Peoria Station

There’s another active branchline railroad in the Peoria area – Toledo Peoria & Western’s Morton Industrial Spur. This 4.9-mile track is a remnant of the Santa Fe’s Pekin District, which was built by predecessor Chicago Pekin & Southwestern in 1872. The line opened on January 6, 1873 between Streator and Pekin (TP&W track was used between Eureka and Washington). Initially, the Chicago Burlington & Quincy served as the CP&SW’s link to Chicago. The CP&SW ran passenger trains into Peoria for a time, until its inability to pay for the use of the Peoria & Pekin Union’s track forced it to use Pekin as its area terminus. That situation continued after the line, by then operating under the name “Chicago & St. Louis,” was purchased by the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe in late 1886. A decade earlier, the line had reached Chicago, the reason for the Santa Fe’s interest. Santa Fe would use the line to create a Chicago – Kansas City mainline, but only that east of Ancona. The rest was relegated to branchline status.

Passenger service ended in early 1955 when a Caterpillar re-powered motor car made its final run to Chicago. Freight service boomed when Caterpillar opened its Morton parts distribution center in 1958, and after Libby’s closed its Eureka cannery and consolidated operations at Morton. Decline set in during the late 1970s and early 1980s as customers which generated freight traffic on the line closed or cutback operations, and the nation entered a severe recession. In the fall of 1982, the Santa Fe decided to abandon most of the Pekin District – maintaining only enough trackage needed to service customers at Morton. The abandonment became effective on July 8, 1983 on which date TP&W began operating the branch with trains coming out of East Peoria. The line returned to Santa Fe when it merged TP&W into its system at the end of the year. TP&W gained independence on February 3, 1989, and its system, included the Morton Industrial Spur. 

Currently, Nestle USA/Libby’s, Fort Transfer Company and Morton Buildings are the line’s customers. (Caterpillar quit using the line more than a decade ago.) TP&W embargoed the line in early 2002 due to poor track conditions, forcing Morton Buildings to transload lumber in the TP&W’s East Peoria Yard. In late March of that year, however, a tie replacement program enabled the railroad to resume normal operations. A new customer was gained in Fort Transfer Company, which operates a bulk liquid rail-to-truck transfer facility and receives up to 200 cars annually.

Below are some photos showing a TP&W train working in and around Morton today.

  A locomotive still lettered for TP&W sister Central Oregon & Pacific, shoves two cars and a caboose after crossing Jackson Street. The famed Libby’s cannery (now owned by Nestle) is at right. The lumber load is for Morton Buildings and the tank car contains herbicide for Fort Transfer Company.

  Contrary to trailnut opinions, perfect track is not required for safe train operations. (The spur diverging to the left use to serve the Caterpillar parts distribution facility, but has been dormant since about the mid-1990s. Now long-unused, some rails have recently been removed.)

  EEEEEEEK!!!!!! How could this be? Railroads shouldn’t run through residential areas! Quality-of-lifers take note: Morton residents are used to the passage of trains at any time of the day or night. (They’d have to be, because the railroad came long before anyone alive today!). TP&W train above is shown shoving out of town just after crossing Nebraska Avenue. Nice neighborhood, btw

  HEADING FOR HOME. TP&W train rolls on Norfolk Southern rails for the return trip back to Morton. TP&W began using the then-Norfolk & Western between East Peoria and Crandall in November 1983 to avoid a circuitous trip via Washington.

- David P. Jordan