Gritty, Industrial Railroading. Ingredion, Inc. Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


Saturday, May 23, 2020 I caught this Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway ("Crandic") crew switching the Ingredion wet corn mill at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Relco-built L4-1500 XD-M #203, paired with S4-143 slug #303, pull and spot cars back and forth across 1st Street SW. 

This may seem an odd subject for a blog focusing on Peoria, Illinois, but Cedar Rapids, Iowa produces a massive volume of grain products and a significant portion of this (mostly wet feed from ADM's local facilities, but also some gluten meal and corn screenings) is shipped to Peoria-area barge loadouts year-round. 

I've seen this once before, on August 22, 2015. Much has changed. Five years ago, the Crandic was using its older MP15DC's mated with slugs. The plant was still branded for Penford Products, which Ingredion acquired earlier in the year. See below.


Ingredion, Inc. is the former Corn Products International. The Cedar Rapids plant manufacturers industrial starch and ethanol from corn. By-products include gluten meal, corn germ, gluten feed, corn screenings and steepwater. The 2015 video shows a boxcar, which I assume was used to ship bagged corn starch, but that is unconfirmed. 

- David P. Jordan

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