Peoria Station

I waited for this one at W. Farmington Road, got impatient, left and then quickly discovered that the train was nearing the crossing! I turned around and barely made it to Pottstown to capture this scene. I switched to 4K, so the video quality is very high and took quite a long time to upload.  CAPTION: BNSF Railway G-PEISMR (Grain, Peoria IL to Summerfield TX) rolls by Pottstown, Illinois late-afternoon Friday, October 6, 2023. BNSF 7053 and BNSF 3835 have 100 gluten feed loads. If not for a friend who reported MPECL's later-than-unusual (two hours) departure a little after 6:00pm, I would have given up on it. Due to low light conditions, I decided to use my phone. While there is some blur, I think it turned out well for the most part.  CAPTION: Union Pacific train MPECL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Clinton IA) rolls by the old Pioneer Station on the northwest corner of Peoria, Illinois early evening Friday, October 6, 2023. UP 6361 and UP 7732 have 47 cars.   David P. Jorda...

I actually heard the horn just seconds before getting into my car at work.. Per another source, the FE Trading gons were scrap metal loads from Hitchcock's Canton transload consigned to Steel Dynamics in Butler, Indiana (which makes sense with all the junk loads moving the other direction in subsidiary OmniTrax gons).  The two BNSF covered hoppers were loaded with organic corn at Consolidated Grain & Barge Co's Burnside elevator and consigned to Rohrerstown, Pennsylvania. All were interchanged from the Keokuk Junction Railway via the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad at East Peoria.   CAPTION: Norfolk Southern train D49 (Normal IL to East Peoria IL turn) rolls by Deer Creek, Illinois on its return leg mid-afternoon Tuesday, May 9, 2023. NS 7014 and NS 3228 have 24 cars.   Going east to get the NS train risked missing my usual encounter with Union Pacific's MPECL, but I was able to catch it on the city's northwest side. Although a short train pulled by a single moto...

Just as I prepared to leave Morton, I could actually hear the Iowa Interstate dispatcher talking to a train crew on IAIS 714, issuing a track warrant from Peoria to Bureau Junction. Normally, I head straight to Adams Street Yard on Friday after work to check on Union Pacific's MPECL, but this time I went for the Limit Yard, heading north on Rt 29. I drove to Mossville but saw nothing. No matter, entering Rt. 6, I heard some chatter on the Union Pacific channel, prompting me to head for Pioneer at Brauer Road. Minutes later, MPECL showed up. Which goes to show that if I can't get one train, I can get another.  CAPTION: Union Pacific train MPECL (Manifest, Peoria IL to Clinton IA) rolls by Pioneer, near the north end of the double track on Peoria, Illinois' northwest side late-afternoon Friday, March 24, 2023. UP 4203 has 56 cars.   - David P. Jordan

This is the first MPECL I've caught since the TZPR's bridge issues disrupted normal interchange operations by the supporting LPD01 local. A later call time (1800 hours) looks to be consistent since Tuesday, May 24.  I left the library just before 6:00pm, drove by and saw it stretched out onto the Low Line, same as when I drove by two hours earlier. So I got something to eat and returned to the scene 40 minutes later to find the train missing. I hit I-474 and then Route 6 so I didn't miss it, though had I followed Kickapoo Creek to Farmington Road, I probably would have caught it then.  Social media contacts indicated the train hadn't yet passed Edelstein or Dunlap. So I waited at Pioneer Station, figuring it was still negotiating (or stalling on) the hill. Then I heard it. UP 8780 had 73 cars by my location at 1913 hours.   - David P. Jordan