Things Getting Worse for TP&W's Morton Industrial Lead
The sadness never ceases when it comes to dying railroad branchlines and their indifferent owners.
A quarter century ago, as interest in rail freight operations blossomed, I became familiar with a remnant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Pekin District.
The Toledo, Peoria & Western assumed operation of a middle portion of Santa Fe's only Illinois branchline through lease on July 8, 1983. Just less than six months later, TP&W was absorbed by its parent. Then on February 3, 1989, TP&W was reborn as a shortline.
When TP&W first served Morton customers in 1983, there were three active customers - Caterpillar Tractor Co. (parts department), Libby, McNeil & Libby (canned pumpkin) and Morton Buildings (timber truss plant). Service was provided five days a week, Monday thru Friday, with an East Peoria-base Morton Switcher operating via Pekin Junction on Washington's east side. A trackage rights agreement with the Norfolk & Western Railway that November enabled TP&W a shorter route between East Peoria and Crandall, thus leasing to abandonment of the Crandall-Pekin Jct. segment.
Obviously, five-days-a-week service confirms that business was good. Caterpillar had just endured a nearly seven-month UAW strike and machinery sales were way down, thanks to a strong dollar and foreign competition. But the Morton facility continued to load gondolas with track and link assemblies for shipment to the Denver, Colorado regional distribution center.
Libby, McNeil & Libby, a subsidiary of Nestle Foods since 1970, spent ten weeks each late-summer and fall processing, canning and shipping canned pumpkin pie filling to distribution centers. The Morton plant produced eighty percent of the company's pumpkin; the balance at Gridley, California. The former supplied pumpkin east of Kansas City, and some 400 boxcar loads left the plant each season. So busy was this customer that TP&W based a locomotive there to provide sufficient switching for two shifts.
Morton Buildings, which had only recently (fall 1980) opened a lumber truss plant just west of town on then-Santa Fe's Pekin District, received lumber from mostly Canadian sources. This firm had long operated a manufacturing facility on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Peoria Secondary, a portion of which had been acquired by the Illinois Terminal Railroad Company from PRR-successor Penn Central in 1976. But Morton Buildings needed more space and greenfield on the west side proved sufficient.
As Santa Fe absorbed its TP&W subsidiary at the end of 1983, Illinois Terminal's "Northern District" was dying. Successor Norfolk & Western, which absorbed ITC on May 8, 1982, had already shifted overhead traffic off this branch, forcing it to survive on local business. Higher rail rates and reduced service ensured it could not do that, and N&W filed for abandonment in 1987. After the last N&W train operated in 1988, Morton was left with just Santa Fe to provide rail service. Soon, that service would become the responsibility of a new shortline which would assume the historic TP&W name.
The Toledo, Peoria & Western assumed operation of a middle portion of Santa Fe's only Illinois branchline through lease on July 8, 1983. Just less than six months later, TP&W was absorbed by its parent. Then on February 3, 1989, TP&W was reborn as a shortline.
When TP&W first served Morton customers in 1983, there were three active customers - Caterpillar Tractor Co. (parts department), Libby, McNeil & Libby (canned pumpkin) and Morton Buildings (timber truss plant). Service was provided five days a week, Monday thru Friday, with an East Peoria-base Morton Switcher operating via Pekin Junction on Washington's east side. A trackage rights agreement with the Norfolk & Western Railway that November enabled TP&W a shorter route between East Peoria and Crandall, thus leasing to abandonment of the Crandall-Pekin Jct. segment.
Obviously, five-days-a-week service confirms that business was good. Caterpillar had just endured a nearly seven-month UAW strike and machinery sales were way down, thanks to a strong dollar and foreign competition. But the Morton facility continued to load gondolas with track and link assemblies for shipment to the Denver, Colorado regional distribution center.
Libby, McNeil & Libby, a subsidiary of Nestle Foods since 1970, spent ten weeks each late-summer and fall processing, canning and shipping canned pumpkin pie filling to distribution centers. The Morton plant produced eighty percent of the company's pumpkin; the balance at Gridley, California. The former supplied pumpkin east of Kansas City, and some 400 boxcar loads left the plant each season. So busy was this customer that TP&W based a locomotive there to provide sufficient switching for two shifts.
Morton Buildings, which had only recently (fall 1980) opened a lumber truss plant just west of town on then-Santa Fe's Pekin District, received lumber from mostly Canadian sources. This firm had long operated a manufacturing facility on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Peoria Secondary, a portion of which had been acquired by the Illinois Terminal Railroad Company from PRR-successor Penn Central in 1976. But Morton Buildings needed more space and greenfield on the west side proved sufficient.
As Santa Fe absorbed its TP&W subsidiary at the end of 1983, Illinois Terminal's "Northern District" was dying. Successor Norfolk & Western, which absorbed ITC on May 8, 1982, had already shifted overhead traffic off this branch, forcing it to survive on local business. Higher rail rates and reduced service ensured it could not do that, and N&W filed for abandonment in 1987. After the last N&W train operated in 1988, Morton was left with just Santa Fe to provide rail service. Soon, that service would become the responsibility of a new shortline which would assume the historic TP&W name.
Caterpillar's Morton plant continued to use rail service through the end of Santa Fe operations. The railroad provided gondolas for shipments to Denver. The Peoria-based heavy equipment maker enjoyed robust sales in the late 1980s, so business had probably increased. But for some reason, TP&W failed to please its important customer and rail service ended, probably by the mid-1990s.
Libby's had been rebranded as a Nestle USA facility, which remained a seasonal customer. That left Morton Buildings as the only year-round source of business. So rail service was provided as needed. Nestle business remained busy in season, and TP&W continued to base a switcher there to support two shifts. From about 1995, much of the canned pumpkin traffic shifted to intermodal, TP&W's preferred method of shipping non-bulk freight.
