Union Pacific LPD01, TP&W EP2 5-19-25

I got a surprise on my way to the downtown library this afternoon.

 

Radio chatter indicated that BNSF's M-GALPEI had arrived, and a string of cars on one of the Long Tracks looked like a good candidate for it. Other radio chatter indicated, however, that another train was asking for permission to depart Iowa Junction (Peoria) for the East Lead in East Peoria, which I later realized was TP&W's EP2 job. But priority was given to Union Pacific's Peoria Wayfreight, or LPD01, which was monstrous at 72 cars. I shot it coming across the river and again as it near home rails at S. Darst Street. One thing for sure, Tuesday's MPECL will be an unusually large train...

 

(BNSF power tied up on the team track, so M-PEIGAL will grab two more units brought in by NS last week before heading west later, possibly tomorrow morning.)

CAPTION: Union Pacific's "Peoria Wayfreight," LPD01, rolls across the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River Bridge enroute from East Peoria to Adams Street Yard in Peoria, Illinois mid-afternoon Monday, May 19, 2025. Shortly, the whole train approaches home rails at S. Darst Street. UP 5565 and UP 7986 have 72 cars, which will make up most of manifest MPECL on May 20.

 

With the UP local clear, the TP&W had its turn. The crew told the TZPR dispatcher they needed to change instructions from entering the East Peoria Yard on the East Lead to bypassing it on the Nickel Plate and then heading out to P&PU Junction. The 20 loads they had were almost too much for the GP50 originally built for the Frisco in 1980. So the plan changed to take the 20 to the TP&W yard and come back to get interchange cars from TZPR. 

CAPTION: A Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway local, probably EP2 (East Peoria Switcher), making a return trip home from Collier Yard in Bartonville is shown at Krause Avenue in Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Monday, May 19, 2025. Shortly, the train crosses the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River Bridge. TPW 5010 has 20 loads, all Gilman-bound soybean loads from the Keokuk Junction Railway.

- David P. Jordan