has reduced it), is an equalizer for trains that can have maximum speeds of between 40 and 70 mph elsewhere. Of course, a train entering or leaving the yard wouldn't be able to go 35.

I'll bet that grade crossing west of the diamond on UP is fun for civilians to be stuck at these days...now there is a good candidate for a flyover...or duck-under!

[David3]

I don't know about anybody else but I like when trains go slow, because it actually gives me a better chance to watch them.
Dave

[wcfan4ever]

With Global 3 being built there, it seemed to slow down the speed of EB's on the UP. Plus, you have slower UP trains unlike before that are either leaving or going to enter the facility. Regaurdless, trains are still very fun to watch at this location. I'm not going to stop going there cause they slowed down speed wise. That just makes it easier to take photographs when you don't have a decent camera for speed like me.
Is there a speed difference for trains at night through Rochelle? I have spend countless hours there, usually from 6am to 11pm and after 8pm, they seem to move faster across the diamonds including the BNSF too.

[Anonymous]

Less than a year ago, the new Global 3 intermodal facility was built west of the
crossing on UP. Westbounds entering the yard get an approach, but still must slow for their entrance. Eastbounds leaving the facility generally still have half their train going over switches on the east end. This may seem like "holding the track" if two trains are entering/leaving the facility, but where I come from, they are operating by the rulebook for appropriate speeds through yard limits/signal indications.

Keep Truckin' via Rail!![;)]

Pudgy/T.B

[David3]

I hope they don't build a flyover, let's not give them any ideas.
Dave

[Anonymous]

We have a highway overpass 2 blocks east of the RR park. I am a Rochelle native and have watched trains at the diamond for over 40 years and I can say that if you haven been here to watch these you should "Come on down" and observe this in action. We dont really have room to build a flyover for the trains nor would most of the townsfolk want one. As for who controls the Diamond, I believe that the UP controls it.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by psteffen

Has anybody thought of putting up some over/under passes to aleaviate this problem? I surely hope not - that would spoiled the fun!! [:I]

It's been done in many places, and I'm sure it's been considered, but the question arises of cost and geography - being in a city means there isn't much room for fill to do its usual thing. Never having been to Rochelle, I don't know about the roads that cross either line, but such an over/under situation would certainly also impact them.

[Anonymous]

Has anybody thought of putting up some over/under passes to aleaviate this problem? I surely hope not - that would spoiled the fun!! [:I]

[Anonymous]

David: Welcome to the real world.

[JEIERMANN]

What's all all the chatter about? How many accidents at those diamonds. None that I remember, thereby it seems to work ok to me.

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by throttlejock

How does one find the site name for the High Camera at Rochelle???

High Camera?[?]

[Anonymous]

How does one find the site name for the High Camera at Rochelle???

[diesel1]

All:

The Rochelle, Ill. U.P./ BNSF diamond is controlled with an approach signal system - which ever train hits the approach circuit first, it sets the opposing railroad's signals to red and farther back to yellow/ red (approach aspect) . When the train (with the U.P., sometimes its two trains at the same time) has finished crossing the diamond and has gone off the diamond signal circuit,
the signals reset for the train thats been waiting to cross. Its been this way for years when the two railroads at Rochelle were the CB&Q and the CNW.

Gib / Bensenville, Ill.

[David3]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Soo2610

Have not really noticed any favoritism at the diamond. I have seen both UP and BNSF waiting for clearance. I vaguely remember seeing something that indicated that UP controlled the diamond. Maintenance seems to be the responsibility of UP. I have never seen BNSF crews working on the diamond. The crews I have observed have always been UP.

Speeking of them they're working on the diamond right now!
Dave [:D][:D]

[Soo2610]

Have not really noticed any favoritism at the diamond. I have seen both UP and BNSF waiting for clearance. I vaguely remember seeing something that indicated that UP controlled the diamond. Maintenance seems to be the responsibility of UP. I have never seen BNSF crews working on the diamond. The crews I have observed have always been UP.

[David3]

I thought so, thanks. By the way I have to correct myself, the signal bridge does extend over the BNSF connection track, but there is not a signal for it.
Dave [:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

It is 1st come 1st serve and UP got there first in the C&NW merger than BN with Santa Fe

[David3]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tree68

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

I can't remember if there are any connecting tracks at Rochelle. If there isn't, and it's just a straight-through crossing with no connecting tracks, the potential for complicated movements requiring a human to think them out is not very big, so a human-occupied tower wasn't required.

There is a siding visible on the left side of the screen, on the south BNSF track. It leads away from the diamond, however, and I'm sure that anything coming off that track has to pull back beyond the signal bridge before moving across the diamond.

As with any such control, it's only as good as the people using it.

