Peoria Station

On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, a 37-car train loaded with wind turbine tower sections left the Port of Stockton, California for a staging facility located just east of I-65 and about half-way between Remington and Wolcott, Indiana. The BNSF Railway originated the train and the final destination is on the Toledo Peoria & Western. The best routing for this train takes it through Peoria.

This Sunday night just before 10:00pm, the train arrived Peoria. Led by a single locomotive, the train sat on a siding until morning when the next railroad to handle it, the TP&W, sent a locomotive and crew to fetch it. Shortly after 11:30am, the now-TP&W train entered Tazewell & Peoria Railroad track to cross the river and reach home rails in East Peoria.

By 12:20pm, the train was safely in the railroad yard, and about an hour later, a road crew was called to take the train east. You can see it on video here as it passed through Cruger (two miles west of Eureka) about 2:15 this afternoon.

The wind turbine tower sections seen on the above photos are destined to Orion Energy LLC’s Benton County Wind Farm near Earl Park, Indiana. The TP&W’s Hoosierlift, a former intermodal facility, functions as a staging area to transfer parts such as tower sections, nacelles, hubs, blades and electric transformers to trucks for the final leg of their journey.

Railroads generally handle wind turbine tower parts since most of the components are purchased from overseas. The parts are light but bulky, and the distance from port to final destination are often in excess of 1000 miles, all of which makes rail transportation vital to such projects. Wind turbine parts are a new source of business for railroads and Peoria’s railroads are involved.

- David P. Jordan