Gritty, Industrial Railroading: Union Pacific Switches Cargill's Bloomington Plant


I've seen them do it twice before, in 2002 and 2007, but I've never shot video of Union Pacific switching the Cargill soybean processing plant on Bloomington, Illinois' west side. 

That is until Friday morning, April 8, 2022. The train is called "LSF54." A Bloomington-based local, it works Monday through Saturday. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, it runs north to service customers at Wilmington (DuPont, Prairie Creek Grain) and Coal City (G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation). It may also do work at the Joliet Intermodal Terminal, also known as "Global 4." 

On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, it classifies train MASBN (Manifest, Alton & Southern to Bloomington IL), builds MBNAS (Manifest, Bloomington IL to Alton & Southern and runs a "Lincoln turn" to service International Paper. On occasion, Lincoln Transload & Processing, located at the old glass plant in town, and also Evergreen FS's fertilizer facility at McLean, are served by LSF54. 

Monday through Friday, before leaving north or south, LSF54 switches Cargill. This plant, opened in 1948 by Ralston Purina Corp, receives soybeans and ships soybean meal, hulls and flakes, and soybean oil. An emergency switch may be performed on Saturday.

The Cargill plant is located on a remnant of the Chicago & Alton Railroad/Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railway Bloomington-to-Murrayville branch nicknamed the "Jack Line." The line past then-Ralston Purina was abandoned by Illinois Central Gulf in 1982. Cargill purchased this plant in early 1985. Track west of Euclid Avenue was sold to them by then-owner Southern Pacific in 1993. 

In the video, LSF54's crew uses UP 1148 and UP 1066 to shove 26 empties (13 covered hoppers and 13 tank cars) from Bloomington Yard to the plant. The crew pulled three loaded covered hoppers back to the yard. 

- David P. Jordan

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