PEORIA – BNSF Railway brought a 54-car train of wind turbine tower sections into the area this afternoon.
Originating at Houston, Texas on September 29, the train worked its way north through east Texas and Arkansas, finally entering the state of Illinois by Friday evening. Despite the rainy weather, I got out and photographed the train as it made its way from Galesburg to Peoria.
By late Saturday afternoon, BNSF delivered the train (seen above from the U. S. 24 viaduct on Peoria’s far south edge) to the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR) in East Peoria.
About 6:30pm, a TZPR train crew dragged the 54-car train to the Toledo Peoria & Western Railway’s East Peoria Yard, two miles to the east (see below).
The 54-car train required the close attention of railroad personnel as it crossed the Farm Creek truss bridge due to tight clearances. The train crawled at 3mph, causing long traffic backups.
At the TP&W yard, the tower sections, manufactured by P. T. Korindo in Indonesia, will be unloaded and stored at an onsite staging facility then trucked to their final destination.
I can’t help but wonder if Union Pacific should have handled these trains through Springfield at 3mph along that city’s so-called “Third Street” tracks. Then, maybe the extremely limited time trains do stop motorists at the city’s numerous grade crossings would be appreciated 
- David P. Jordan
October 1st, 2009 by David P. Jordan in Aviation · 2 Comments
The Journal Star is reporting that passenger business at the Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport continues to decline, though not as fast as it did this winter.
Some good news is that air cargo continues to boom. Through August of this year, United Parcel Service air cargo volume increased 308% compared to the same period in 2008. The reason is that they and DHL/ABX Air dropped Decatur and Bloomington-Normal, respectively, from their air routes in late January/early February, and customers are now using Peoria’s air cargo facilities.
Hopefully, as the economy returns to a boom cycle, Delta Connection will resume its Peoria – Atlanta nonstops, and just in time for the new terminal dedication planned for November 2010.
- David P. Jordan
September 29th, 2009 by David P. Jordan in Railroads · No Comments
PEORIA – In Monday’s print edition, the Journal Star screwed up the map that accompanied its Rt. 90-Union Pacific Railroad crossing closure notice. With accurate online maps available, how can this happen in 2009?
Fortunately, the online edition has the error corrected.
- David P. Jordan
September 27th, 2009 by David P. Jordan in Aviation · No Comments
Is Indiana Jones a passenger on this flight? No, this is just the EAA’s Ford Tri-Motor on final aproach to Runway 22 at Peoria Int’l Airport on Sunday afternoon, September 27, 2009.
I took advantage of Sunday’s afternoon’s sunny skies to get some pics of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s “Eastern Air Transport” Ford Tri-Motor, NC8407, which arrived Friday.
Interestingly, the plane came off the assembly line in 1929, three years before the presently-named Gen. Wayne A. Downing Peoria Int’l Airport existed!
Seeing this aircraft flying above Peoria’s skies this weekend made me long for the days before sleek jets, and even those piston-engine American Airlines Convair 240s, Ozark Air Lines DC-3s and Trans World Airlines Martin 404s that were regular visitors to the then-Greater Peoria Airport during the 1950s.
- David P. Jordan
A lot of the news out of Springfield regarding the high-speed rail and increased freight train frequency controversy is starting to sound like a broken record. Those few commenters [to the on-line stories] who make any sense are unable to penetrate the collossal ignorance and extreme selfishness of the majority.
What bothers me is this article in today’s State Journal-Register entitled 7 aldermen say no to more trains on Third St. Springfield has 10 aldermen, so a clear majority has been caught up in this frenzy. But they’re only listening to their constituents, you say? Yes, but elected officials must stand against collosal ignorance and extreme selfishness, even from their constituents. True leadership is always risky.
What if this type of mentality came to affect a majority in the U. S. Congress? The nation’s rail system would be shattered when narrow local interests are held above interstate commerce.
UPDATE: Click here and here to see what the area around the Springfield depot looked like in 1971. Note the number of tracks.
- David P. Jordan
Understanding the benefits of rail transportation to the Peoria area requires not only familiarity with the firms using railroads but also commodities and products shipped and received. Click here for a list of rail users in the six-county TransPORT region (Fulton, Marshall, Mason, Peoria, Tazewell and Woodford) and what types of traffic they ship and receive. It’s not 100% accurate, but close.
