Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Rochelle, IL

Rochelle is a city in northern Illinois, lying mostly in Ogle County with a portion in Lee County, about 80 miles west of Chicago and 25 miles south of Rockford.

Rochelle is nicknamed the Hub City because it sits at the crossing of the BNSF and Union Pacific railroad mainlines, as well as Interstates 39 and 88 and the historic Lincoln Highway.

Originally named Lane, Rochelle grew up at the intersection of two rail lines, where a cluster of grain elevators and granaries held corn, wheat and other crops for shipment east.

After World War II, Rochelle became a food-processing center built around a Swift meatpacking plant and Del Monte canneries that packed asparagus, corn, green beans and peas from the surrounding farmland.

Rochelle's population was 9,446 at the 2020 census, and Census Bureau estimates count about 3,759 households, with just over half of homes owner-occupied.

Rochelle Railroad Park, opened on August 30, 1998, is billed as the first park in the United States built specifically for train watching, with an elevated gazebo-style viewing platform at the double-diamond crossing of the two railroads.

Between 80 and 100 trains a day roll through the Rochelle diamond, and the park's live webcam, railroad radio feeds and night lighting draw railfans from across the country around the clock.

In September 2024, Union Pacific's restored Big Boy 4014, the world's largest operating steam locomotive type, made a display stop at Rochelle Railroad Park that drew thousands of spectators.

Union Pacific's Global III intermodal yard, a major container transfer facility, sits about a mile southwest of the Rochelle diamond.

A preserved Whitcomb switching locomotive displayed at the railroad park was built by the Whitcomb Locomotive Works, once a Rochelle manufacturer.