Peoria Station

Weaver Popcorn has covered hoppers to load on April 11, 2009 In 1995, Weaver Popcorn Co, began transloading popcorn from truck to railcars on the Chicago & Illinois Midland at Forest City. Portable augers have since been replaced by a dump pit and conveyer system. Now served by C&IM-successor Illinois & Midland Railroad, Weaver Popcorn [...]

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W. R. Grace Chemical opened a granular fertilizer manufacturing facility at Henry in early 1967. Rail service became unstable in 1980 when the bankruptcy court ordered the Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad to liquidate. The Elgin Joliet & Eastern provided service in April-June 1980, then Burlington Northern did so through September 1981. CSX Transportation [...]

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A Trackmobile is being used to spot three covered hopper cars for loading at Tomen Grain’s Pekin elevator on December 12, 2009 Sours Grain Company constructed a river elevator at Pekin in 1964, but did not install rail facilities until 21 years later. In 1985, two sidings located on Conrail’s “Whiskey Main” were acquired and rehabilitated. [...]

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Excerpt from PJStar’s interview with developer Scott Roth on November 7, 2010 PJStar: Do you believe the odor from the ADM plant (or any industry within that area) will deter people from investing in upscale/trendy living south of Downtown Peoria? Roth: Over time, the newly redeveloped Warehouse District, complete with housing, businesses, restaurants, and retail, will [...]

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Mid-South Chemical built an ammonia storage facility at North Pekin in 1956. Subsequent expansion occurred during the late ’50s and early ’60s. Eventually, Agrico Chemical acquired this facility, and since the mid-1990s, Terra Nitrogen Corp. has operated it. Terra Nitrogen receives tank car loads of nitrogen fertilizer solution and is served by the Tazewell & [...]

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The Tazewell & Peoria Railroad itself provides team track, loading and unloading ramps and warehouse facilities for a number of area rail users at the East Peoria Yard and adjacent to the Creve Coeur office and diesel shop. TZPR accommodates the following rail users: Carver Lumber (inbound lumber/freight house) Hostess Brands c/o Carry Transit (inbound [...]

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Taloma Farmers Grain Co.’s Delavan elevator is the former Delavan Farmers Co-Operative Elevator. It had access to both the Gulf Mobile & Ohio and Illinois Central lines, and presumably shipped corn and soybeans via both railroads. The GM&O and IC merged in 1972 to form Illinois Central Gulf. Subsequently, the former GM&O line was downgraded, and [...]

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Taloma Farmer’s Grain Co.’s name is derived from the three counties in which is operates – Tazewell, Logan and Mason. The Allen Station facility, located just west of San Jose. This facility was built in 1997 along an existing siding on Union Pacific’s Peoria Subdivision. A second siding and loading track were built to support [...]

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The Journal Star has followed the Kellar Branch rail-to-trail conversion like the papparazi. Too bad they didn’t give similar coverage in the late 1990s of the Pioneer Industrial Railway’s success in bringing back business to the then-rail line (I bet it pained the editorialist to admit a third customer had begun using the line at Pioneer [...]

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The Journal Star’s Sunday edition contained a history of Peoria’s commercial aviation. Such content is not sexy so it’s good to see this kind of coverage for a change. Entitled, Peoria in Flight, it’s one of those ”First in Print” articles, so non-subscribers will have to wait a day or so before it is online. Three errors - two major and one [...]

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