Peoria Station

Heading to the downtown library, I made a side trip to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard and found the Canadian National local, L557, departing for Decatur.    Out of curiosity, I re-watched (and re-counted) Tuesday's Iowa Interstate SIPE, suspecting that IAIS and CN have been exchanging heavy ADM traffic (or at least ADM empties). Below is a list of SIPE-01's train. An asterisk (*) denotes cars which ran through on today's CN local. L = Loads, E = Empties.    1 L SOXX 638299 *2 L MWCX 420341 *3 L ITFX 650139 *4 L ADMX 63144 *5 L ADMX 635570 *6 L ITFX 650060 *7 L ADMX 636011 *8 L ADMX 190032 *9 L ADMX 63638 *10 L ADMX 64207 ---------------------- 11 E UTLX 208928 12 E TCBX 306193 13 E ADMX 54013 14 L ADMX 63027 15 L TILX 649750 ------------------ *16 E ITFX 650153 *17 E TILX 649807 *18 E TILX 636789 *19 E ADMX 64011 *20 E ADMX 636206 *21 E CITX 701596 *22 E ADMX 64368 *23 E ADMX 636032 *24 L ADMX 63614 *25 L ADMX 63994 *26 E SOXX 638305 -----...

With a chance that a pair of F-7As could move west on the Keokuk Junction Railway Thursday, I left work at 9:00 and headed for Mapleton. Before I arrived, I already had a pretty good idea that the F-units pulled from East Peoria wouldn't be moving any further than the old Carter Lumber spur at Mapleton. Both units were left there last night, possibly for long-term storage. Speculation is that BNSF doesn't want to handle BUGX 401 and BUGX 402 to their intended destination, the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad in Kansas, and that the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad, on whose Creve Coeur Team Track for nearly two months, wanted them gone. Storing them on the Keokuk Junction Railway must been determined to be the only solution until another scenario for transportation can be agreed upon.  Although the local didn't take the F-units west, I'm glad I did the chase on Thursday.  CAPTION: Chasing the Keokuk Junction Railway's weekly local from Mapleton, Illinois to a poin...

Changes are coming... Houston, Texas-based BioUrja Group has agreed to purchase Archer Daniels Midland Co's Peoria dry corn mill. Approximately 150 employees are affected.  ADM's plant began life as a Hiram Walker & Sons, Inc. distillery, which opened in 1934. It was sold to ADM in 1980 as Hiram Walker transitioned to a smaller blending facility at Fort Smith, Arkansas. ADM began ethanol production at its Peoria plant in 1981. ADM's plant complex is served by the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (both Alcohol Tracks and Riverside Track) and by the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway and Union Pacific Railroad, which access the South Yard on the Riverside Track. The latter carrier has rarely done this in recent years, however.  - David P. Jordan

Road freights operated by the Toledo, Peoria & Western can be elusive, especially in daylight, so any chance to capture their movement must be taken when possible.  I took the opportunity Sunday, December 30, 2018 to intercept and then chase one of those elusive TP&W freights from near Secor to East Peoria. A pair of TP&W SD40-2s, resplendent in standard orange paint of parent Genesee & Wyoming Inc., lead 86 cars west a short distance past of Secor, Illinois. The first 25 cars were set out at Grainland Cooperative's Cruger elevator. After setting out 25 Incobrasa-marked empties at Grainland Cooperative's Cruger elevator a new crew got onboard. Shortened to 61 cars, the whole train is shown at both Washington and on the Farmdale Trestle entering East Peoria, Illinois.  Twenty-five carloads of corn are probably for Archer Daniels Midland Co. (or ADM Grain Co.'s barge loadout) in Peoria. A 20-car block of CSX-marked covered hoppers contai...

Each winter, the Upper Mississippi River, from about Keokuk, Iowa north, is closed to commercial navigation for about three months from the second week of December. As a result, a number of all-water movements shift to rail-barge and Peoria-Pekin area terminals experience a surge in volume.  Whereas Grain Processing Corp. (Muscatine, Iowa) and Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Clinton, Iowa) ship gluten feed pellets and/or distillers dried grain supplement (DDGS, or "grain mash") down the Mississippi River from April thru November, they must ship these large volume, bulk commodities to an active barge loadout during December thru March.  The Iowa Interstate Railroad (IAIS) benefits from this seasonal shift in transportation. Grain Processing Corp. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. typically route feed products via the Canadian Pacific Railway to the IAIS at Davenport, Iowa. From there, IAIS hauls this traffic to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard for...

TZPR 3000 switches the ADM Peoria plant's Alcohol Tracks on May 1, 2013.   The good news is that it appears ADM is maintaining its Peoria plant for the long term. The bad news is that long-time employees are losing their jobs. The PJStar posted this article yesterday.  I can't see too much changing in regard to rail service. Grain for production is trucked in from elevators in the region. ADM only gets corn by rail when local supplies are low. Rail delivered grain is almost all transferred to barges for export. Most tank cars loaded here seem to be placarded for industrial (UN 1170) and beverage alcohol (UN 3065) anyway. Actual production volume, not the type of grain alcohol produced there, will make the difference. The Peoria plant is a strategic asset with river access. Layoffs are sad, but hopefully the change reflects a long-term commitment to keep the local plant operational for many years to come. UPDATE (Aug. 3): Word is the end of domestic ethanol p...