RPR Ep. 2 - Exploring The Rochelle Railroad Park

Рет қаралды 11,517

3 жыл бұрын

Rochelle, Illinois, located about 70 miles west of Chicago, is home to The Ken Wise Rochelle Railroad Park. The diamond at the rail park marks the intersection of Union Pacific’s Geneva Subdivision and BNSF’s Aurora Subdivision. Rochelle sees up to 80 trains per day, making this location a perfect place for a rail park. Situated right next to the diamond, The Rochelle Railroad Park provides railfans with an ideal view of all the action 24 hours a day. The rail park has a covered pavilion, picnic tables, a paved parking lot, two Whitcomb locomotives on display, permanent restrooms, and even a gift shop! For more information about the rail park, visit their website: www.rochellerailroadpark.org/
The Rochelle Railroad Park website has a live webcam where railfans can watch trains 24/7/365 (www.rochellerailroadpark.org/.... Railfans can also watch the action at the rail park on the Virtual Railfan webcam, as well as the RailStream webcam with a RailStream membership.
Do you have a rail park you'd like me to review? Leave a comment below! Also, leave a comment to share about your experience at The Rochelle Railroad Park or your plans to visit the park in the future.
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Equipment:
- Video Camera: Canon VIXIA HF G50 and Google Pixel 3
- Drone: DJI Mavic Pro
- Microphone: Rode VideoMicro
Music: www.bensound.com/royalty-free...

Пікірлер: 53

@timlabell Жыл бұрын

How cool Rochelle been there a couple times I lived in Sugar Grove I watched the trains .yes I did.

@zubairrazzaq6271 4 ай бұрын

Great work by you wonderful people of Illinois 👌👍👏

@DelayInBlockProductions 3 жыл бұрын

Great video. Never been to Rochelle before, but it seems like a really cool spot.

@prestonsadler9293 20 күн бұрын

Nice video

@richardchamberlain8527 Жыл бұрын

During the tour of the Big Boy, Rochelle is where it stopped for a photo-op. It stopped blocking the rail crossing offering the big crowed of rail fans a great view of the loco's proportions without danger of road traffic. The power station across the street from the gift shop that, on pleasant days, opens itsdoors to offers views of its large diesel generators for those interested in other diesels. One of the days I was there, there was a HLP unit waiting on the dock to be installed.

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

It became a no horn zone around when the Wayside Cantilevers were replaced

@amandas3752 Жыл бұрын

Hoping to visit the Rochelle IL Railroad park soon!

@NYandAtlantic Жыл бұрын

Excellent video

@paulmatulavich7321 2 жыл бұрын

Very nice tour and review of this location. Immediately like the fact that the observation plateau is elevated. Good thinking there!

@Austin326 3 жыл бұрын

I live about 15-20 minutes away from the park, and when I was younger my grandpa and I would always go get lunch and head straight to the park to eat and watch trains. It is definitely a unique and entertaining place.

@toddtreder1866 2 жыл бұрын

This is one ☝️ of my best places to watch trains 🚊. Me and my friend Tim McRoberts have been there. My favorite 😍 trains is intermodal.

@arlingtontrains7 Жыл бұрын

My dislike is the QZ! Other that that this seems like heaven!

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

They have a VR cam now

@vedorocc_ 2 жыл бұрын

You should go to Birmingham, AL Railroad Park. That Would be really fun. I think they have Snow cones!

@themousefiles 2 жыл бұрын

Been going there since 99. I love that park. Even saw Big Boy there back in 2019.

@tabletop_railway 3 жыл бұрын

I run these videos whilst I work at home (London, England) I find the sounds of train horns, clanking rails and crossing klaxons very relaxing !

@richardhammel8313 3 жыл бұрын

Rochelle, my old home town. It is a neat park. Both of those engines are whitcombe. I don"t know if you knew it or not but the whitcombe factory was in Rochelle in the early years until it was bought by Baldwin and moved to Chicago. Dont remember the years but i know they were here in the early forties and war years.

@hubchicago6961 3 жыл бұрын

The park used to have a house on it at one time. The “no train horn” passed within the last year or two.

@tanyavega4969 2 жыл бұрын

I used to live by that train park it was a brown house by a yellow and grey

@szabados1980 2 жыл бұрын

They did a pretty good job with the elevation to keep railway buffs off the trackbad. And I find it baffling that neither of the two main lines is electrified. Diesel hauling isn't only so much more polluting, it's much less efficient at the same time.

@zackroeben2552 2 жыл бұрын

Park just recently went from being open 24/7 to Open during daylight hours only. Also the fire ring has been removed and no open fires are allowed. Later because of inconsiderate people building large fires and shooting off fireworks towards the trains after dark.

@benmullins2443 3 жыл бұрын

I’m a regular visitor to the park. The quiet zone went into effect back in 2015.

@dangernoodle23101 3 жыл бұрын

Wow nice! I love these videos so much! even though I don't railfan I love locomotives and trains.

@BarredCoast0 3 жыл бұрын

You provide a very well thought out and interesting video. I glad I subscribed. 🚂

@chickenz03 3 жыл бұрын

Now this is cool. As I'm watching this, I thought the particular shot at 18:00 sure looked familiar, and that's because I was there that exact same day! I was right there with you when you were taking this shot! I even have your tripod in some of my pictures! How cool!

