Union Pacific Blade Train 3-3-18


I finally caught a Union Pacific wind turbine components train!

In 2009, that carrier delivered multiple such trains to the Toledo Peoria & Western Railway at Sommer (just south of Bartonville near E. D. Edwards Station). Although I saw UP power coupled to one end of a train, I only witness movement on the TP&W.

Saturday, March 3, 2018 offered a chance to see it. Although a local move (Adams Street Yard in Peoria to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard), and a slow one at that (the video lasts 11 minutes, 14 seconds), waiting about four hours was worth it. 

The train, led by UP 6158 and UP 5725, had 36 blades on 72 specially-equipped 86' flat cars (two flat cars needed per blade).

I'm unsure of its origin, but the manufacturer of those towers which arrived on the TP&W last week (Vestas) also manufactures blades at a Union Pacific-served plant in Brighton, Colorado. The train came via St. Louis, so a Colorado origin makes sense. 

- David P. Jordan

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