Peoria Station

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 sadness never ceases when it comes to dying railroad branchlines and their indifferent owners.  A quarter century ago, as interest in rail freight operations blossomed, I became familiar with a remnant of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway's Pekin District. The Toledo, Peoria & Western assumed operation of a middle portion of Santa Fe's only Illinois branchline through lease on July 8, 1983. Just less than six months later, TP&W was absorbed by its parent. Then on February 3, 1989, TP&W was reborn as a shortline. When TP&W first served Morton customers in 1983, there were three active customers - Caterpillar Tractor Co. (parts department), Libby, McNeil & Libby (canned pumpkin) and Morton Buildings (timber truss plant). Service was provided five days a week, Monday thru Friday, with an East Peoria-base Morton Switcher operating via Pekin Junction on Washington's east side. A trackage rights agreement with the Norfolk & Western R...