Norfolk Southern D36 3-9-22 (Corrected)

Norfolk Southern local D49 left East Peoria today with 15 cars. The consist, including lone SD40-2 3362, plus one autorack, left Good Yard in Normal as D36. At Gibson City, D36 added 27 cars.

I left work with the knowledge that D49 had long since arrived back at Good Yard, but that the power and consist would continue east/south as D36 a short time later. Social media is great for updates, and learning that an autorack had been added to the consist, I decided to chance driving down I-74 to Mansfield, hoping to catch it with sufficient daylight.

Normally, D36 has work at Gibson City, and Wedneday's run was no exception. The crew added 27 cars here. Gibson City work consumed quite a bit of time, so I ended up seeing Decatur-bound D36 at sunset near Foosland, which is on the ex-Wabash portion of the Bloomington District. NS 3362 has 43 cars.

Twelve soybean meal loads on the head end were pulled from DuPont's Gibson City soybean processing plant. Three Caterpillar D11 loads, six coiled wire rod loads and six alcohol loads came from the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad at East Peoria. A lone autorack added at Normal reportedly contained a test shipment of Rivian vehicles. Bringing up the rear were 15 alcohol loads shipped from One Earth Energy at Gibson City and pulled from the Bloomer Line interchange.

Talk is that Rivian will begin regular rail shipments in April. That will likely require NS to added a second Good Yard-based switch job. It is unclear if D49 will be bumped to an afternoon call time or if D47, now called as an extra, will become a regular job with an afternoon call.

I expect all Rivian shipments to western markets to be routed via Kansas City, though it is possible we might see occasional Rule 11 routings via Peoria if bound for the Upper Midwest. Some empty autoracks on BNSF or UP may return to NS via Peoria.

UPDATE: The autorack on Wednesday's D36 was empty, and reported to be a misbilled car.

- David P. Jordan