Peoria Station

It took long enough for Liberty Steel & Wire to begin shipping coiled wire rod by rail. Workers were recalled to both the steel and rod mills and wire mills in March. Maybe regular rod traffic will prompt NS to improve service on the Bloomington District? My last encounter with a D49 handling coiled wire rod was slightly more than a year ago, on July 1, 2024!    I heard two weeks ago that Norfolk Southern did not run a D36 (Normal to Decatur) for three days in a row! Decatur's yard has been a mess for years now, and crew shortages continue. In the past, Norfolk Southern has bounced back from either a self-inflicted traffic meltdown (post Conrail split in 1999) or loss of business due to recession (2008-2009), but business seems to have stagnated and then dropped off the past six years.   Although D49 is carded to run Monday thru Friday, an East Peoria turn may happen at most three times a week. Unpredictable service, higher pricing, and lack of crews to run trains...

I was able to capture Union Pacific's MPECL early this afternoon.    The long cut of tank cars look like what I saw on the Low Line since last Thursday. Friday's train had only four cars, so perhaps they mostly empties for today's run? Basic make-up:   SIX corn syrup empties THREE industrial alcohol (UN 1170) loads TWO steepwater loads ONE denatured alcohol (UN 1987) load ONE industrial alcohol (UN 1170) load ONE plastic pellet empty THREE corn syrup empties ONE corn gluten meal/feed/DDGS? load THREE plastic pellet empties  ONE scrap metal empty ONE beverage alcohol (UN 3065) load THREE corn syrup empties  ONE industrial alcohol (UN 1170) load ONE beverage alcohol (UN 3065) load ONE corn gluten meal/feed/DDGS load? ONE plastic pellet empty TWO beverage alcohol (UN 3065) loads TWENTY-NINE trona (dry sorbent) empties THIRTEEN grain product empties   Origins are Alto Ingredients, BioUrja Renewables, Alter Metal Recycling/Liberty Steel ...

The last time I witnessed a loaded, northbound grain extra on the Union Pacific's Peoria Subdivision was on October 3, 2021. Loaded at BNSF-served ADM Grain Co. in St. Louis, five locomotives were required to get 102 corn loads up Pioneer Hill. It actually stalled with four the day before and the crew parked it just south of W. Farmington Road. When a fifth unit was added (probably ran engine lite from Clinton), they made another go of it.   The reason for northbound grain loads? A derecho had severely damaged Iowa's corn (and soybean) crop in July 2020, so processors had to import grain to make up for the shortage. A 42-car cut of corn was loaded at Encompass Grain & Rail's Allen Station terminal on November 6, 2020 and added to an MPECL (possibly that afternoon's train). It was a rare move for the LPD01 local as well.    It is possible then that Encompass loaded this 115-car train I saw this evening, but why it was routed north is unclear.  CAPTION: A rar...

I figured Union Pacific would run MPECL today, despite being a holiday. After checking out Adams Street Yard around 1:00pm, I had doubts, as the train had not been made up! UP 7955 and UP 5854 were parked in the yard with no cars. The former was bad ordered so the latter led today's train.   Not sure why the short train of just four cars. The Low Line had a string of tank cars (or mostly tank cars) and there were covered hoppers in the yard as well. I saw the LPD01 job switching in the yard late Thursday afternoon, so perhaps having a single operational unit was a factor. I could not tell if the other cars had not yet been delivered to TZPR or if they had been received from them. All four that were on today's train came from TZPR (the coal empty came from a connection, either CN or IMRR), and one was a denatured alcohol load.  CAPTION: Union Pacific train MPECL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Clinton IA) rolls along Edelstein Siding near its namesake Illinois village late-afterno...

After work this afternoon, I noticed CN's local power on the Creve Coeur Team Track with no sign of a crew on duty. When I checked again about two hours later, the units were gone. I soon realized the train had departed and was already on home rails in Pekin. I arrived to find they had just pulled an empty centerbeam flat car from Amerhart Ltd. and shoved it into the other 27 cars. The conductor was still on the ground, but it looked they were getting close to moving again.    I decided to wait at 5th Street near South Pekin, but forgot to change my camera setting from auto to 4k. I got video but only 1080p, and that annoying speck that appeared in my lens about a month ago. I've been using the 4k setting, which is zoomed in slightly, eliminating the speck.    So I decided to chase L557 a little further. I did not intend to go all the way to Mount Pulaski, but finding decent locations without shadows was getting difficult. The one I found near Mount Pulaski was g...

Despite the heat, I was aware that BNSF's M-GALPEI arrived Peoria sometime in late-morning or early-afternoon, and knew I had a chance to see M-PEIGAL flip back west. Sure enough, shortly after I veered off I-474 onto SW Adams and then SW Washington streets, I picked up radio chatter giving the BNSF train permission to depart the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard for Galesburg.  Driving my desire to catch this train was that 30 years ago today, June 23, 1995, I caught its predecessor's eastbound leg. Burlington Northern local 13814 had one locomotive (BN 1596, a GP28P normally assigned to Northtown Yard in Minneapolis, Minnesota) and 14 cars on that day. One car was delivered to Caterpillar's tire plant and an empty was pulled and blocked on the rear of the 39-car outbound train left on the New Long Main (just west of Darst Street). Low lighting and low quality camera notwithstanding, I'm glad I recorded this encounter three decades ago! Back to the ...