Iowa Interstate PESI 12-2-23

I didn't get Union Pacific's MPECL yesterday afternoon at the usual W. Farmington Road spot because my camera stopped recording account of "slow write speed" on the SD card. I couldn't do it with my phone at another location because the train stalled on Pioneer Hill. By the time the crew could take two halves and re-assemble at Edelstein (I think), darkness would have already fallen.

So I didn't record it at all. 

Returning from the Bloomington, I saw the tail end of Iowa Interstate's PESI going through downtown Peoria so I got ahead of it and set up off of the Fairholm Avenue crossing just short of the North Limit Yard. I shot video for about four minutes before the "slow write speed" issue returned. I edit the video down to a power runby and shot the whole train further north with my phone. 

I think my SD card is going bad. I will have to purchase another one. At least I hope that is the issue...

Today's train had 13 loads. Five alcohol loads embedded mid-train are obvious. The three alcohol loads and scrap metal-laden gondola on the rear are as well. That's nine of them. Low light conditions render it impossible to tell if the bolster springs are pressed on the last four covered hoppers, but the reporting marks and position in the train tell me they contain *gluten feed pellets, *gluten meal or *distillers grain.

NOTE: *The Iowa Interstate has public tariffs for these products posted on its website. Shipper is Alto Ingredients Inc. in Pekin and product is routed to Chicago (for movement east by another carrier, probably CSX) or Utica (for movement beyond to a local CSX destination, probably ADM Terminal Services in Ottawa). 

CAPTION: Iowa Interstate manifest PESI (Peoria IL to Silvis IL) nears the North Limit Yard in Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Saturday, December 2, 2023. Later, it rolls by the Illinois Valley Yacht Club entrance road. IAIS 700 and IAIS 716 have 91 cars (13 loads, 78 empties).

David P. Jordan