TP&W EB Grain Extra 8-10-26

On the 139th anniversary of the Chatsworth Wreck, we have a mystery. 

 

I can confirm from another railfan's video that this was the same set of grain empties that Canadian National Railway delivered to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Pekin double track Sunday morning, August 2. Iowa Interstate moved it out of town with lone SD38-2 IAIS 153 on Monday morning. The train returned loaded this morning behind IAIS 506 and IAIS 511. Late this afternoon, a TP&W crew took it from the TZPR double track and rolled it through East Peoria and Washington to Cruger where it was left on the main track by Grainland Farmers elevator. The crew cut off all six locomotives. Last I saw them, they were on the adjacent siding. 

 

Grain trains co-loaded at various Iowa Interstate-served elevators in central and western Iowa were moving frequently to CN via Peoria since January. I believe the last loaded train was interchanged to CN in mid-June. CN delivered the empties as G889 and ran loads as G888 to Zen-Noh Grain Corporation at Helvetia, Louisiana. On the Iowa Interstate, empties ran as ZENO-W to various points, broken up for co-loading at two or more elevators, with loads reassembled at Atlantic or Newton, Iowa as ZENO-E.

 

Here are some possibilities: 

 

(1) Although empties were delivered by CN itself to IAIS at Peoria (via TZPR's Pekin double track), perhaps the loads are being diverted to CN at Gilman? The addition of TP&W as a bridge route, however, makes no sense financially. A contract between railroads and billing party specifies a routing, and the addition of TP&W is unnecessarily circuitous at extra expense. If not part of the contract, whoever ordered this diversion would be paying for TP&W's portion of the routing. 

 

(2) Perhaps CN is lacking a crew to take the train south and the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad needs it gone from its property (other traffic needs the space)? In this case, TP&W handled the train to Cruger for temporary storage and will return the train to the TZPR double track when CN has a crew. (This too seems unnecessarily costly.)

 

(3) The loads were loaded for (or diverted) to Incobrasa Industries at Gilman. 

CAPTION: A Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway eastbound grain extra rolls through Washington, Illinois early evening Monday, August 10, 2026. Later, the train rolls to a stop at Cruger, where power was cut off. This train arrived Peoria this morning as Iowa Interstate Railroad loaded grain extra ZENO-E, presumably for interchange with Canadian National Railway (which delivered the empties Sunday morning, August 2). TPW 3443, TPW 5010, TPW 3386, MQT 3407, TPW 5015, and IORY 5014 have 110 cars. At the time this was posted, it is unclear why the train went to Cruger on the TP&W.

- David P. Jordan