TP&W Runs to Morton for First Time Since July 7!

Just before leaving work at 3:00 Friday afternoon, I learned that the TP&W was going to make a run to Morton.

It is always exciting to catch a train where you live (I'm a few blocks from the tracks), but this occasion was even more exciting because it was the first time since July 7 that the TP&W came into town to deliver loads or pull empties at Fort Transfer Company's bulk liquids facility west of Jefferson Street. (I live here, and check every day, and had not seen any tank cars there until today.)

I went home, grabbed my camera and headed to Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District, waiting at the N. Main Street crossing. Minutes after my arrival, at 3:18, I heard the NS dispatcher give TPW 5009 permission to run from Farmdale (where TP&W and NS connect) to Crandall Siding. The four-car train showed up 17 minutes later.

Next, the TP&W crew pulled across the Tennessee Avenue crossing and shoved into Crandall Siding far enough to clear the connection switch. It moved along this decrepit connection to the Morton Industrial Spur, the last remnant of Santa Fe's Pekin District. 

After entering the Morton line,TPW 5009 shoved four tank cars across Harding Road and into Morton. The cars, liquid herbicide loads shipped from Syngenta's St. Gabriel, Louisiana plant to East Peoria via Canadian National, were spotted at Fort Transfer Company by 4:30. The crew returned to East Peoria engine lite.

- David P. Jordan