Thoroughbreds on the TP&W?

Something interesting happened on the Toledo Peoria & Western Railway this weekend. 

Late summer marks a push by grain belt elevators to empty their silos in time for the fall harvest. A bumper crop in 2016 ensures that a lot of grain will be shipped the next month or so. The grain has to be sold, and who it is sold to can create interesting rail movements.

Such is the case on Saturday, August 26 when Norfolk Southern Train 51Z, made up of two engines and 85 grain empties, arrived East Peoria and parked on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's "Nickel Plate Sub." The NS crew ran around their train and coupled to the east end. A short time later, a TP&W crew got on and took it east. The first 52 cars (and one locomotive) were left at Grainland Cooperative's Cruger elevator and the remaining 33 were hauled to Prairie Central Cooperative's Weston elevator. A reported 24-hour turnaround time had elevator personnel loading corn that evening. I captured this train leaving East Peoria and several subsequent scenes.

On Sunday, August 27, a TP&W crew gathered 33 now-loaded cars at Weston and hauled them to Cruger where the other 52 were added. I captured this train's passage starting at El Paso. The TP&W ran the 85-car train to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad at Wesley where a Norfolk Southern crew will get on board . Final destination is probably a feed mill in the Carolinas. 

I've been told of TP&W-served elevators loading grain for Norfolk Southern-served points in the past, but to my knowledge, NS power hasn't run previously through from the origin point. This weekend's particular movement may not be repeated...or it may be the first of many such trains. Archer Daniels Midland Co. recently cut production at its Peoria distillery by half so a lot of local corn is available for new markets, before and after this fall's grain rush.

- David P. Jordan