Gritty, Industrial Railroading - Seneca Foods Corp. in Princeville
On Monday, September 4, 2017, I managed to capture BNSF switching Seneca Foods Corp's Princeville, Illinois plant. Earlier, I noticed a boxcar spotted at the cannery rail dock but figured the eastbound local had already passed and that there would be no service on a holiday.
I'm glad I stuck around to learn how wrong I was...
I was parked along BNSF's Chillicothe Subdivision at N. Rice Road east of town when I heard the distinctive sound of a locomotive horn in the distance. Mainline signals were dark so I knew the horn blast signaled that the local was in town. Back in Princeville I found a pair of B40-8Ws and three plastic loads shoving into the industry track to fetch the loaded boxcar.
After returning to the mainline and shoving into the rest of the eastbound local (L-CHI101) sitting on Main 2, the crew radioed the dispatcher for permission to depart. Prepared to capture the train's departure, I was interrupted by a westbound intermodal train. So I headed back to N. Rice Road to capture the local and again at Edelstein, where it crossed over from Main 2 to Main 1.
I captured similar action four years earlier, almost to the day (September 5, 2013). See below.
The Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway completed its Kansas City-Chicago route in 1888. Santa Fe merged with Burlington Northern in 1995 to create "Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp." and its two railroads merged operations at the end of 1996. The cannery began operations as Princeville Canning Co. in 1925. Ownership passed to Joan-of-Arc in 1970, Pillsbury in 1986 and Owatonna Canning Co. (which revived the "Princeville Canning Co." name) in 1988. Chiquita Processed Foods acquired Owatonna in 1997 and operated the Princeville plant through its Friday Canning Co. subsidiary. Marion, New York-based Seneca Foods Corp. acquired Chiquita Processed Foods in 2003. In 2010, a large warehouse was built just east of the processing plant. Past owners have canned asparagus, sweet corn, green beans and even potato salad here, but now the plant only processes pumpkins into canned pie filling.
Hello Dave, on another topic I see Allegiant is not scheduling Destin beyond Sept. Seasonal adjustment?
ReplyDeleteYes, Allegiant's interactive route map labels PIA-VPS as a seasonal route.
DeleteDavid, interesting though that they do have schedules out for Destin in spring 2018 for a handful of cities but PIA is not on it. Maybe it's not coming back.
ReplyDeleteIt's possible, but one day I was at the airport terminal after the arrival of an A-320 from Destin and there was quite a crowd collecting or waiting for their luggage. The last PIA-VPS flight operated September 2. It could be Allegiant hasn't determined when it resumes, perhaps late Spring (flights began May 24 this year).
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