Peoria Station

Been busy lately...Happy New Year. It is time for Q & A! Feel free to post your questions in the comments section on any transportation topic. If I don't have an answer, I'll find one. - David P. Jordan

Each winter, the Upper Mississippi River, from about Keokuk, Iowa north, is closed to commercial navigation for about three months from the second week of December. As a result, a number of all-water movements shift to rail-barge and Peoria-Pekin area terminals experience a surge in volume.  Whereas Grain Processing Corp. (Muscatine, Iowa) and Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Clinton, Iowa) ship gluten feed pellets and/or distillers dried grain supplement (DDGS, or "grain mash") down the Mississippi River from April thru November, they must ship these large volume, bulk commodities to an active barge loadout during December thru March.  The Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS) benefits from this seasonal shift in transportation. Grain Processing Corp. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. typically route feed products via the Canadian Pacific Railway to the IAIS at Davenport, Iowa. From there, IAIS hauls this traffic to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard for

When Cascade Green is leading, I like to catch it. So I caught this afternoon's BNSF freight (M-PEIGAL, or Manifest, Peoria IL to Galesburg IL ). BNSF 2286 & 2524 have 61 cars.  Scenes are at the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River Bridge, the Ft. of W. Clarke Street and in darkness at W. Farmington Road.  The Caterpillar D10T on the head end will move via Harbor City (Los Angeles), California then by ocean vessel across the Pacific Ocean to Vladivostok, Russia. - David P. Jordan

Iowa Interstate Railroad owns two yard slugs, and they usually stay within the confines of a railroad yard. On Wednesday night, however, probably owing to a shortage of locomotives, mother-slug set 721/651 helped 150 pull an SIPE (Silvis IL to Peoria IL) freight to Peoria. Several railfan photographers captured the departure of counterpart PESI (Peoria IL to Silvis IL) on Thursday afternoon with 150 leading and 721/651 trailing. Scenes are at Bridge Junction, Persimmon Street, the old (1900) CRI&P Liberty Street Station and newer (1967) Morton Street Station, Sloan Street and the entire 40-car train near San Koty. After chasing the Iowa Interstate train, I found two other train movements. First, TP&W SD40-3 No. 3441, wearing fresh orange paint, pulled 30 grain empties from ADM through East Peoria. The Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's "Industry 1" job was finishing its work at the West Yard in Peoria when I caught it late Thursday afternoon. IM

United Parcel Service (UPS) established an air cargo hub at Rockford in 1994. I always wondered if Peoria was a contender for this operation.  By the mid-1980s, rapid growth in air cargo volume at then-Greater Peoria Airport spurred dreams of being an air cargo hub. A new master plan drawn up in 1987 called for development of a large air cargo complex in the airport's southeast quadrant.  PIA's dream was a good one, but it never came close to happening. A bid for designation at the United States Postal Service hub failed in 1989 and 1991 and a failed effort to lure DHL in 1996-1998 prompted the State of Illinois to pass supporting legislation.  In between Peoria's USPS and DHL efforts, UPS developed a hub at then-Greater Rockford Airport. It began in 1993 as a temporary Christmas rush hub to support a large volume of seasonal shipments by Land's End, a clothing, luggage and home furnishing retailer based in Dodgeville, Wisconsin (west of Madison). 

Few if anyone knew it at the time, but Federal regulation of scheduled airline service in the United States began unraveling in the late 1960s. Since 1938, when Congress created the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), airline fare and route changes were subject to federal approval. In 1968, the Civil Aeronautics Board ruled that airline fare changes must be systemwide rather than on select routes. Subsequent price reductions were rare, leaving flight frequency and onboard service as the only tools available to attract passengers. Consequentially, these practices created overcapacity with many flights operating half-full. The trouble with CAB's inflexible regulations became apparent during an eleven-month recession which began in December 1969.  The Greater Peoria Airport saw a slight dip in passenger traffic during 1970, but this was attributable less to recession than to a week-long Ozark Air Lines mechanics' strike in April 1970. About 275,000 passengers were handled that

Peoria Int'l Airport will likely post its third-highest annual passenger tally in 2017.  Last month, it broke the November record (52,769 last year) with 55,146 passengers. Passenger traffic for this year exceeds last by two percent, according to this press release .  The all time record came in 2015 when 641,477 passengers went through PIA's gates. Traffic dipped to 623,134 passengers in 2016. The second-highest annual tally was 639,320 in 2014. If the two percent increase holds through December, traffic will total about 636,000 this year, the third-best in PIA history.  The airport press release also notes a 27 percent increase in air freight volume, which is encouraging given the loss of FedEx flights in early 2015. The increase is likely due to rising Caterpillar parts shipments on United Parcel Service.  - David P. Jordan

- David P. Jordan

Santa Claus' next visit to Mapleton, Glasford, Breeds, Canton, Cuba and Smithfield is Saturday, December 9, 2017. The Man In Red will arrive by train because that is way cooler and more reliable (lack of snow) than by sleigh.  Since 2008, our visitor from the North Pole has been a partner with Peoria, Illinois-based shortline holding company Pioneer Railcorp, bringing joy, treats and promises of a great holiday season for area children fortunate enough to live along or near the tracks of subsidiary Keokuk Junction Railway (KJRY). Rumor has it that he may have been employed by Pioneer (as a cover) from its founding before retiring some years ago.  This year's Santa Train will be the tenth trip for Santa along the KJRY. So I thought I'd share memories of the first nine. I will add the tenth after the event sometime Saturday evening.  I shot only brief video of the Keokuk Junction Railway's first Santa Train. It is shown approaching Glasford on Decem

This afternoon, I caught Iowa Interstate train PESI (Peoria, IL to Silvis, IL) departing Peoria. Video taken at San Koty, Illinois. GP38-2 703 leads 46 cars. I'm glad I got this one because of its variety. So many of these are made up of 90 percent empty covered hoppers and perhaps a few tank cars. But this one, while heavy with covered hoppers, has several types - grain, feed and potash empties - as well as tank cars, gondolas and coil care car. Note three coil steel loads. Based on past observations, these were shipped from Nucor Steel Corp's Crawfordsville, Indiana mini-mill and are bound for Reppert Rigging & Hauling at Altoona, Iowa. Routing is NS-Peoria-IAIS*. Reppert hauls steel coils from Altoona west to Osmundson Manufacturing Co's disc blade plant in Perry, Iowa. * The actual routing involves four railroads. CSX switches Nucor cars for Norfolk Southern while interchange with the Iowa Interstate takes place at the Tazewell & Peoria R

For the second Friday in less than a month, I left work and encountered BNSF Railway's Peoria Local.  I'm never opposed to such encounters. I even record the train's passage, even if required to wait. Friday's M-GALPEI (Manifest, Galesburg IL to Peoria IL) train was well worth it.  The BNSF crew brought a 38-car train into Peoria behind three engines (BNSF 1565, 2240 & 2321) just after 2:00pm. Before delivering it to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's (TZPR) East Peoria Yard, two Caterpillar loads shipped from Aurora, left on the New Long Main by prior train due to a delay in providing proper pre-clearance dimensional paperwork to the TZPR, were added to the consist. After 3:30pm, the now-40-car train finally crossed the river. Video above was shot off Sanger Street near TZPR's Bridge Junction Tower. M-GALPEI is crossing ADM's River Track.  The Caterpillar loads are bound for export. They'll be interchanged to Norfolk Southern a