TP&W M-EFEP 11-11-23

CAPTION: Toledo, Peoria & Western road freight M-EFEP (Manifest, Effner IL to E. Peoria IL) is shown at locations at or near Weston, Chenoa, Gridley, El Paso, Eureka and Washington, Illinois Saturday afternoon, November 11, 2023. The entire train is shown at each. TPW 2070, IORY 5007, TPW 5010, and IORY 5014 have 121 cars from on-line industries and CSX and CN interchanges. 

A nice sunny late-morning and early-afternoon in November is a good time to get a westbound TP&W freight! 

A lot of typical TP&W freight business is represented on today's train.

- The first 15 cars are loaded with limestone shipped from The Rogers Group/Newton County Stone in Perkins, Indiana and consigned to East Peoria Materials, located on the east end of the TP&W yard (and to celebrate 20 years in January 2024!).

- Fourteen TPW-marked cyclindrical covered hoppers might have been pulled from the Ludlow Co-Operative Elevator Company at La Hogue. (Crescent City is possible, but newer, 286k covered hoppers are typically loaded at Wheatfield Grain's elevator there, so I'm leaning toward La Hogue.) They're corn loads consigned to BioUrja in Peoria or Alto Pekin LLC. 

- Eight Incobrasa-marked covered hoppers are probably with the 17 cars mid-train. More on that below. 

- The single SOXX covered hopper is empty, and may be a DDGS/"grain mash" empty.

- The single empty DJJX gondola is probably returning to Liberty Steel & Wire via TZPR.

- A single empty tank car is placarded (UN 1170)  for industrial alcohol, so it is returning to BioUrja or Alto.

- A TAEX tank car is empty, and displays no placard. It might be assigned to steepwater (Alto), liquid feed (Agridyne) or soybean oil (Cargill Oil Storage). 

- A GAMX tank car is loaded, and displays no placard. So it may contain animal fat. Situated within a block of cars from CSX, it might contain lard oil from the JBS Swift pork slaughterhouse in Louisville, Kentucky, but that is pure speculation. 

- Next, a block of 15 empty gondolas typically seen in rod service from Liberty Steel & Wire Co's Bartonville plant likely last contained steel billets and are returning from the sister plant in Georgetown, South Carolina. (This traffic is quite heavy, though there is competition with all-water movement to Wilmington, North Carolina and truck from there.)

- Seventeen more Incobrasa covered hoppers are most certainly loaded with corn from Goodland, Indiana. The first eight Incobrasa cars might have been loaded with them. Why they're separated is unclear, but Goodland typically loads 25 cars at a time. Formerly, Co-Alliance Co-Operative, this elevator was recently purchased by "Inco Grain Ltd," a subsidiary of Incobrasa Industries. Its plan is to continue shipping corn for two years, then handle soybeans exclusively. Corn is consigned to BioUrja Renewables LLC at Peoria. 

- The PROX and CCLX tank cars are empty, indicating they last contained liquid sorbitol or another polyol, and are returning to ingredion's Mapleton plant. 

- The GACX and DGCX covered hoppers are empties last containing urea, returning from The Andersons' Logansport plant to Dakota Gasification Company's Great Plains SynFuels Plant near Beulah, North Dakota via BNSF. "DGCX" reporting marks belong to the latter. 

- Another lone empty gondola, likely a wire rod empty returning to Liberty Steel & Wire Co., though it might have been placed with the next car as a buffer. 

- A lone empty tank car placarded for "phosphoric acid solution" (UN 1805) could be from The Andersons Logansport plant as well, and is probably going to Union Pacific at Peoria. 

- The train's lone boxcar last contained bagged food-grade salt, and was emptied at Sweetener Supply Corp, adjacent the Hoosierlift. It is returning west via BNSF at Peoria.

- Twelve covered hoppers displaying RISX and SRIX marks and UN 3077 placards ("environmentally hazard substance NOS") contain zinc oxide from the Waelz Sustainable Products plant near Clymers, Indiana. These are bound for the Union Pacific at Peoria. 

- The empty NDYX-marked covered hopper was probably assigned to phosphate or urea service out of Growmark's Mapleton Terminal, but that is just speculation. 

- Ten more loaded Incobrasa covered hoppers likely were pulled from their namesake Gilman soybean crushing facility, and contain either soybean meal or soybean hull pellets. 

- The loaded tank car behind them is likely loaded with soybean oil or biodiesel from the Gilman plant. 

- The last block of cars was pulled from the Canadian National interchange at Gilman. The first car contains corn syrup from Ingredion's Summit Argo (Bedford Park), Illinois wet corn refinery and is destined for the Mapleton plant. (Corn syrup is hydrogenated to make polyols.). Next, a lumber load for Morton Buildings, via transload at the East Peoria Yard, Dimethylamine anhydrous (UN 1032) for Evonik's Mapleton chemical plant, probably another corn syrup tank car and another lumber load. The last ten are corn syrup loads for Ingredion's Mapleton plant (the CCLX markings, or "Crystal Car Line," belong to Ingredion, formerly Corn Products International). 

- David P. Jordan