Pictures 1-25 were taken on August 10, 2007
Pictures 26-33 were taken on December 28, 2007.
The audio was taken on November 11, 2007.
Pictures 34-35 were taken on April 11, 2008.
Pictures 36-54 were taken on May 26, 2008.
Pictures 55-63 were taken on September 18, 2010
Pictures 64-117 and the 1st video were taken on January 26, 2016.
Pictures 118-124 were taken on February 7, 2018.
The 2nd video was taken on July 1, 2020.
The 3rd and 4th videos were taken on July 2, 2020.
The 5th video was taken on July 7, 2021.
The 6th video was taken on August 25, 2021.
The 7th video was taken on August 20, 2022.
Pictures 1-33 were taken on chicagorailfan@yahoo.com
Pictures 55-63 were taken on A.J. Gonfiantini.
Pictures 34-54 and 64-124 and the videos and audio were taken by Tommy McGowan.
This crossing is located on the BNSF Aurora Sub.
1
2
3
An interesting sign.
Both signals have 12"x20" old WCH lights, and one mechanical bell that's on top of the signal in picture 2.
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5
6
7
Closeups including the WCH name.
Note a small patch over the lights in picture 4. There used to be sidelights.
Facing east.
Facing west.
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10
11
The wooden grade is in good shape.
Just to show you how big the gap between the end of the board and the track was.
A Federal Signals part.
This is an extremely rare and very very old pedestrian gate
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15
Another view.
The other signal with the E-Bell.
Another view of the wooden grade.
A very low look at the tracks facing East.
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19
An old WRRS gate motor.
Looking east at a private road.
the E-Bell belongs to WCH.
Another look at one of the pedestrian gates.
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23
Looking West from the private road.
The other bell-less signal.
An overview of the crossing. You can also see the UP crossing in the distance.
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25
The rules of Rochelle.
The crossbuck is put on the wrong way!
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27
28
29
The UP crossing is in action in the background.
Snowy searchlight signals.
The lights are flashing, but it's hard to see, since the pictures were taken so close.
Believe it or not, picture 26 was taken from a cell phone!
A weird story exists for picture 27: A BNSF stack train had full
clearence and all greens to Flag Center. Another horn sounded and was
thought to be another train. It was only an echo. Looking back, the
signal changes from green to red! The train is then put into Emergency.
As soon as the train passed, it changed back to a green, but the
engineers were to close to see that. The train was in emergency for a
good 10 minutes. It didn't stop over the diamond, but because it was
stopped past the signal, the UP mainfest could not pass. BNSF crews
thought the crews had gone loco, since BNSF didn't really believe them!
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31
32
33
A snowy view of one of the gates.
A view of the other signal in action.
Click below to hear an audio of the old signals.
34
35
In April 2008, we see the crossing is about to get a major upgrade.
Between May 17 and May 23, 2008, new signals and pedestrian gates were installed and the old signals were removed.
36
37
Facing south at new signals.
Looking north.
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39
40
41
The new southern signal.
The old base had yet to be removed.
US&S model 95 gate.
US&S 12"x24" frames with Dialight ball LEDs.
Both signals have a Safetran type 3 e-bell. BNSF has installed these new signals on nearly every crossing on BNSF in Rochelle.
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45
The new northern signal.
Note new sidelights for the private road.
US&S signal and my shadow.
US&S model 95 gate.
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48
The old northern signal base.
Even the rare ped gates were forced to say good bye.
But don't count your tears yet.
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51
The old northern signal lays on its side here as BNSF donated it to the park!
The old WCH 12"x20" lights.
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53
54
The old WRRS gate.
The old WCH bell.
Another view of the old signal.
By early June, the old signal bases
were removed and the old signal was erected in the railfan park.
Besides that, nothing else changed between 2008 and 2010.
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57
58
59
60
On September 18, 2010, A.J. Gonfiantini came out to the crossing, showing no changes to the signals.
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63
Between 2010 and 2016, blue DOT signs
were added, and the crossbucks and track signs were replaced.
Also at some point, the US&S base on the northern signal was
replaced with a Safetran base.
64
65
Overview facing south.
Overview facing north.
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79
The northern signal.
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91
The southern signal.
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95
The northern pedestrian gate.
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The southern pedestrian gate.
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102
The relay bungalows in the northwest quadrant. Yes, the old bungalow had still not been removed by 2016. The PTMW bungalow is S/N 40744.
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105
The grade is now all concrete.
Track view facing west towards Route 38. Note the replacement for the searchlights.
Here's
the old northern signal from the crossing which is now a display for
the railfan park. I'm glad to see this is preserved since this
one of the first signals I ever saw in action back in 1999.
In early 2016, the road was repaved and a median was added in preparation for Rochelle to become a quiet zone.
On June 29, 2016, all 4 of the
searchlight signal bridges were decomissioned and removed. The
BNSF ones were all scrapped while part of the UP ones were saved and
put on display in the park.
By spring 2017, the old relay bungalow was finally removed.
Around the same time, the private road leading up the crossing was
closed and the sidewalk on the east side was repaved.
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120
121
122
123
124
Views
of the updates. The wire for the old bungalow is wrapped around
the telegraph pole. The old pole line is still standing as of
early 2019.