Actually the only train that uses that is the almost daily BNSF local. First he heads north to Flag Center then comes back east through the diamond and backs his Del Monte boxcars down that track which leads to a small UP storage yard. Also the signal bridge does not extend to that track he asks permmision to come out or uses a dwarf signal.
Dave[:D][:D]

[David3]

If the power goes out won't you have a little problems with the signals?

One time when I was up there two BNSF trains were waiting on a UP coming out of Global III one of the BNSF crewmembers got of the loco thinking nothing was coming so he pressed the button to get the signal so that threw a red at UP who had the green all along. Now everybody had a red and a signal maintainer had to come out and fix everything. Can this actually happen more often at interlockings like Rochelle?
Dave [:D][:D]

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rrnut282

I can't remember if there are any connecting tracks at Rochelle. If there isn't, and it's just a straight-through crossing with no connecting tracks, the potential for complicated movements requiring a human to think them out is not very big, so a human-occupied tower wasn't required.

There is a siding visible on the left side of the screen, on the south BNSF track. It leads away from the diamond, however, and I'm sure that anything coming off that track has to pull back beyond the signal bridge before moving across the diamond.

As with any such control, it's only as good as the people using it.

[CShaveRR]

These automatic interlockings are completely safe. The argument about two trains hitting their circuits at the same time is extremely unlikely (and would make a good argument in favor of circuits of different lengths on the different railroads...even if they hit the circuit at the same time, they'd be unlikely to hit the diamond at the same time, therefore one would get--surprise!--a red home signal.

Deval is a little more complicated: the plant has three routes (three sets of diamonds) instead of two (one), plus that operator has to control interlockings at Norma and Seeger (junctions with the UP main lines).

(Deval was the first Chicagoland hot spot I ever visited, even before I moved down here.)

[rrnut282]

I can't remember if there are any connecting tracks at Rochelle. If there isn't, and it's just a straight-through crossing with no connecting tracks, the potential for complicated movements requiring a human to think them out is not very big, so a human-occupied tower wasn't required.

[techguy57]

Zardoz- I'd be willing to bet that stuff about Deval is 100% true. I'm ballparking here, but if I remember this whole area up here was something like 20% swampland,40% forest and 40%prairie originally . Seems like the UP guys are always dumping ballast on the line somewhere. I used to live in Woodstock, IL which has two claims to fame: It was where the movie Groundhog Day was filmed and Is home of the Historic Woodstock Opera House, the hotel in the movie, but I digress. Woodstock is kinda like the castle of the swamp in Monty Python in the Holy Grail, practically the whole town is built on swampland. (I don't think much of it has burned down and sunk into the swamp though) When you think of northern Illinois most people wouldn't think of swamps but thats the truth. With all the traffic at Deval, especially the METRA, it has to be a nightmare for MOW crews.

Mike

[Mookie]

So with all the talk of how actually dangerous these diamonds can be, why isn't the Rochelle one protected by both signals and a human? Do you feel that is just over-kill?
Maybe Rochelle is just a very safe diamond?

Mookie

[CShaveRR]

Another place that used to have nasty-looking diamonds (talk about custom-made!) coupled with street traffic was Griffith, Indiana, at Broad Street. What a place that was for variety. The date the real fun ended: April 1, 1976.

[zardoz]

Another diamond that takes a pounding is Deval Tower on the UP(CNW) Milwaukee sub, where it crosses the Metra commuter line and the CN(WC). The diamond is built over a swamp, and is constantly in need of ballast, as the old ballast just continues to get pounded into the swamp as the trains cross. The story goes that many moons ago, when the diamond was being built, maintenance crews dumped carload after carload of ballast at the location, just to watch the ballast sink into the mud. Supposedly it took two entire ballast trains to get a solid footing.

BTW, this diamond IS manually controlled. Trains must call the tower operator for authorization to pass the "approach clear" points. And there is a cerfew for freight trains during the morning and evening (suburban train) rush hours.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Hammond crossing in Indiana used to be a real maintenance nightmare. IHB crossed N&W, EL and Monon in downtown Hammond and some of the diamonds were located in the middle of Hohman Avenue. Traffic on IHB was incredibly heavy and it was not unusual in spring to see some lanes of Hohman Avenue blocked while the diamonds were being re-ballasted and re-graded.

The situation has improved a bit from a maintenance perspective. The EL and Monon lines have been abandoned and Hohman Avenue is now an overpass.

[David3]

Yeah I know after all them trains pounding the diamond there's a track worker grinding it almost everyday!
Dave [:D][:D]

[tree68]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken
If you were to replace the trackwork you see at Rochelle, replacement cost for just the crossing frog materials could run beyond $1.5 million easilly ($350,000 ea. for the custom built booggers, nothing comes off the shelf) and they are some of the brittlest/ weakest parts of the track structure - 1st thing to break! (because of the constant pounding over the flangeway gaps in the frogs)

Mudchicken[banghead]

I may not always see trains at Rochelle, but I can almost always count on seeing an MOW truck or two and somebody standing amongst the diamonds.