TP&W and the Coal "Straggler" 1-12-18


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, though it appears that since January 5, BNSF has brought at least two Dynegy-Edwards Power Station trains into town and parked them on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's (TZPR) Pekin mainline. A TP&W crew handles them from there to the power plant, using TZPR trackage to Iowa Junction at Peoria's far south edge thence onto the Union Pacific's ex-Peoria Terminal Company line to Hollis, where a connection (a location known as Sommer) enables the TP&W to enter Union Pacific's Peoria Sub for final delivery to the Edwards Power Station. 

I understand that a coal train was delivered Wednesday evening, though it may not have been the first. It is believed that complications arose because switching a 135-car train from UP's ex-PTCo. Iowa Jct.-Hollis to UP's Peoria Sub requires use of the Keokuk Junction Railway's former TP&W "West End" for head room. Apparently, the TP&W and KJRY worked out a deal and BNSF coal trains are now being delivered to Edwards Power Station without any issues. 

One other aspect of this new routing involves "coal stragglers." BNSF inspects loaded eastbound Powder River Basin coal trains at Alliance, Nebraska. Inevitably, one or several cars in some 135-car trains are bad-ordered, switched out and spotted for necessary repairs. When this task is completed, the cars continue their journey in regular manifest freight service, thus why they're known as "stragglers." 

One such car, CAEX 24198, arrived this week (probably Thursday) on BNSF's M-GALPEI (Manifest, Galesburg IL to Peoria IL) train. After work Friday afternoon, I caught a TP&W East Peoria Switcher crew with Illinois & Midland RR (IMMR) 61, an SD18, and TP&W (TPW) 3440, an SD40-3, turning a single car using TZPR's Bridge Junction wye. The single-car train then ran through the East Peoria Yard and then to TP&W's own yard 1.5 miles east. 

Scenes in the video above were taken at Wesley Road in Creve Coeur and at W. Washington Street in East Peoria. I suspect the next East Peoria Switcher or Kolbe Local will deliver this car to Edwards Station. 

- David P. Jordan

Comments

  1. AnonymousJanuary 18, 2018 at 2:23 PM

    how often are they going to deliver this coal train?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David P. JordanJanuary 18, 2018 at 5:56 PM

      I would expect about two per week. Peak cooling and heating cycles will increase train counts to three or four per week.

      Delete
    2. AnonymousJanuary 23, 2018 at 10:34 AM

      thanks

      Delete

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