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3D Satellite)
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Rob Conway posted
It is amazing how the CN managed to [get rid of] the Peter Baker business at Rondout. 16 loads of gravel, generated on line, every day, Gone! Now route 176 is jammed with trucks all day long moving in and out of Baker.
Sam Carlson I wonder if we can file a class action suit against the CN for ruining the quality of life in this area by forcing Peter Baker, which located here because of rail access, to switch to dusty, dirty dump trucks whose cargo should be in freight cars. Any lawyers out there?
B-Train David Lemke Probably did this as they were going to abandon this line, only to scrap the idea.There is little business on this route. A good shortline would do wonders,here.
Jeffrey Varney There were many times where Baker got a double spot...30+ cars unloaded everyday. They were always fast unloading cars.
William O'Neal Stringer Came out of Joliet, Illinois on the "Bug Line." Out towards the generator.
[The source of the gravel was probably the Material Service gravel quarry east of Plainfield.]
Steve Nichols When did CN stop serving them? This is the first time learning of this operation and of course its too late.
Jeffrey Varney A picture from August 7, 2008 shows an inbound train hauling Peter Baker rock into Rondout...so maybe 2009 or 2010...
Steven Suhs Wow they making that move in daylight. I was always at night when I switched it. |
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PeterBaker-about
Founded in 1915 by Peter Baker and his son Arthur Baker Sr. as a roofing business, the company is currently under the control of 4th generation brothers Art and Rob Baker.
With asphalt production facilities located in Lake Bluff, Lakemoor, Marengo and North Chicago, Illinois we are able to service all of Northeastern Illinois including Lake, McHenry, Cook, DeKalb, Kane and Boone Counties.
We are committed to producing quality materials, and providing quality construction services by our team of experienced and dedicated personnel.
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Before they lay the asphalt, a new rode needs various layers of crushed stone to create a foundation for the road.
Since the abandonment was relatively recent, I could use Gobal Earth to determine where the industrial spur used to be. In April, 1998, they were digging the unloading pit.
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| Apr 1998 |
I captured some other images showing hoppers on the spur. In each case there is a hopper over the pit. Some images verify that it is hard to find the tracks near stone piles. If there were not hoppers parked by the piles in some images, you could not determine there were tracks there.
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| Oct 2002 |
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| Aug 2005 |
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| May 2010 |
Now that I know where to look, I can find the tracks on the property and...
...the turnout for the industrial spur.
Back when Class I railroads had plenty of coal to haul for many miles, they didn't care about carload business. CN is the first railroad where Hunter Harrison aggressively implemented his operating tactics that he labelled Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). The tactics were focused on reducing the railroad's operating ratio (expenses/revenue). One of those tactics was to quit servicing small customers. For example, by the time Hunter got to CSX, he required a grain elevator to load a unit train of at least 65 hoppers in a day or so. He refused to serve the customers that had been getting blocks of 20 hoppers. Actually, CSX was dumping customers before Hunter took charge. Some grain elevators were lucky enough that they were on a branch that CSX did not want. So that branch got sold to a shortline and the shortline was glad to combine the smaller cuts of hoppers into a large unit train for interchange with CSX. The
Evansville Western Railway (EVWR) is an example of such a shortline. Grain elevators along tracks that CSX wanted to keep simply got screwed. Screwing a grain elevator also screws the farmers in the area because they get a lower price per bushel since it costs more to haul those bushels to marked. And it puts more trucks on our roads. I learned yesterday that a farmer is allowed to haul loads of 92,000 pounds. The normal legal limit is 80,000 pounds. [
video for 40 seconds]
Why the Surface Transportation Board allowed the railroads to ignore their common carrier obligations is one of those questions that makes me mad and causes me to loose sleep at night. It is hard for me to watch a few greedy railroad managers and hedge fund operators gut America's railroad network. I've read that some people are advocating letting shortline railroads use Class I tracks to serve the industries that had built along those tracks many decades ago to get rail service. Of course, the Class I railroads are fighting that compromise. They don't care if more trucks tear up our roads.
