TZPR Local Switches IMRR Receipt, TP&W EP-X w/New Business? 8-10-23

After work, I went to East Peoria in hopes of capturing some more action with new camera, and to play with the settings. Brief blur still occurs when I retract the zoom. This must be a Kodak thing because my Canons rarely or never did that except in low-light conditions. 

Anyway, I played with my new camera's settings as I watched a Tazewell & Peoria Railroad crew using IMRR 43 to classify interchange cars from the Illinois & Midland. There were probably some DDGS ("mash") empties on this cut as well. 

CAPTION: A Tazewell & Peoria Railroad yard job using IMRR 43, an IMRR 43, switches inbound interchange from the Illinois & Midland Railroad across W. Washington Street in East Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Thursday, August 10, 2023. Traffic includes granulated slag from Powerton, an animal fat tank car from Havana, plastic loads and plastic empties from IMRR storage sidings and yards, as well as sodium bicarbonate empties from the Kincaid Power Plant. 

What I was really waiting for was a TP&W local which had cars to interchange with the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad but also what appears to be new business: 14 loaded covered hoppers, some with Canadian National markings, that were delivered to BioUrja South Yard in Peoria. 

I doubt these were loaded with unprocessed corn. More than likely, they contained corn screenings shipped from Ingredion Inc's Argo (Chicago) wet corn mill routed CN-Gilman-TPW.

For as long as I can remember, CN and predecessor Illinois Central RR handled some grain product, likely corn screenings, from ADM's Decatur corn processing facilities to the Peoria plant via P&PU/TZPR delivery. Corn screenings are a by-product of elevating, transporting and cleaning corn. They are the entire corn kernel, broken, fractured or ground, and are typically fed to livestock. 

I believe corn screenings were shipped to the Peoria plant from Cedar Rapids, Clinton and Decatur for mixing with DDGS, but I can't confirm that.

After BioUrja purchased ADM's Peoria distillery (and related properties) on November 1, 2021, very little changed. ADM-owned tank cars were still being used to load alcohol and company-owned covered hoppers (and those leased from Trinity) continued to arrive with corn screenings and leave with DDGS. During the past year or so, BioUrja has replaced all or almost all of this equipment with leased cars. 

As both ADM and BioUrja are privately-owned firms, there was (and remains) very little information about the Peoria plant. But I have to assume that BioUrja's initial production fulfilled contracts that ADM had made prior to the sale. Over time, BioUrja will have to develop its own customer base. A shift in rolling stock most certainly explains the Union Pacific-owned covered hoppers that I see in the South Yard.

If BioUrja still purchases corn screenings for its co-products, then it may be shifting to other suppliers than ADM. Ingredion Inc. (formerly Corn Products International) as a supplier is merely a guess on my part, but 14 loaded covered hoppers, some with CN markings, being moved to the Peoria plant by the TP&W suggests as much. Whatever the case, it appears to be new business. 

CAPTION: The Toledo Peoria & Western Railway's EP-X (East Peoria IL Extra Switcher) ran a combined transfer and local to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard early evening Thursday, August 10, 2023. TPW 2070 and HESR 3485 have 61 cars. The last 47 cars were left with TZPR. Shortly, EP-X is shown crossing the river with the remaining 14 and delivers them to BioUrja South Yard in Peoria. The last scene shows them leaving the yard engine lite. 

David P. Jordan