Peoria Station

For the third Friday in a row, I took a half day off work, hoping those Caterpillar tractor loads would be on Union Pacific's MPECL. They were on it until they were not, unfortunately, but while waiting for MPECL's departure, Norfolk Southern's D49 snuck out of town with a short train. I heard radio chatter about it leaving, went back across the river and found it already clear of P&PU Junction. I found a spot and waited. It was my first encounter with this train in 2026! CAPTION: Norfolk Southern Railway train D49 (Normal IL to E. Peoria IL turn) is shown on the return leg shortly after entering home rails at East Peoria, Illinois early afternoon Friday, February 20, 2026. NS 7034, NS 6923 and NS 6963 (GoRail) have nine cars for Good Yard.   Several Caterpillar tractor loads, a rarity on the Union Pacific, were switched out by MPECL's crew just minutes before departure. Although disappointed, the train had nine of those "Omaha Track" gondolas used by...

I barely caught this one in time.   I was still in East Peoria when I heard the MOP gave the KJRY instructions into the East Peoria Yard. The traffic lights at the Cedar Street-MacArthur Highway and SW Washington Street are always inconvenienty long-winded as well. I pulled onto Sanger Street just as the dngineer was blowing for the crossing. I guess a going away shot out my car window was better than nothing...   I left the downtown library too late to capture the return leg out of East Peoria. It cleared the Tazewell & Peoria RR at Iowa Junction about 1745 hours. It was dark anyway. Train will probably run west from Mapleton Friday morning, sometime after 0900.  CAPTION: The Keokuk Junction Railway's East Peoria Turn rounds the curve at Sanger Street in Peoria, Illinois shortly before crossing the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River Bridge mid-afternoon Thursday, February 19, 2026. LTEX 6437, LTEX 3010, LNW 3807 and LTEX 3836 have 31 cars.  ...

I guess I'm assuming that these feed trains CN has resumed delivering to BNSF via Peoria are the Summerfield, Texas trains. Distributed power is new to this operation. The one I saw February 8 had but two locomotives on the point and no DPU. In the past, these trains usually rated three locomotives on the point.  CAPTION: BNSF Railway gluten feed train G-PEISMR (Grain, Peoria IL to Summerfield TX) rolls by W. Farmington Road shortly after leaving Peoria, Illinois mid-afternoon Wednesday, February 18, 2026. BNSF 5253 and BNSF 7382 have 100 cars. BNSF 9275 is DPU.   I finished shooting the BNSF feed train at W. Farmington Road, returned to my car and in just a few minutes, this loaded Union Pacific coal train rolled by. I had to go to Cilco Lane at Sommer to get ahead of it. Lighting by this time wasn't so good, but this is only the second UP train I've seen this year.    CAPTION: A loaded, Powerton-bound, Union Pacific coal train rolls by Cilco Lane at Sommer,...

With such a huge consist, there was a good chance this train was going to stall. Fortunately, it did not. 😀 CAPTION: The Keokuk Junction Railway local is shown crossing the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Illinois River Bridge into Peoria, Illinois mid-afternoon Monday, February 16, 2026. Shortly, it rolls by Krause Avenue and Darst Street. LTEX 3836, LTEX 3010 and LTEX 6437 have just two cars, both empty. (Train will grab UP interchange at Collier Yard in Bartonville before tying up at Mapleton.) Monday's M-PEIGAL was unusually lengthy but it had no loaded OZIX 2-bay covered hoppers as I had hoped. (I'm leaning toward the idea that Ozinga Cement Co's new TZPR-served barge-rail transfer facility on BioUrja's Riverside Track, ex-Rock Island Belt Line, may be sending coal ash and/or slag to a ready mixed concrete facility via BNSF at Montgomery, Illinois. Can't confirm yet.) CAPTION: BNSF Railway train M-PEIGAL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Galesburg IL) curves...

Last month, I missed the first of these grain trains moving empty north and loaded south. This month, I missed the northbound empties but today I caught the loads being moved out of Pekin by CN. These trains are co-loaded at Malcom and Kellogg, Iowa on the Iowa Interstate Railroad for a port in the New Orleans area for export.  CAPTION: An encounter with a Canadian National Railway grain extra for me on Sunday, February 15, 2026 began with a light engine movement by the old Chicago & Illinois & Midland Railway depot at IC Junction in Pekin, Illinois. IC 1028 and CN 2315 then coupled to 108 cars left early Saturday morning by the Iowa Interstate Railroad on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Main 2. Train is shown briefly at N. 3rd Street and Washington Street and then the whole train races across 5th Street near South Pekin.   After catching the CN power moving engine lite, it seemed odd that they sat for awhile between Ann Eliza and N. 2nd streets. Turns out, they ...

I just came across a publication at my local library called Choose Greater PEORIA Illinois , produced by livability dot com. On page 23, a community profile lists "transportation assets," which include two items which caught my eye- Five Class 1 railroads for hauling cargo Six short line railroads Both are incorrect. Greater Peoria, a designation that based on the magazine's other content matches the five-county official metropolitan area, is served by four Class Is, one Regional and four shortlines.  American common-carrier railroads are designated as Class I, Class II ("Regional") and Class III ("Shortlines"). These are broken down using annual revenue by the then-Interstate Commerce Commission critieria introduced in 1992 - $504,803,294 minimum for Class Is and $40,384,263 minimum for Class IIs. Carriers with annual revenue below the Class II minimum standard are designated as Class IIIs.  The Class Is are BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, No...