Gritty, Industrial Railroading - Canadian National L557 8-4-22



After leaving the downtown library early Thursday evening, I took a chance, drove to Pekin and found Canadian National Railway local L557 (E. Peoria IL to Decatur IL) stopped on that city's south side, having just cut off its seven-car train to pull two empty centerbeam flat cars from Amerhart.

After shoving the Amerhart empties onto the train, the crew switched Hanna Steel. Five steel loads had been left on the spur by a previous local, so these had to be pulled with seven empties and then spotted inside the building. 

The empties were shoved into the rest of the train, giving it 16 cars. Shortly, it ran to South Pekin and pulled 25 grain empties from the siding there. These were probably spotted at the Encompass Grain & Rail elevator in Emden. 

CN 2288 and CN 5607 were on the point of today's local. Final scene shows the 41-car L557 at Townline Road. 

- David P. Jordan

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