Tazewell & Peoria RR Industry Job 11-15-22


CAPTION: A Tazewell & Peoria Railroad "Industry Job" rolls along S. Water Street in downtown Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Tuesday, November 15, 2022. TZPR 1351 has five empty corn syrup tank cars pulled from PMP Fermentation Products, and two truck chassis loads from the Komatsu plant.

I passed on Union Pacific's MPECL today. The EOT was flashing but with no movement or radio chatter by 4:00pm, I left the Adams Street Yard area. But when I arrived downtown, I heard a locomotive horn and came across this! 

Hopefully, in the not-too-distant-future, locals like this working the Uptown Division (ex-Rock Island) will be handling steel to and scrap metal from O'Brien Steel Service Co. I've seen nothing new on plans to restore rail access and obtain service from the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, but I assume that the project is still a go. 

O'Brien Steel does a lot of work for Caterpillar and Komatsu, and for its Rohn Products subsidiary as well. So steel plates, I-beams/pilings, and maybe even coil steel could arrive by rail some day. Presently, there are stacks of scrap steel plates on the property as well.

Back when Central Illinois Railroad Co. was providing service, O'Brien Steel loaded IAIS-marked gondolas, indicating to me that the scrap was most likely going to Gerdau AmeriSteel's re-bar mill at Wilton, Iowa. 

- David P. Jordan

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