Peoria Station

It wasn't long ago that TP&W made a Morton trip to pull two empty tank cars, leaving one load. So I was surprised to see then again so soon.  CAPTION: A Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway local runs engine lite across Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District at Crandall, Illinois late-afternoon Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Shortly, HESR 2107 will run along the connecting track and then race toward Farmdale Switch to return to home rails in East Peoria. Last scene shows tank cars at Fort Transfer Company in Morton. One was left from the previous trip, and two more loads were brought in this day. - David P. Jordan

As usual, I only heard the horn as these units blew across W. Jefferson Street heading out of town. Just one tank car, UTLX 671525, was left for Fort Transfer Company.  CAPTION: Saturday morning, March 8, 2025, a TP&W local crew out of East Peoria, Illinois ran down Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District to Crandall Junction and thence the Morton Industrial Spur to deliver a tank car to Fort Transfer Company. Video shows TPW 2056 and TPW 5008 returning engine lite. - David P. Jordan

The horn woke me up this morning, but the crew had already delivered three tank cars and leaving engine lite before I could dress and head out to investigate. Fort Transfer Company hasn't received liquid herbicide since March 2022. The seven tank cars delivered this year have probably contained de-icer or dust control chemicals. At there is more activity in 2023 than in 2022!  CAPTION: The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway actually delivered three tank cars to Fort Transfer Company in Morton, Illinois Saturday morning, November 11, 2023. After doing so, TPW 5008 is shown at Crandall Junction, switching from the Morton Industrial Spur to Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District for the trip back to East Peoria. None of the tank cars (GATX 37385, UTLX 681632 and UTLX 224856) display a haz-mat placard, so they must contain a de-icer chemical. David P. Jordan

Tuesday's Union Pacific MPECL left late and today's left early, so I missed both this week. But Norfolk Southern's D49 local made a late-East Peoria turn this afternoon, so I was able to catch its return leg at Crandall Junction about 3:30. Notably, all four scrap metal loads embedded mid-train - TFOX 1646, TFOX 1649, ITFX 212087 and TOFX 4456 - were delivered to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad by the Keokuk Junction Railway local on Wednesday. Reportedly, these cars are consigned to Steel Dynamics' Butler, Indiana steel mill.  CAPTION: Norfolk Southern Railway local D49 rolls by Crandall Junction (TP&W crossing) near Morton, Illinois mid-afternoon Friday, October 20, 2023. NS 3410 and NS 3362 have 23 cars.   David P. Jordan

Norfolk Southern finally delivered the first of two F-7As to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad late this morning! I took Thursday off from work just to catch D49 do this, but the crew spent its day switching Rivian, classifying D32 and building D36. On Friday, NS 7014 and BUGX 402 were involved in a minor derailment at Good Yard. Finally, they made the run on Monday. An added present was NS 5194, a high-hood GP38-2, bound for Des Moines, was hauled to TZPR with the F-7A! Today's TZPR delivery had typical traffic: steel coil loads for the Iowa Interstate but mostly empties for Liberty Steel & Wire, Caterpillar, Komatsu, Alto, BioUrja, Linde or Messer, and the KJRY.  The appearance of Incobrasa Industries covered hoppers is this month. It seems the time I saw one on D49 (August 7), it was empty. But they're empty coming into East Peoria as well. Apparently, my glance at the pressed truck coil springs on the August 7 train was insufficient to confirm it as a load, but that is...

No sooner did a get home from work that I checked railfan social media and learned that not only was Norfolk Souther local D49 still at East Peoria, but that a geometry train had turned around at East Peoria and was heading east (timetable south). I didn't know where it was when I left, so I headed to Goodfield and waited.  I didn't wait long.  CAPTION: A Norfolk Southern Geometry Train is shown late-afternoon Monday, August 7, 2023 after turning at East Peoria. NS 9755 has NS 99 ("Belford," a former DL&W car) and NS 34. The train was re-crewed at Good Yard in Normal and ran to Bement. I figured I'd have time to backtrack west for D49, so I set up at N. Main Street just outside Morton and waited, and waited and waited. As distant, faint horn blasts were heard, and eventually growling from a quartet of EMD standard cabs as it struggled to pull its 94-car train up hill, I realized the 55 grain empties brought into town for loading at ADM's Hilliards elevato...

  Well...this is good news.  On my way home from work, I cross the TP&W's Morton Industrial Spur twice (E. Main and Jackson/US 150). Today, while at the latter, I noticed a tank car in the distance. Upon closer inspection, I saw there were two.     Notice UTLX 671549 and UTLX 681632 display no haz-mat placards for liquid herbicide (UN 3082). These cars probably contain a de-icing chemical.     A friend PM'd me last night about 8:20, saying he heard a horn. I drove around, hoping a TP&W local was shoving through town with tank cars for Fort Transfer Company. I even went out to Crandall, but saw nothing. Perhaps I just missed it. While at work today, I heard a horn that I though might be a from a locomotive, but thought little of that until this afternoon. (I have confirmation that the train came into town today.) Recall that TP&W ran a whopping three trains to Morton in 2022. The first was on February 16 to fetch four tank cars. On Marc...

