Canadian National L557 - 7/7/22

After spending quality time at the downtown library, I checked the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard and Creve Coeur Team Track to see if Canadian National Railway local L557 (E. Peoria IL to Decatur IL) was still here or had left. When I crossed the tracks on Wesley Road, I saw the rear end of it holding Main 2.

Turns out, a TP&W-BNSF grain train from Cruger or Chenoa had run down Main 1 ahead of it, and L557 was waiting until the grain train stopped at the end of the double track. So I was able to shoot the CN at Hilliards, get some food and get ahead of the train at Pekin. 

CN 5696 and CN 5643 had 63 cars. 

Besides the Hilliards scene, I shot a power runby snaking through downtown Pekin. I also got them pulling one lumber and seven steel coil loads for Amerhart and Hanna Steel, respectively. Our train pulled seven empties from Hanna Steel.

Finally, after waiting well more than an hour, I got the now 70-car train rolling across Fifth Street near South Pekin. The train was probably slowing so it could stop and pull grain empties and peddle them to Emden. Had it been an hour earlier, I might have stuck around for that. 

This was one a bit longer and had more variety than usual. Most of the train was made up of covered hoppers that were loaded, probably with distillers' dried grain (mash) from BioUrja's Peoria plant and/or gluten feed pellets off the Iowa Interstate. 

There were quite a few tank cars loaded with industrial alcohol (UN 1170) as well. I think there were two tallow (or soybean oil tank cars, two empty sodium hydroxide solution tank cars (from PMP Fermentation Products), an ex-MKT twin bay covered hopper that is assigned to one of two Illinois & Midland RR-served Harsco for granulate slag service, and two scrap metal empties, which brought up the rear. 

- David P. Jordan