- David P. Jordan
I started this blog September 18, 2008. I missed the actual date, but thought I’d mention the first anniversary anyway.
- David P. Jordan
Following years of labor unrest and a long shutdown, the Toledo Peoria & Western Railroad Company entered a period of prosperity under the leadership of J. Russel Coulter. Coulter, who took the office of TP&W President and General Manager on May 1, 1947, spearheaded the purchase of real estate adjacent to his railroad’s tracks. The land in turn was sold to industries that would make use of rail transportation.
A map on page B-3 of the Peoria Journal Star’s May 25, 1957 (AM Edition) shows TP&W-owned real estate divided among six zones:
Zone 1 – Located at Mapleton between TP&W mainline and the Illinois River and going west to Kingston Mines.
Zone 2 – Between Bartonville and Hollis, located between the Chicago & North Western mainline and the Illinois River. TP&W could access industries locating on this land after signing a joint trackage rights and joint-development agreement with C&NW in February 1957.
Zone 3 – Unincorporated land south of Peoria and east of Bartonville, bordered on the east by the Illinois River. TP&W could access same as Zone 2.
Zone 4 – Located in East Peoria on the Illinois River directly across from then-Hiram Walker & Sons distillery. I’ve heard TP&W purchased this land as part of a plan to construct a high bridge over the river, thus avoiding the conflict with barge traffic. The plan didn’t go far and the land was sold to Caterpillar in 1974 for construction of Building SS.
Zone 5 – Also located in East Peoria, this zone was bordered by the W. Camp Street, Farm Creek channel, the Illinois River and Rt. 116 and is west of the TP&W’s East Peoria Yard.
Zone 6 – Located directly east of TP&W’s East Peoria Yard.
The total area for all six industrial zones was 2,600 acres. Between 1956 and 1978, TP&W attracted numerous industries to Zones 1, 2, 5 and 6. Below is a list of those industries.
Georgia Pacific Corp. (Zone 5, 1956, expanded in 1965)
Transit Ice Co. (Zone 6, 1956, leased to Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.)
General Warehouse & Transportation Co. (Zone 6, 1957)
Olin-Mathieson Chemical Corp. (Zone 1, 1957)
Kingston River Terminal (Zone 1, 1958)
Hagerty Bros. Co. (Zone 5, 1959)
Kroger Co. (Zone 6, 1959)
United Facilities (Zone 5, 1959, NOTE: expanded in 1961 and 1965)
Central Illinois Light Company (Zone 2, 1960, jointly served with C&NW)
Chris Hoerr & Son (Zone 5, 1960, expanded in 1966)
Illinois Liquid Feed Co. (Zone 1, 1961)
Int’l Minerals & Chemical Corp. (Zone 1, 1961)
Pillsbury Co. (Zone 6, 1961, expanded in 1967)
Archer Daniels Midland Co. (Zone 1, 1962)
River Refining Corp. (Zone 1, 1962)
Baird Chemical Co. (Zone 1, 1963, expanded in 1971)
Midwest Wholesale Materials Co.(Zone 5, 1963)
Missouri-Portland Cement Co. (Zone 2, 1963, jointly served with C&NW)
Bramlet & Co. (Zone 5, 1964)
Dust-All Manufacturing Co. (Zone 5, 1964)
Federal Warehouse Co. (Zone 5, 1964, expanded in 1966 and 1971)
Sears Roebuck & Co. (Zone 5, 1964)
United States Cold Storage Co. (Zone 6, 1966)
Capital Plumbing & Heating Co. (Zone 5, 1967)
Caterpillar Tractor Co. (Zone 1, 1967)
CF Industries (Zone 1, 1967)
SOURCE: Peoria Journal Star
By the late 1960s, most parcels had been developed and on-line industrial development slowed. A 1973 Federal plan to abandon numerous lines deemed excess stunted it completely. Althought this plan was soundly rejected, the severe mid-1970’s recession continued to stunt new industrial development. Caterpillar Tractor Co. built a second foundry in Zone 1, placing it into operation in December 1978, becoming the final major Peoria-area industrial development along the TP&W before the railroad’s sale to the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe in March 1981.
Mapleton/Zone 1 remains the largest concentration of industries on today’s TP&W. Six firms located there – Caterpillar, Chemtura, CF Industries, Corn Products Int’l, Evonik-Degussa and Lonza remain active rail users.
