On our way on a trip to Chicago, we decided to visit the Illinois Railway Museum, which I wrote about last month. But on the way to Union, we passed by Rochelle, Illinois, and a sign advertising a railroad park drew us in. How little we knew that it was a pretty big and well-known thing!

The park is located at the diamond crossing between the BNSF and Union Pacific mainlines between Chicago and the west. When you arrive, you first see their two Whitcomb locomotives, manufactured in Rochelle, one a 7-ton built 1928, and the other weighing in at 50 tons. There’s a small museum with lots of train memorabilia and shirts to buy, as well as a neat computer showing a diagram of all the local tracks and the trains running on them, so you know exactly when to head outside to catch a train. Outside there’s a parking lot and an short open field straight up to the tracks with no barrier, and a picnic area right by a large railway signal.

While we were there, a long UP train came through, pulled by four engines, with another engine on the trailing end. Several people were ready to see it, and some had already set up what looked like professional-quality camera equipment on a tripod. As the train approached, telegraphed first by the speakers and then by the bells at the nearby railroad crossing, a dozen or so people emerged from their cars to see it up close, and probably more were up in the picnic area enjoying their better view. We stayed in the parking lot section, but looking at a map of the park, it looks like the picnic area and the area beyond it offer a direct view of the complex diamond double crossing.

In the last issue, I said that anyone heading to Chicago should make a detour and visit the Illinois Railway Museum in Union. Well, for the more intense railfans, if you’re in the general area you would do well to visit the Rochelle Railroad Park. It’s less of a museum and more of a place where you can just sit back, enjoy a nice day, and watch the long trains that go by.

	Four engines lead this United Pacific train heading east.
	In contrast to the signs that tell visitors to keep off of the 50 ton Whitcomb, the 7 ton Whitcomb encourages you to climb the stairs and check it out.