@chickenz03 3 жыл бұрын

In fact that is me holding the camera up to my face when the train passes. This is too funny.

@trainsofthemidwest 3 жыл бұрын

Nice video! I've been waiting for this one for a while

@trainmcp1138 3 жыл бұрын

I was out there in June 2018 and there was no train horns back then. Also, I have to disagree your point about photos. It is a great place for photos. If you need great scenery then you are right about that. I live in Massachusetts and it was my first time there and can't wait to go back.

@Braeden8952 3 жыл бұрын

Hey I’m going here this summer :D Hopefully

@JoeRailfan 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, David. Retrying my comment: Virtual Railfan on KZfaq is now supporting a railcam at Rochelle through September 2022 (free, but donations are accepted). Looks like they might be using the same camera as Trains Magazine. The Illinois Railway Museum at Union, IL is about 35 miles northeast (as the crow flies) of Rochelle. It would be easy to visit both places over a weekend. Some of the switching moves out of UP's Global 3 yard are so long that they temporarily block the Rochelle diamond (I'll bet that annoys the BNSF dispatchers). Welcome to the world of 2-mile-long freights! Great review, I'm hoping to get out to Rochelle and Union myself this summer.

@enjoyingrailroading1013 2 жыл бұрын

Virtual Railfan's railcam is separate from the Trains railcam and provides zoom and panning capabilities.

@HitsTownUSA Жыл бұрын

The black fence must have been put up in the last few years. I’ve been there twice and you could walk up to the tracks without having to go to the sidewalk. I park near the houses which are a stones throw from the diamonds. Unfortunately around 2019 they restricted horns so it’s now a quiet zone.

@dirtycamerarailfan3302 3 жыл бұрын

Great work. Those fences must have been put in in 2020 or so. I remember no fences were present back in Summer of 2019.

@billyhunter2161 2 жыл бұрын

Rochelle became a quiet zone in 2016. Some engineers still give a toot or two at watchers

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

They actually reopened G3

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

11:08 that was actually built in Rochelle

@unionpacific1973 3 жыл бұрын

The first train you saw was the local out of sterling, IL

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

5:52 sterling local if your wondering.

@DavidLauback Ай бұрын

Thanks for all the updated info!

@SignalMan9292 Ай бұрын

22:29 MG3AH

@railcamrailfanner 2 жыл бұрын

Does anyone know how many rail parks there are in the USA?

@tjtrainzCSX 2 жыл бұрын

I've always wanted to visit Rochelle, but I can't lie, when it became a quiet zone, I lost almost full interest. Quiet zones automatically make me uninterested, no matter how GOOD a place is... Still a place to visit, tho...

@davidcoleman958 3 жыл бұрын

Awesome videos. Do you like this spot more than some of the Ohio hotspots?

@DavidLauback 3 жыл бұрын

Good question! While I enjoy watching trains in my home state of Ohio, it's always fun to see something different for a change. I really like the overall quality of the Rochelle Rail Park. I've never been to a rail park that has such nice amenities for railfans, such as having a covered pavilion, paved parking lot, locomotives on display, restrooms on site, a gift shop, etc. To me, these things set it apart from any hotspot I've been to in Ohio.

@anthstrains2548 3 жыл бұрын

Nice video. Do you think you could do a video on the galitzin tunnels like you did on the cresson railroad park?

@DavidLauback 3 жыл бұрын

I don't live in Central PA anymore, so sadly I don't know when I'll be able to get back out there. However, when I lived there I visited the tunnels many times, and I made a video called Railfanning the Gallitzin Tunnels with a Drone. Here's a link to the video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ndOkZL2ntZmwoXk.html This video doesn't have any narration like the Cresson video does, but I hope you still enjoy it! (This was back before I started adding narration to videos.)

@WaynoGur 3 жыл бұрын

Do you have a patreon page?

@DavidLauback 3 жыл бұрын

No, I don't have a Patreon page at this point.

@JoeRailfan 2 жыл бұрын

I left a (favorable) comment on this review a few days ago but it's not showing up. In moderation or deleted?

@DavidLauback 2 жыл бұрын

Hmm, I'm not sure why your comment is not showing up. I checked to see if there are any comments that KZfaq automatically held for review (which happens sometimes), but there weren't any comments waiting for review there. I almost never delete comments, and I haven't deleted any recently, so I'm not sure what happened!

@conductorretired7153 3 жыл бұрын

Well its a very fun park til you start noticing people overly nosey about where your from and if you ever go into gift shop the woman working there shouldnt be. She is a moody employee who does nt care about railfans. Thanks to vandalism the rest rooms are closed when shop is. Black fences were only installed in passed 5 years. Local caboose was nice to people stole logo off it. Rail cam is poor with trains magizine.....the scanner radio hears very little cause they will not put an antenna in a higher point. They offer WIFI yet it is short range to parking area only. On other issues there is no wind wall for the pavilion to reduce cold windy weather. In there. Parking dont have room for larger rv. S and trailers. Hobos pop up in area and sleep in fire pit area often. Dont over stay your time or people will call the police as if its not what the place was put in for. People sleep in cars pick ups etc. ...its a nice place to visit then move on.