Rail access is no longer available to Zone 5. Three of the original companies to locate there still exist – Federal Warehouse, Hagerty and United Facilities – but motor carrier competition, cancellation of transit rates and subequent changes in the way these firms do business, meant little traffic by the 1990s. A brief surge in traffic in the early 2000s didn’t last and after the land was sold to the City of East Peoria, track was pulled up in 2004.
None of the original companies to locate in Zone 6 remain. The sole rail user in that zone is a joint TP&W-Carri Scharf Trucking facility which handles aggregates and road salt. The East Peoria Materials & Rail Yard has been in operation since January 2004. Most other track built into Zone 6 in 1956-1967 has been removed.
CAN THIS BE DONE AGAIN?
Local governments and government agencies, not railroads, now primarily spearhead industrial development in the Peoria area.
The original Caterpillar foundry has been torn down and sold to make way for re-development by the Heart of Illinois Regional Port District. Firms handling bulk commodities might be attracted here in the near future. Also, BioFuels Manufacturing Illinois LLC, plans to construct a biodiesel plant just west of CF Industries and the existing Caterpillar foundry. Rail service will be important to both developments.
Pekin’s Riverway Business Park, established in 1992 and served by Canadian National, has attracted two rail-served industries – Amerhart Ltd. and Hanna Steel Corp. Expansion of the park and ongoing infrastructure improvements should help attract additional rail users during the next 5-10 years.
Peoria itself tried to lure new industry by establishing Pioneer Industrial Park in 1959. Although successful, the park was too small to attract large employers, was served by soon-to-be financially-troubled Chicago Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and most of the original firms which located there during the 1960s and 1970s have closed or left for greener pastures. For some time, the city’s movers and shakers have favored non-industrial development, so look for future Peoria-area industrial development to concentrate at Mapleton and Pekin.
- David P. Jordan
Today’s Journal Star reports:
The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission tried for $78.6 million to link the Peoria area with high-speed rail proposed between Chicago and St. Louis. The Heart of Illinois Regional Port District (TransPORT) asked for $31.4 million to link its 70-acre Mapleton property to the river.
My Take: A link for Peoria to the proposed Chicago-St. Louis HSR service is a dead end. For rail passenger service to succeed in Peoria, it needs to begin as conventional Amtrak service along an existing rail route to Chicago. It’s too bad the Amtrak Chicago – Peoria feasibility study has been delayed until fall, or the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission would have something specific to back up this funding request.
Funding for TransPORT is worthy as the area needs to exploit its natural advantages (rail and water transportation) to attract more industrial and shipping firms. The space previously occupied by Caterpillar’s original (1967) Mapleton foundry makes an excellent site for transfer of bulk commodites from one form of transportation to another, and/or a staging point for wind turbine components. A direct channel to the nearby Illinois River would give the Mapleton site, already rail accessible, the area’s other economic advantage.
- David P. Jordan
I haven’t blogged about Springfield’s anti-rail hysteria for several days, but a lot has been going on. Just read the www.sj-r.com and its Boiler Room blog. Most significant is that Mayor Tim Davlin seems to have softened his position a bit, probably the result of last Friday’s meeting with other politicans and railroad officials.
Unfortunately, commenters to these online resources remain woefully uninformed and suggest wild schemes to get practically all railroads out of Springfield. Many agree with the City and support consolidation along the so-called 10th Street Corridor (a combination of Illinois & Midland track from Ridgley to Shops and Norfolk Southern from Shops to Iles). Others suggest consolidation along the so-called 19th Street Corridor, which involves Illinois & Midland track from Ridgley through Shops and on to Avenue then Canadian National through Brickyard to KC Junction (NS trains would enter CN track at Starnes). Still others have suggested building an entirely new line along I-55!
The 10th Street Corridor is the only workable plan for consolidation, but would still require considerable taxpayer dollars for improvements, and in an age when neither government nor some citizens think it necessary to live within their means, it’s something that can clearly be considered a non-necessity. The 19th Street Corridor is impractical because one local rail user – the State Journal-Register – would be shorn of service after removal of the 10th Street line. These limitations even assume the necessary capacity, signaling and track improvements are made to satisfy the railroads. An I-55 Corridor would be even less practical as it would eliminate service to additional customers, and endanger service to others after profitable “through” traffic is diverted, and most of all is too costly.
- David P. Jordan
