Peoria Station

On April 15, 1926, Robertson Aircraft Corporation inaugurated CAM-2, or Contract Air Mail route No. 2, between St. Louis and Chicago with stops at Springfield and Peoria. Charles A. Lindbergh and Philip R. Love each piloted a De Havilland DH-4 biplane, starting out at St. Louis.  The Peoria stop used Alexander Varney's field at Kellar. A marker (see above) is near the location where Lindbergh landed his DH-4 on the first day of service.  - David P. Jordan

Old 3192 remains on the L556/L557 for now. First car is that coal load that I saw on MPECL March 13. I guess it is finally going back to ADM at Decatur. The HOME SHOP FOR REPAIR DO NOT LOAD decal is interesting, as the car is already loaded. An empty tank car, which last contained sodium hydroxide solution, came from PMP Fermentation Products in Peoria. Alcohol loads are probably from both BioUrja and Alto plants. The two boxcars on the rear are zinc ingot empties from Liberty Steel & Wire.  CAPTION: Canadian National Railway train L557 (Local, E. Peoria IL to Decatur IL) rolls by Hilliards (Creve Coeur), Illinois on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Pekin double track mid-afternoon Tuesday, April 14, 2026. CN 3192 has 40 cars.   Des Moines haulage grain trains haven't run on the Iowa Interstate (IAIS) since August 2021, and those had 85 cars. This one is probably for loading at an IAIS-served elevator, in which case the Regional gets a rate division. NS power must...

The radio chatter between crew and dispatcher was garbled thanks to interference from abundant local plant life, so I don't know if this is Industry 4 or Lead 2. I'd think the regular job would have already run to Kickapoo Yard and back today. Eight of the train's cars are OZIX empties for Ozinga Cement Co.  CAPTION: A Tazewell & Peoria Railroad local crosses the Illinois River into Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Monday, April 13, 2026. It will diverge left for Iowa Junction and Kickapoo Yard. TZPR 1352 has nine cars. I was at work when M-GALPEI arrived, but figured I could catch the counterpart, and did. The TZPR local went ahead by a few minutes. I caught the same train with a pair of CN units on March 27, and now today's had a pair of CSX units! Must be a lot of foreign power available at Galesburg these days. Today's train had seven more of those OZIX loads, and some of the usual traffic, including a healthy cut from TP&W (probably the last 30 cars...

This afternoon, I was able to capture this IAIS-CN grain extra on the CN side. The train rolled right through downtown Pekin at or near posted speed limit (10mph). That was in contrast to my first encounter with the train on February 15 when the conductor de-trained and walked it across 3rd Street at no more than 2-3mph!    I don't know how long several Iowa Interstate-served elevators - reportedly Landus Coop at Atlantic and Adair and Heartland Coop at Dexter, Kellogg and Malcolm - will continue these trains but this is great for variety of activity on two lines which serve Peoria.  CAPTION: Canadian National Railway grain extra G888 (E. Peoria IL to Helvetia LA) is shown in various stages and at various locations on Saturday afternoon, April 11, 2026. The crew ran engine lite from the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's Creve Coeur Team Track down Main No. 1 then crossed over to No. 2 to attach to the train at Hilliards. After departing an hour later, power runbys are...

Shocked, shocked I tell you, on this latest development.  WEEK TV-25 posted a story yesterday tell us that,   "Members of the Peoria Park District Board of Trustees are siding with Friends of Riverfront Park against the sale of land near the Detweiller Marina."   Obviously, local activists are always in need of a cause, and have found one. They are the usual suspects which agitated for years to get the Peoria, Peoria Heights & Western Railroad (aka "Kellar Branch") abandoned in favor of a recreational trail.  I still wonder why O'Brien Steel wants to relocate its crane system and steel storage area. It would seem they need the existing space for expansion of operations, but I've not seen any announcements.  The firm is a distributor for steel products like I-beams and pilings, and fabrication, welding, heat treating and processing. It has four steel service centers and four processing facilities (Peoria does both) in Illinois and Wisconsin.  Relocating...

I caught the Keokuk Junction Railway local heading to and from East Peoria this afternoon and evening. I can't be 100% sure that all 19 tank cars (corn syrup loads, maybe a few contain sorbitol) are for Norfolk Southern, but if D49 runs Friday, they should be on it. The return run left East Peoria with a healthy 57 cars, though all were empty. Most were grain empties, presumably corn, from Alto's Pekin locations. A pressure differential covered hopper probably last contained corn starch. At least some of the ALAB cars may have last contained corn germ or corn screenings.  CAPTION: The Keokuk Junction Railway's local makes its "East Peoria turn" late-afternoon/early evening at Darst Street and Krause Avenue in Peoria, Illinois Thursday, April 9, 2026. LTEX 6437-3837-3010-3836 have 19 loads (all tank cars) for the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard. LTEX 3836-3010-3837-6437 return from East Peoria with 57 empty covered hoppers.   Although I u...