Union Pacific MCLPE, BNSF M-PEIGAL 9-16-26

Co-habitating before they can even set a wedding date! NS 7614 leads UP 5726 and 35 cars for Peoria late Tuesday afternoon on MCLPE. This train seems to have been running earlier for the past month. Used to be called late-evening at Clinton, Iowa on Sundays and Wednesdays, and arrive Peoria sometime before the LDP01 job went on duty at 0800. Seeing these trains in the afternoon and evening on Sundays and Wednesdays indicates a much earlier call time, likely late-morning. 


CAPTION: Union Pacific MCLPE (Manifest, Clinton IA to Peoria IL) rolls by Milepost 80, the old Molitor Junction, in Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Wednesday, September 16, 2026. NS 7613 and UP 5726 have 35 cars for Adams Street Yard where the train will be shortly

The old Milwaukee Road bicentennial unit is cool. Even better, it visited Peoria! I was asleep when it arrived the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard, probably early this morning, on Norfolk Southern's now-nocturnal D49 local. But got it leaving on BNSF's M-PEIGAL this evening! 


CAPTION: BNSF Railway train M-PEIGAL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Galesburg IL) crosses the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River lift bridge early-evening Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Shortly, the train rounds the "New Horn" onto Sanger Street. The whole train is then shown approaching home rails at Darst Street. BNSF 6432 and BNSF 9281 have MOPX 156, a former Milwaukee Road SD40-2 restored to its Bicentennial livery, and 34 cars. The MOPX unit is enroute from the America 250 Locomotive Celebration at Spencer, North Carolina to Silvis, Illinois where it will be on display September 26-27 for an event by  Railroad Heritage Midwest America.

- David P. Jordan

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