CN L557, IAIS PESI 3-20-25

I caught a glimpse of it on Tuesday, but could not turn around and get video, so I checked on Canadian National's L557 this afternoon, and found it at Hilliards. Had I decided to make a right on Rt. 29 instead of a left, and then Wesley Road, I would have missed it! 

 

Some notes:

 

- The loaded ADM covered hopper is serving as a buffer for the empty sodium hydroxide solution tank car, which came from PMP Fermentation Products.

 

- The two pressure-differential covered hoppers are interesting, as I've seen similar cars on BNSF, which I believe contain urea loaded at Dakota Gasification Company's Beulah, North Dakota production facility. Those are routed to TP&W for a consignee in Indiana. Not sure why these cars were on today's L557 though, unless a local processor (Alto?) is using them.

 

- The fifth car is the tank car (UTLX 671525) pulled by TP&W at Fort Transfer in Morton on Tuesday. This one should be a herbicide empty returning to Syngenta Crop Protection's St. Gabriel, Louisiana facility. 

 

- Next were two gondolas which appeared to be loaded. Apparently, Alter Metal Recycling is still shipping scrap metal to consignees out of the area and Liberty Steel & Wire operations do not yet require significant volume of this raw material. 

 

- The other 41 cars are a mixture of loaded and empty covered hoppers. The first nine are loaded, and the first five of those display SOXX markings, which are commonly assigned to Alto Pekin LLC's wet corn mill. After these nine loads were ten empties, then five more loads, and 17 empties. Most of these were mixed with ADM equipment. 

CAPTION: Canadian National Railway train L557 (Local, E. Peoria IL to Decatur IL) rolls along the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's double track mainline through Hilliards (Creve Coeur), Illinois mid-afternoon Thursday, March 20, 2025. CN 2226 and CN 8875 have 48 cars.

 

I decided not to chase the CN local any further as I had other plans. But then I caught up to Iowa Interstate's PESI just clearing Bridge Junction in Peoria. I shot 502 running by at three locations before getting the whole train at mainline speed by San Koty. 

CAPTION: Iowa Interstate Railroad Ltd. manifest PESI (Peoria IL to Silvis IL) is shown on the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad late-afternoon Thursday, March 20, 2025 passing both the old (1900) and new (1967) Rock Island passenger depots in Peoria, Illinois. Later, it is on home rails in Peoria Heights. The whole train is then shown at San Koty. IAIS 502 has 74 cars. Note block of 20 Incobrasa covered hoppers heading to Iowa for soybean loading back east to Gilman, Illinois.

- David P. Jordan