Union Pacific MPECL, BNSF M-PEIGAL 6-18-24

Last week was a dud for catching Union Pacific's MPECL trains. Both days, it ran late and I wasn't going to wait around not knowing if and when a crew was called. Despite MCLPE's late arrival on Monday, MPECL departed Peoria around the usual time (4:00pm). 

Tuesday's train had a typical consist, including those wheel shipments in boxcars from the KJRY. It is always good to see boxcars on any merchandise train, especially blocked right behind the locomotives!


CAPTION: Union Pacific train MPECL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Clinton IA) rolls by W. Farmington Road late afternoon Tuesday, June 18, 2024. UP 5767 and UP 7113 have 47 cars. 

As I waited just off Krause Avenue on Peoria's south side for Union Pacific's MPECL to receive dispatcher's instructions, a pair of BNSF units rolled by me engine lite, heading west toward homes rails at S. Darst Street. I assumed the crew had just dropped off an empty feed pellet train (X-SMRPEI) for Canadian National on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's double track, and were heading home. 

Turns out, M-GALPEI ran a day late and the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad had already moved M-PEIGAL to the New Long Monday night. Apaprently, a crew wasn't available Monday and TZPR was running out of room in its East Peoria Yard. So I waited around and by 5:30ish, M-GALPEI's crew coupled onto M-PEIGAL and headed west. 

Notables include six (in groups of four and two COER-marked gondolas) loads of steel billets from Liberty Steel & Wire Co., and a new KJRY-marked covered hopper, second from last car. 


CAPTION: BNSF Railway train M-PEIGAL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Galesburg IL) rolls by W. Farmington Road near Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Later, the train is shown from the new (2023) Route 8 overpass at Edwards and at Kramm Road, where the conductor must protect the crossing due to the downed crossbuck. BNSF 7458 and BNSF 8449 have 45 cars. 

- David P. Jordan

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