Peoria Station

Saturday afternoon, January 27, was unseasonably warm and unusually busy with train action.  I worked six hours until noon then went to buy lunch, intending to spend the rest of the day at the downtown library where for the past decade, I have been researching local transportation and industrial history.  Almost immediately, I encountered a distraction in the form of an eastbound Toledo Peoria & Western local made up of TPW 3046 and 13 cars heading toward that carrier's East Peoria Yard. Video (below) was taken at the East Washington Street crossing. All of the cars were from industries located on TP&W's Mapleton Industrial Spur.  Note the Conrail gondola: used to haul scrap metal, it was probably spotted, unloaded and pull from Caterpillar's Mapleton foundry. It was probably the first rail shipment from this facility. (Conrail markings now belong to Norfolk Southern, and the car was likely interchanged back to that carrier via the Tazewell & Peoria R...

Time for Transportation 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

Peoria Int'l Airport has finally posted a press release on its 2017 traffic.  Normally, they post this information a week earlier. In a reversal of roles, the Peoria Journal Star beat the airport in publicizing 2017 cargo and passenger stats.  Now I'm waiting for figures from Central Illinois Regional Airport (CIRA). Traffic was down 13 percent the first eight months of 2017. A downturn in business travel was cited as the reason. I'm curious if traffic recovered in the final months of the year.  - David P. Jordan

Peoria International Airport posted its third-best passenger tally in 2017.  The Peoria Journal Star reported Wednesday night that traffic was up two percent in 2017 with 635,003 passengers. I was close with my prediction last month . If the two percent increase holds through December, traffic will total about 636,000 this year, the third-best in PIA history.  Factors for the slight increase include new service to American Airlines' Charlotte (NC) hub (begun in Nov. 3, 2016), Allegiant Air's twice-weekly, seasonal (May to September) nonstops to Destin/Ft. Walton Beach (FL) and larger jets to American Airlines' Dallas/Ft. Worth (TX) hub (begun in February 2017).  PIA first broke the 600,000-passenger mark in 2014 with 639,320 passengers. The year 2015 gave it an all time record of 641,671 passengers. Traffic dipped in 2016 with a still respectable 623,134.  With an improving economy and rising sales for Caterpillar promising increased business...

I got lucky.  Late Saturday morning, an Iowa Interstate crew was called to take manifest PESI (Peoria IL to Silvis IL) out of the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard. I worked from 6:00 am to noon, but hoped I could catch the train's departure.  Moments later, I realized that it was mid-month, and I needed to pay some bills and do some banking. This being Saturday, the bank closes at 1:00pm so I had an hour to get home (just northwest of Peoria), crunch some numbers and transfer some dough.  I left work today at noon, and things got tight. Moments after sitting in my car and switching on my Radio Shack scanner, I heard the TZPR dispatcher give Iowa Interstate 505 permission to depart the East Lead (East Peoria) for the North Limit Yard.  I now had less than an hour to get home, gather the info I needed and make the transactions. I also needed some lunch. Somehow, I did all these things in plenty of time then headed down Rt. 6 in h...

With the new year, Dynegy's Edwards Power Station, located south of Bartonville, switched from Union Pacific to BNSF as rail transportation provider. Coal is still shipped from the North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming's Powder River Basin (PRB).  BNSF Railway doesn't serve the Edwards Power Station directly. The power plant, which began operation in 1960 and saw subsequent expansion in 1968 and 1972, is located on the Union Pacific Railroad's Peoria Subdivision. There is another carrier possessing direct access: Toledo Peoria & Western (TP&W).  Although Union Pacific provides the simplest and most efficient means to deliver PRB coal to Edwards, Dynegy decided in late 2016 to shift more tonnage to BNSF in return for lower contract rates. So the carrier handles 135-car coal trains to Peoria and interchanges them to the TP&W for final delivery.  If a TP&W crew is available, interchange will take place on the Peoria side of the river, tho...

The only fatal Peoria-area plane crash involving a scheduled air carrier occurred October 21, 1971 when Chicago & Southern Airlines Flight #804 went down while attempting to land in poor weather conditions. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report can be viewed here , but I'll summarize the crash, what led up to it and the aftermath.  ILL-FATED FLIGHT #804 Chicago & Southern Airlines began flying between Peoria and Chicago's Meigs Field on July 7, 1969. Beech 18S and DHC-6 "Twin Otter" aircraft were used for its flights, the former type at Peoria. In 1970, C&S introduced an aircraft known as the ATECO Westwind II. It was a Beech 18S with heavy modifications including a seven-foot fuselage extension, two turboprop engines and a tri-cycle landing gear. An ATECO Westwind II operated ill-fated C&S Flight #804. It departed Meigs Field at 11:20 a. m. October 21, 1971 for Peoria and Springfield with 14 passengers. Airline pres...

Mid-afternoon Friday, January 5, 2018, I caught the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR) switching Allied Iron & Steel Co. in Peoria.  Owned by A. Miller & Co. , 1612 SW Adams Street, Allied Iron & Steel Co.  purchases junked autos, scrap metal and tin. Its auto shredder produces steel scrap ready for processing at steel mills and foundries. Allied Iron & Steel opened at the Foot of W. Clarke Street in 1965. Back then, it was served by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) with a spur off of its mainline (now BNSF's Peoria Subdivision, it is seen in the background). Also served by the CB&Q, A. Miller & Co. regularly shipped junk by rail from its uptown facility down to Allied for further processing.  Successor Burlington Northern abolished its last Peoria-based switch engine in 1983 and handed over the Allied Iron & Steel business to the Peoria & Pekin Union Railway (P&PU), which built the spur track...

Allegiant Air confirmed for Springfield's State Journal-Register in late-November that its last nonstop flight to Orlando-Sanford International Airport in Florida would operate January 2, 2018.  Allegiant Air's Punta Gorda, Florida nonstops continues but the loss of Orlando-Sanford service makes one wonder if the airline may soon withdraw from the Springfield  market completely. Although service had been offered four years, similar service to Bloomington-Normal, Peoria and even Belleville (Mid-America Airport) probably cannibalized the Springfield market. Peoria saw suspension of its Orlando-Sanford service in late summer. Twice-weekly service resumed November 15. Springfield's loss may benefit Bloomington-Normal and Peoria. - David P. Jordan