TZPR Lead Job, Iowa Interstate PESI 12-23-24

After work, I caught two area train movements. First, was this Tazewell & Peoria Railroad Lead/Yard Job bound for ADM Grain Co. at Hilliards. All were loads, but I'm unsure if these contain distillers dried grain ("mash") or gluten feed pellets.

 

Mash moves year-round but it is that time of year for the latter, though the short cut suggests that traffic isn't moving down here on the Iowa Interstate (or any carrier), at least not yet.

 

Usually, feed pellets from ADM in Cedar Rapids and Clinton, Iowa move to the Hilliards barge loadout and terminal elevator when the U. S. Army Corps. of Engineers closes the Mississippi River to commercial shipping for three months from Keokuk north, starting in early December. 

CAPTION: A Tazewell & Peoria Railroad Lead/Yard Job pulls out of the East Peoria Yard and through Wesley East enroute to ADM Grain Co. at Hilliards (Creve Coeur), Illinois mid-afternoon Monday, December 23, 2024. TZPR 1352 has 21 cars.

I knew an Iowa Interstate crew had just grabbed its power off the Creve Coeur Team Track and cleared the area just before the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad job departed. I went to the downtown library to finish up a roll of film and headed toward southtown to find PESI entering the TZPR's West Yard. I was on the Cedar Street Bridge, so I had to turn around. I managed to catch it where street lamps provide decent lighting.

 

The four scrap metal loads on the rear are the same ones I shot TZPR 1352 shoving out of BioUrja's South Yard in Peoria Friday afternoon. 

CAPTION: Iowa Interstate Railroad manifest PESI (Peoria, IL to Silvis IL) rolls through downtown Peoria, Illinois late-afternoon Monday, December 23, 2024. Later, it is shown at the Alexander Avenue crossing in the North Valley where the train pauses briefly before entering the North Limit Yard. IAIS 152 and IAIS 708 have 21 cars, including four scrap metal loads on the rear.

 

David P. Jordan