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News and Review, Railroad Yakuza Style.
December 20, 2006
ROCHELLE, ILLINOIS | The Rochelle Railroad Park is about to undergo a massive expansion, thanks to the cooperation of BNSF Railway and Union Pacific. Recent questions over the park's future has led the Rochelle Tourism & Visitor's Association to reveal its master plan ahead of schedule.
"The Rochelle Tourism & Visitor's Association has acquired the former Del Monte facility adjacent to the diamond for future use," said Ross Freier, association director. "Integration into the current park will require major reconstruction but with the assistance pledged by both BNSF and Union Pacific and local businessowners we are confident everything will be in place by summer 2007."
The park will include an expanded gift shop, located in the former Del Monte cannery, along with an exact replica of Rochelle in HO scale. There will also be more parking to the north of the new gift shop, and a full-size interpretive exhibit featuring Rochelle's own Whitcomb locomotives and their pronounced effect on American railroading.
The reconstruction plan calls for joining the current park with the newly acquired building just a few hundred feet away. To accomplish this feat, BNSF Railway and Union Pacific have agreed to remove their at-grade crossing from what will soon be the center of the expanded park. In order to maintain rail traffic into Chicago, the railroads have agreed to build a $89.3 million connection from the BNSF's Aurora Subdivision to the Union Pacific's Geneva Subdivision. This would effectively end Rochelle's status as a busy rail junction and instead make it similar to a bottleneck were the two lines will come close together.
As part of this arrangment BNSF and Union Pacific would swap lines east of Rochelle. BNSF would assume control of Union Pacific's Geneva Subdivision east of the city while Union Pacific would gain BNSF's Aurora Subdivision. The line swap would continue all the way to downtown Chicago and would include the railroad's respective yards located in the western suburbs.
"This is a wonderful opprotunity for the Rochelle Tourism & Visitor's Association to expand their presence in the city," said Steve Forsberg, General Director of Public Affairs for BNSF. Added Mark Davis, director of regional public relations for Union Pacific, "anything [the railroads] can do to help Rochelle build its railfan community is positive for all involved parties, whatever the cost or inconveneince. Since no community is going to lose rail service, and there will be no merger between companies, we don't forsee any problems with this transaction."
Construction on the new tracks is expected to commence in June of 2006, pending federal regulatory approval.
EXTERNAL LINKS
Wikipedia's page on the Rochelle Railroad Park
http://www.trains.com/trn/webcams/rochelle.aspx
The Blotter is an online satirical publication produced by the Railroad Yakuza.