TZPR Local, Union Pacific MPECL 8-14-23

I was waiting off Krause Ave. on Peoria's south side for Union Pacific's MPECL to radio the dispatcher for instructions when I heard a distant horn. I went trackside to check and saw IMRR 43 approaching with what turned out to be 28 cars for Kickapoo Yard.


CAPTION: A Tazewell & Peoria Railroad switch job rolls by Krause Ave. in Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Tuesday, August 15, 2023. IMRR 43 has 28 cars for Kickapoo Yard. Save for the asphalt load on the rear, all are either scrap metal loads and wire rod empties are for Liberty Steel & Wire Co. 

Not long afterward, MPECL radio'ed the dispatcher and got permission to head north from Peoria Junction. I shot the train off W. Farmington Road, but decided to get it again, so I got ahead of it and parked at a stub road just south of Speer. 


CAPTION: Union Pacific MPECL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Clinton IA) rolls by W. Farmington Road shortly after leaving Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Tuesday, August 15, 2023. Later, the train races near Speer in the northern fringes of Peoria County. UP 6939 and UP 6641 have 92 cars. 

David P. Jordan

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