Leaving work Friday afternoon, I heard a horn, a rare sound in Morton these days.  I couldn't confirm whether the train was arriving or leaving town. I quickly confirmed that it was arriving. But it wasn't really a train. A TP&W crew ran engine lite with IMRR 2108 to fetch an empty tank car from Fort Transfer Company.  The locomotive stopped short of N. Main Street, giving me a chance to cross. I waited for some time at the Jefferson Street crossing before IMRR 2108 passed. It took but a few minutes, however, for it to head back out with the tank car.  Sadly, train movements at Morton are rare the past few years. The tank car pulled Friday afternoon was delivered by the last train to visit, on March 14, 2022. That's right, exactly seven months ago! Usually, a loaded railcar is delivered to a customer, and it is unloaded in 1-2 days then pulled away. Not so with TP&W and Morton.  Unfortunately, the sole remnant of Santa Fe's Pekin District may have seen its la...

On Friday, November 19, 2021, I shot video of TP&W 5009 delivering four loaded herbicide tank cars to Fort Transfer Company in Morton. Nearly three months later, TP&W 5008 came to fetch the same cars, which were likely all emptied many weeks ago! TP&W 5008 ran on Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District to Crandall then on the Morton Industrial Spur (or Lead?). I caught it approaching Jefferson Street. It didn't take long for the crew to couple onto those empty tank cars and pull them to the old "yard" short of N. Main Street where they ran around for the shove back to Crandall. Scenes on the above video are in Morton, Crandall Junction and on Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District at N. Main Street. See captions with each scene. It is sad to see so little activity on this line, but at least there is some activity... - David P. Jordan

Just before leaving work at 3:00 Friday afternoon, I learned that the TP&W was going to make a run to Morton. It is always exciting to catch a train where you live (I'm a few blocks from the tracks), but this occasion was even more exciting because it was the first time since July 7 that the TP&W came into town to deliver loads or pull empties at Fort Transfer Company's bulk liquids facility west of Jefferson Street. (I live here, and check every day, and had not seen any tank cars there until today.) I went home, grabbed my camera and headed to Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District, waiting at the N. Main Street crossing. Minutes after my arrival, at 3:18, I heard the NS dispatcher give TPW 5009 permission to run from Farmdale (where TP&W and NS connect) to Crandall Siding. The four-car train showed up 17 minutes later. Next, the TP&W crew pulled across the Tennessee Avenue crossing and shoved into Crandall Siding far enough to clear the connection switch...

  I caught Norfolk Southern Railway local D49 in both directions today. Consists have been shorter than usual as of late. The weather has been a factor, and the winter season may be as well. So it was refreshing to see 46 cars behind NS 6343 and NS 7014! I shot the train near W. Washington Street.  Train D49 dropped the inbound on A-38 and coupled to the outbound on A-27. It was in the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad's East Peoria Yard barely 90 minutes. Of particular interest are the four Caterpillar tractor loads on the head end. Right behind those was GRLX 7712, a tank car loaded with liquid sodium gluconate. The TZPR delivered this car to PMP Fermentation Products last Thursday.  I shot video at N. Main Street (near Morton) and again at Crandall, which was only possible because of a red signal indication at the TP&W crossing. NS 7014 and NS 6343 had 19 cars.  - David P. Jordan

I normally post aviation and railroad topics here, but I must mention the return of an old gas station brand. British Petroleum (BP) purchased Amoco in 1998. The combined companies operated as "BP Amoco" until 2001 when the brand became simply, "BP." Between 2000 and 2005, Amoco gas stations were either closed or changed to "BP." Following the public relations disaster that was the 2010 explosion and oil spill on the offshore platform, Deepwater Horizon , there were reports that BP considered reviving the Amoco brand in the United States. As the spill dissipated into the Gulf of Mexico and other issues captured Americans' attention, BP service stations either re-branded to other oil companies or stayed BP. Seven years passed and then last fall, the Amoco brand was re-introduced in select cities.  In late-August 2018, a former Shell station at the corner of N. Jackson Street and N. Morton Avenue in Morton, Illinois became the first Amoco...

It is a good day when I happen to catch a train on the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway's Morton Industrial Lead.  Late Saturday morning, August 25, 2018, I learned that a train had arrived in town. I already had plans to be in Morton so I left early, hoping to catch this train.  When I arrived, the train was already departing. TP&W 2070 was pushing a lone empty herbicide tank car near Main Street. I waited at Crandall Junction (northeast of town).  TP&W's Morton Industrial Lead is the sole remnant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Pekin District, which was mostly abandoned in July 1983. Recent years have not been kind. The railroad has been trying to chase off the line's business for years, with Nestle USA/Libby's obliging after 2008 and Morton Buildings by early 2015. That leaves Fort Transfer Company as the sole remaining customer. Lack of business means occasional train movements to and from Morton. So it is a treat to ...

The Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway made a Morton run this morning.  I learned of it through social media and took the chance to drive from my home in Dunlap and intercept it. Fortunately, I arrived in time to see TP&W 2105 shoving two loaded herbicide tank cars across Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District. TP&W's Morton Industrial Lead has seen better days. It is used to serve only once customer - Fort Transfer Company. The railroad has wanted to dump its Morton operation for a long time, but Fort Transfer, which began receiving liquid herbicide in early 2002, has kept it going. Access via trackage rights on Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District between East Peoria and Crandall and a small volume of business that fails to contribute much line-haul for the serving carrier has long plagued this last remnant of an ex-Santa Fe branchline which dates to January 1873. I shot video of the train shoving the two tank cars through town and also at Fort...