A piece of local railroad history has come to the Rochelle Train Park.
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A piece of local railroad history has come to the Rochelle Train Park.
Wednesday morning, the Rochelle Park District transported a 100-year old Whitcomb turnaround or “turn table” from the residence of the late Henry Auchstetter to the park. It currently sits on the south side of the park between a stationary Whitcomb train and the main building. The turntable looks a lot like a wheel from an old wagon, except it’s made of cast iron rather than wood and weighs approximately 1,500 pounds.
According to Steve Frank, curator of the Rochelle History Museum, the small gauge turn table was used to manually relocate the direction of an oncoming train, from one track to another.
“Today, it would all be automatic,” he said.
Calling it “a very unique donation,” Frank said Auchstetter was a huge train enthusiast who collected all kinds of train memorabilia, including toy trains.
According to an inscription on the wheel, the turn table was made Dec. 27, 1904 at the Canton Foundry in Canton, Ohio.
Kathy Johnson, the president of the Rochelle Historical Society who is overseeing the project, said the turn table was then brought to Rochelle and was one of several turn tables of various sizes used by the Whitcomb Company. Although it was used for many years, no one is sure exactly how long it was used.
When the old Whitcomb building, which had many owners over the years, was being torn down in 2007, local historian Dave Schabacker discovered the turn table.