Gritty, Industrial Railroading - Canadian National's L557 Switches Pekin Industries

 

I again caught a Canadian National Railway switching Amerhart and Hanna Steel.

Thursday, March 25, 2021, I happened to hear radio chatter between the crew of Canadian National Railway's southbound local, L557, and the dispatcher. I only caught part of the conversation but knew the dispatcher had given L557's crew a track warrant to run from IC Junction at Pekin to Mount Pulaski. That meant the train was close to Pekin. I was just across the river. So it was prudent to investigate. 

I saw five steel coil loads and three lumber loads left at the siding just north of Derby Street. The northbound local, L556, usually leaves these cars for the next day's L557. But where was L557? Moments later, I found a Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR) crew assembling a train for East Peoria. Their dispatcher (based at St. Albans, Vermont) gave them permission to run past IC Junction to East Peoria. So either the CN local had just cleared IC Junction or had yet to leave East Peoria. Turns out, it had just cleared IC Junction.

The six-car train, led by IC 1035, an SD70 still wearing Illinois Central Railroad's black "Death Star" scheme, had just stopped to pull those eight cars for local industries. The first scene in the video above shows the train crossing Derby Street with 14 cars. 

At Hanna Drive, we see IC 1035 pulled off the three lumber loads, then shove them into Amerhart's Pekin warehouse, pull an empty, shove that onto the sitting train then spot the three loads. Quick and simple. 

Next, the IC 1035 ran engine lite to grab an empty gondola from Hanna Steel. It shoved that car into the sitting train, which it pulled across Hanna Drive. The crew uncoupled seven cars (empty gondola, empty centerbeam flat and five steel loads) then shoved them into Hanna Steel. Once these loads were secure and uncoupled, IC 1035 pulled the two empties, coupled them to the waiting train and headed south. 

The final scene shows the eight-car train racing along the curve at Fifth Street near South Pekin. 

It is sad to see these short trains, though traffic fluctuates season to season. At least there is some consistency to the present schedule. Train L556 operates out of Decatur Mondays and Wednesdays northbound-only, and makes a roundtrip from Decatur to East Peoria and return on Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, L557 works south from East Peoria to Decatur. Train L556 has a 12:30pm called time. Train L557 appears to be called mornings around 0800 or so. The train can often be seen leaving East Peoria between 10:00 and noon, though sometimes earlier and sometimes later. 

Hanna Steel seems to be getting more rail shipments in recent months. The steel processing plant and tube mill complex at Pekin's Riverway Business Park received few cars (if any) in 2010-2013. Then in 2014, CN began delivering CSXT-marked covered cushion coil cars with some regularity, indicating already-processed steel may have been shipped from Hanna Steel's Fairfield, Alabama plant. 

The primary function of the Pekin plant was to pickle and coat flat rolled sheet steel received from steel mills. That covered cushion coil cars were again arriving regularly tells me that these operations had been curtailed and that the Pekin plant was being used as a warehouse for area customers and/or processed steel was for the tube mill. This month, I've noticed unprocessed coil steel arriving in open CSXT-marked gondolas. Thursday's loads were CN-owned cars, all covered cushion coil cars. I suspect these were shipped from a mill in northwest Indiana, possibly US Steel's Gary, Indiana Works. 

Monday's L556 had two more CSXT-marked open gondolas loaded with coil steel. I saw the train at Decatur, but Hanna Steel was the intended destination (and were likely delivered today). That could mean Hanna Steel's pickling and coating operations have increased. There were more of these cars at the Decatur & Eastern Illinois Railroad's (DREI) Decatur Yard Monday morning, so they should leave Decatur Wednesday on L556. Routing for this steel, presumably shipped from a southern steel mill (possibly US Steel's recently-opened mini-mill at Fairfield, Alabama) is CSXT-Terre Haute-DREI-Decatur-CN. 

With a predictable schedule, I hope to see more of this action in the near future. 

- David P. Jordan