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Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in the American Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Kansas. For questions specific to a railroad company, please seek the appropriate forum.

Moderator: railohio

 #309061  by the answer
 
Hey everyone.

Im living in bloomington normal right now an was wondering about the yards in the area. Ive checked out Bloomingtons yard a few times (i beleive its a UP yard anyone know the name?) but havent really seen much. Once i saw a passenger train (boring for me) and ive seen a short frieght idling in the yard. Anyone know how often frieght trains go through that yard? Best times to see some? And are they ever very long? The only one ive seen was quite short, probabaly around 15 cars.

Thanks guys!

 #315176  by bn13814
 
Norfolk Southern's Bloomington District crosses Union Pacific's Joliet Subdivision at grade at B-N Target, just west of downtown. There isn't much freight traffic compared to Champaign, Decatur, Peoria-Pekin or Springfield, and most trains are Amtrak (now ten per day). Here's a summary of local rail freight operations:

NORFOLK SOUTHERN
A pair of road trains operate daily except Sunday between Decatur and Good Yard in Normal. I've seen the "northbound" train, called D42D, arrive B-N all hours of the afternoon. This train doesn't seem to do any local work enroute so its departure time from Decatur and getting across the CN at Gibson City may figure into the train's arrival. Traffic is light as the train is mostly empties (autoracks for Mitsubishi, and tank cars, flat cars, covered hoppers and other traffic for the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad [TZPR] and connections at East Peoria). A small amount of lumber, steel, scrap metal and chemicals are hauled for Peoria area customers.

The counterpart train leaves "southbound" between 7:00pm and 9:00pm daily except Sunday. I've heard train crews and dispatchers call it either D42D or D46D. Not sure why one or the other. Sometimes, the same crew that brought D42D up from Decatur has the time to take the train back south. Other times, a relief crew is probably required. Maybe the latter is why the train is sometimes called D46D. This train does local work enroute, mainly at Gibson City (Solae soybean processing plant)and at stations along the former Wabash segment of the Bloomington District like Mansfield (O'Malley Grain) and Monticello (Topflight Grain and a few smaller customers). Traffic is mainly finished autos from Mitsubishi (sometimes in 20- or 30-car blocks) and traffic from TZPR and connections at East Peoria such as Caterpillar machinery, coiled wire rod, ethanol, corn syrup, corn germ, scrap metal, carbon dioxide and chemicals.

The "northbound" train tends to be shorter because most autoracks seem to return in a unit train. Most Mitsubishi loads go to BNSF at Kansas City and BNSF accumulates enough empties autoracks to interchange a solid train to NS.

Local switching is performed by D47D, which goes on duty at Good Yard at 8:00am daily except Sunday. Local work performed is spotting empty and pulling loaded autoracks at the 8-track Mitsubishi auto loading ramp, switching Midwest Fiber on White Oak Road and making up the "southbound" train for Decatur.

D49D goes on duty at 8:00pm weeknights. It may work the Mitsubishi auto ramp if necessary bit its prime duty is to switch out the inbound D42D train from Decatur and make up a train for the TZPR at East Peoria. Most cars going west are empties and no customers are served directly west of the Evergreen FS elevator at Yuton (just west of Mitsubishi Motorway). D49D is usually seen arriving East Peoria around 11:00pm to midnight and after dropping its train, picks up its outbound and usually departs East Peoria within two hours, depending on the length of the train and how long it takes to pump up the air brakes and arm the end of train device.

NS also operates unit grain trains on the Bloomington District, some originating at the Evergreen FS elevator at Yuton. Usually, tow of three Evergreen FS elevators at Yuton, Holder and Arrowsmith "co-load" grain trains of 25 cars or so each for southeast destinations. Also, NS gets into the AgRail LLC grain terminal located on the west side of Union Pacific's Bloomington Yard.


UNION PACIFIC
Manifest trains MASBN and MBNAS ("M" for Manifest, "AS" for Alton & Southern and "BN" for Bloomington-Normal) are supposed to run on an alternate-day schedule with the former operating Mo-We-Fr and the latter operating Tu-Th-Sa. It's been a few years but I've seen MASBN arriving in the afternoon and MBNAS is supposed to leave around midday after the passage of a a northbound Amtrak train. Unfortunately, due to light traffic, these trains can be held for lack of traffic, running every 2-3 days.

Since traffic handled by MASBN and MBNAS is distributed by the locals, there is a lot of duplicate mileage. MASBN handles carloads of steel coils, pulpboard, chemicals, potash and lots of empties while MBNAS handles carloads of soy meal, soy oil and empties.

A local yard engine works north five days a week as far as Joliet. I believe this is during the nighttime hours. There are several grain elevators or fertilizer dealers at places such as Towanda, Lexington, Ocoya, Cayuga (Pontiac) and Dwight.

An alternate-day mainline local works south as well. This train is called about 6:30am Su-Tu-Th to run south to Springfield, working customers enroute at McLean, Atlanta and Lincoln. the following day, the train may run further south to switch Central Illinois Steel at Carlinville then return north to Bloomington, probably by mid-afternoon.

I'm thinking that there is some kind of day switcher at Bloomington, because in mid-afternoon I've seen them switch the Cargill soybean processing plant on a stub of the old GM&O Jack Line.

UP serves several grain elevators capable of handling unit grain trains - Cayuga (Pontiac), Bloomington, McLean and Elkhart - so unit grain trains may appear some days.

Hope this helps.