Weekend Highlights - Jan. 27-28, 2018

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 Railroad's East Peoria Yard.)

Next, a phone call from a friend allowed me to capture a Toledo, Peoria & Western crew bringing a BNSF coal train from Wesley (Creve Coeur) on sister Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Pekin mainline to Dynegy's Edwards Power Station just south of Bartonville. Although TP&W handles this movement, it runs entirely on other railroads -

Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (Wesley to Iowa Junction)

Union Pacific Railroad (Iowa Junction to Hollis)

Keokuk Junction Railway (headroom between Hollis and Kolbe Junction)

Union Pacific Railroad (Sommer connection and about two miles north for headroom)

Scenes are at Wesley, Bridge Junction, S. Darst Street, W. Clarke Street, South Bartonville, Hollis (Rt. 9-US 24 intersection) and Sommer (after train has entered the UP mainline). Another train movement precluded recording the train's back up move into the power plant loop, but I believe I captured (below) what I needed to.

Finally, the other train. Special movements are rare (why they're "special") and this one was the coolest I've seen in awhile. General Electric shipped two tarped gas turbines from its Greenville, South Carolina plant over multiple railroads (Carolina Piedmont Railroad, CSX Transportation, Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific) on a circuitous routing via Memphis and metro St. Louis to Alliant Energy in Janesville, Wisconsin. Union Pacific received the train at Memphis, thus the symbol, "SMEJA," or Special, MEmphis TN to JAnesville WI.

I caught the train about 3:00pm slowing as it entered South Pekin Siding. A crew change took place at the once busy C&NW classification yard (now down to a few tracks) and the train was moving north again by 4:00. I shot video at Chester L Road. Across the river, scenes are at Sommer (where the BNSF coal train video left off less than two hours earlier), running over US 24 in Bartonville, at W. Farmington Road and finally passing the Akron Service's elevator off Rt. 91 north of Dunlap.

While waiting at Wesley for the TP&W-crewed BNSF coal train to depart, a Tazewell & Peoria Railroad switch job shoved a cut of empty ADM covered hoppers from the Hilliards (Creve Coeur) barge dock to the East Peoria Yard. I only managed a still of IMRR 43 doing the honors. But early Sunday afternoon, I caught TZPR 1520 doing the same with 13 ADM empties. 

I case you're wondering, I never made it to the library on Saturday. 

- David P. Jordan