ROCHELLE — America has long had a love affair with trains.

Iron horses united a young nation on its quest to reach from sea to shining sea. They’ve been immortalized in song all their live long days. Spine-like tracks that carry countless tons of cargo have long been the backbone of America’s economic engine. Train sets zip around plywood playgrounds in basements everywhere, and a little engine showed us what we could do with optimism and hard work.

Let’s face it: There aren’t many things more powerful than a locomotive — well, except Superman.

These days though, most people take them for granted. We spot them off in the distance as we travel byways and highways, or we cross paths with them when we have to sit in our cars and wait by yellow and black signs where X marks the spot.

But for some people, the love affair with trains never ended, and this dedicated lot has found a place to share their passion in Rochelle, where they come from near and far to see trains up close, snap a picture or two, and swap stories with fellow fans of the mighty machines.

About 80 miles from downtown Chicago, Rochelle is home to an intersection of two major railroad lines going from the Windy City toward the West Coast, along with a place where rail fans and railroads intersect: The Ken Wise Rochelle Railroad Park.

Rochelle has been the location of a diamond intersection with the Union Pacific’s Overland Route and Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Northern Transcon since the early 1870s, but it wasn’t until 1998 when the wedge-shaped park between crossings on Ninth Street opened and the spot became a place to safely watch trains, attracting both rail enthusiasts and curious onlookers alike who come to watch nearly 85 trains a day haul millions of tons of merchandise through Rochelle on two rail lines going from Chicago to the West Coast.

But if you visit the park, don’t look for any passengers waving as they pass by; passenger service ended on both lines in 1971.

The park, the first of its kind in the United States, attracts railroad enthusiasts from all over the world, gathering to see engines, railcars and payloads, and with two busy rail lines, there’s always a lot to see.

For lifelong Rochelle residents like Jenny Thompson, trains are something they’re used to seeing. Thompson, Rochelle’s director of community engagement, grew up a couple of blocks from the park and remembers collecting rocks and flattening pennies on the rails, “dangerous things that we should not have been doing back in the day,” she said. Now she’s promoting the park as a prime tourist attraction — and it’s paying off.

“For someone like me who’s grown up here, the trains are part of everyday life,” Thompson said. “You live and ignore them, and kind of don’t realize how many people are so intrigued by them. People come from all over, and it’s amazing to me to see people come to little Rochelle just for the trains.”

On one occasion, “little Rochelle” became big Rochelle, when a rail event attracted nearly 60,000 people to this town of nearly 10,000 people.

Special historic steam engines make nationwide tours, such as Union Pacific’s “Big Boy” steam engine, which made appearances in Rochelle in 2019 and 2024, the most recent of which ballooned the city’s population nearly six times its size, which was a boon for the city’s businesses. “That’s so huge because we are a small community, and to keep our small business community alive, we need visitors from outside to come here, and we’re so grateful for that,” Thompson said.

The park, named for former Rochelle economic development director Ken Wise in 2016, has a large picnic shelter, gazebo, benches dedicated to past rail fan visitors, replica hobo shelter, small outdoor grill, and two smaller engines on display that once were part of Rochelle’s thriving industrial scene.

The park’s gift shop offers railroad items and apparel for people of all ages, handicapped accessible restrooms and a small viewing area toward the BNSF line; it’s open year-round from Wednesday to Saturday. The picnic shelter contains displays of hobo symbols, once used by transient train “passengers” to identify such things as safe camping spots and where to get some alcohol. Union Pacific’s radio communications also are heard within the shelter. Mementos from Rochelle’s railroad history are also on display inside the gift shop. Rochelle Township High School’s nickname of the “Hubs” was inspired by the railroad and the industry it brought to town. Union Pacific has an intermodal facility nearby, and the town once was home to a Nippon Sharyo plant that made rail cars.

Outside, the trains offer a lot to see, too, as they transport tons of cargo. While some is inside railcars, some can be seen passing by, like a mile’s worth of John Deere tractors in full view. Railcars have also become canvasses for covert artists whose colorful graffiti attracts attention as the trains pass by. And if they’re lucky, train fans will see a rare sighting: the occasional caboose, nearly 40 years after they were taken off the rails in everyday use.

More than just a place to see trains though, the park is also a place where people make connections.

“People have made friendships here that have spanned decades,” Thompson said. “We have a group that comes here every Saturday, we call them our regulars, and they’re from all over the place — the Chicago suburbs and southern Wisconsin — and they all met here. They’ve kept in touch with each other and have become good friends.”

Those friends have an impressive resumé of railroad knowledge and a keen appreciation of trains, from their history to their color schemes, and they’re always on the lookout to learn more.

Railroad companies have their usual engine color and design schemes — Union Pacific’s is red and gold, and BNSF’s is green and orange, for example — but sometimes they’ll roll out special paint and design schemes for promotional purposes or historical tributes, such as Union Pacific’s No. 1995 Chicago and North Western design scheme (Union Pacific acquired Chicago and Northwestern in 1995). Union Pacific also has tribute engines for other companies that have since merged into it, such as Southern Pacific. Most BNSF engines on the rails these days display the current design, but one never knows when they’ll see an old black-and-yellow or silver-and-red Santa Fe engine, or a green-and-white Burlington Northern engine behind the lead. It’s moments like that that have train enthusiasts eagerly waiting for the next train to roll through.

Chicago and North Western built its line through town in 1854, and the Chicago and Iowa (later Chicago, Burlington and Quincy; and then Burlington Northern) came to town in 1871, and the sounds of clanks and clunks have been heard on the diamond crossing for more than 150 years.

One lesser-known story about railroading in Rochelle is that the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul (the “Milwaukee Road”) also went through town on a shared concurrence with the CB&Q from Steward to Flagg Center for a few decades. This Milwaukee Road line went south from Racine, Wisconsin, to a coal mine in Cherry — the same mine where a major disaster that killed more than 200 men and children working in the mine in 1909. Coal from Cherry made its way through Rochelle at that time. The Steward to Cherry (later ending in Ladd) stretch was abandoned in the early 1980s; the line from Flagg Center going north is semi-abandoned with rails remaining but rarely seeing any service. There is a Milwaukee Road caboose that sits on private property near the park.

There’s a certain magic that comes with the distant sound of a train whistle, a thrill that transcends age and time. It’s not just about the engines itself, but the anticipation, the shared joy and the sudden rush of energy it brings. For many, it’s a moment that sparks childhood memories or awakens a deep, nostalgic wonder.

“You see so much excitement on people’s faces when they start to hear the whistle in the distance, or they start seeing the gates come down,” Thompson said. “They’ll be inside the gift shop looking around, and will just take off and run outside. Everyone from little kids to grown adults gets excited, and it’s fun to see that.”

The Ken Wise Rochelle Railroad Park, 124 N. Ninth St. in Rochelle, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.. The gift shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday from April to October, and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on other months. Find it on Facebook, go to rochellerailroadpark.org or call 815-562-7031 for more information.

Go to trains.com/trn/videos-photos/webcam/bnsf-and-union-pacific-in-rochelle-il for a live webcam of activity at the park.