KJRY EP Turn 1-2-26
Based on activities just a week ago, December 26, I was hoping that Union Pacific's MPECL would leave at least a few hours late, but when I arrived the south side of Peoria around 3:30 Friday afternoon to find ,MPECL gone and a Union Pacific crew shoving an empty coal train (received from Decatur via Canadian National) off the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad and onto the Low Line toward Peoria Junction. Apparently, as of December 2025, most Decatur coal routed to CN at Peoria (actually TZPR's Pekin double track) now originates at the Gateway Mine near Coulterville, Illinois instead Wyoming's Powder River Basin. So trains must "see-saw" on the Nickel Plate in East Peoria to be positioned in the right direction. If UP and CN hadn't removed the direct connection at South Pekin in March 2002... Anyway, once the UP coal empties cleared onto home rails at Darst Street, the Keokuk Junction Railway local's conductor lined the switch and the train moved acro...