The practice of basing a switcher at Morton ceased after the 2001 season. The railroad embargoed the line in January 2002 due to deteriorating crosstie conditions. But a new customer, Fort Transfer Company, desired to receive liquid herbicide by rail for regional distribution by truck. Service resumed in February 2002 and track repairs were made by late-March.
But business was never the same. Traffic declined until the last seasonal rail shipments were made in Fall 2005. After a brief shipping season during June and July 2008, that was the end. Nestle USA's rail siding was removed in 2013.
TP&W long demonstrated indifference toward operating its Morton Industrial Lead. Trackage rights on what is today Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District were obtained when Morton business was far heavier, and could support almost daily service, so charges for the use of the East Peoria-Crandall segment as well as crew costs have long eaten up any profits, if there are any.
In early 2015, TP&W once more embargoed its Morton Industrial Lead. It tried to get the remaining two customers, Morton Buildings and Fort Transfer, to transload their shipments to truck at East Peoria so the deteriorating branchline could be abandoned and scrapped. The former agreed but the latter could not justify it, and fought TP&W's unilateral service suspension. Pioneer Railcorp subsidiary Keokuk Junction Railway even offered to buy this line (an interesting story in itself). Battle lines were drawn before the federal Surface Transportation Board.
In the end, TP&W decided to fix its track and restore service to Fort Transfer. Now that Morton Buildings' rail facilities are gone, the future of this Santa Fe remnant rests with sufficient volume of inbound herbicide.
Two photos below were taken today, April 20, 2018. The area covered with white rock was once filled with stacks of lumber, so some changes are taking place, possibly building construction.
Libby's had been rebranded as a Nestle USA facility, which remained a seasonal customer. That left Morton Buildings as the only year-round source of business. So rail service was provided as needed. Nestle business remained busy in season, and TP&W continued to base a switcher there to support two shifts. From about 1995, much of the canned pumpkin traffic shifted to intermodal, TP&W's preferred method of shipping non-bulk freight.
The practice of basing a switcher at Morton ceased after the 2001 season. The railroad embargoed the line in January 2002 due to deteriorating crosstie conditions. But a new customer, Fort Transfer Company, desired to receive liquid herbicide by rail for regional distribution by truck. Service resumed in February 2002 and track repairs were made by late-March.
But business was never the same. Traffic declined until the last seasonal rail shipments were made in Fall 2005. After a brief shipping season during June and July 2008, that was the end. Nestle USA's rail siding was removed in 2013.
TP&W long demonstrated indifference toward operating its Morton Industrial Lead. Trackage rights on what is today Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District were obtained when Morton business was far heavier, and could support almost daily service, so charges for the use of the East Peoria-Crandall segment as well as crew costs have long eaten up any profits, if there are any.
In early 2015, TP&W once more embargoed its Morton Industrial Lead. It tried to get the remaining two customers, Morton Buildings and Fort Transfer, to transload their shipments to truck at East Peoria so the deteriorating branchline could be abandoned and scrapped. The former agreed but the latter could not justify it, and fought TP&W's unilateral service suspension. Pioneer Railcorp subsidiary Keokuk Junction Railway even offered to buy this line (an interesting story in itself). Battle lines were drawn before the federal Surface Transportation Board.
In the end, TP&W decided to fix its track and restore service to Fort Transfer. Now that Morton Buildings' rail facilities are gone, the future of this Santa Fe remnant rests with sufficient volume of inbound herbicide.
Two photos below were taken today, April 20, 2018. The area covered with white rock was once filled with stacks of lumber, so some changes are taking place, possibly building construction.
Video below shows TP&W switching Morton Buildings September 10, 2013 between 2:37 and 4:07, in part where track has been removed.
The last time I caught TP&W switching in Morton, Leap Day 2016, only Fort Transfer Company generated traffic.
- David P. Jordan
Kind of sad David, have to wonder if they can justify keeping the line open at this point
ReplyDeleteAs long as Fort Transfer Company gets service, the line will likely continue service. Transloading off property is impractical for its business. They actually transload material on property, which allows non-licensed drivers as well as loads above weight limits for the short distance between track and Fort's bulk liquid storage tanks.
DeletePioneer Railcorp wants to buy it so it could be subject of another battle (a la TP&W's West End in 2003-2005) that TP&W would likely lose.
Did AT&SF and N&W really conduct carload interchange at Crandall prior to TP&W's take over of the Pekin Branch? I can't think of any other location in Illinois where they directly connect, but it is such a remote area, quite a distance from their main lines.
ReplyDeleteThe AT&SF and Lake Erie & Western (which opened its Bloomington to Wesley in 1888), successor Nickel Plate and its successor, Norfolk & Western interchanged regular traffic at Crandall. Interchange volume was most certainly limited to local traffic on those respective carrier's lines, however.
DeleteLibby, McNeil & Libby, for example, had the option of routing a portion of its seasonal canned pumpkin shipments to eastern markets via AT&SF-Crandall-N&W-??? and probably did so from time to time (the competitive AT&SF-Streator Jct.-TP&W-Effner-PRR seems a likely one was well).
Another possibility for NKP/N&W interchange at Crandall was transit business, such as "roller lumber." Using out of the way interchanges such as this kept such traffic moving slowly, which was the point.
Fort Transfer violates so many rules and regs…. they will not sustain for long. Waiting for the first tank car to spill its load, into the creek on their property then they will have EPA to deal with. Cars are illegally spotted (without proper safety measures) and are in danger of running away and through town across public crossings at grade... imagine the lawsuits there, if tragedy like that were to occur! They don't do enough business to justify the railroads cost.
ReplyDeleteThe owners are spoiled and no good to deal with and have no "out of the box" thinking skills.