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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

 #368392  by dhaugh
 
What can you tell me about the train volume in Decatur? I know NS has a busy line through town, and I know ADM and Staley both have big complexes there, but what about the other tracks into and through town?

 #369659  by bn13814
 
Most train movements in Decatur are on the NS. About 30-40 a day east of town and about 10-12 on the Kansas City line and a few more on the St. Louis line. Most freights are heavy with autoracks and auto parts hi-cubes. Decatur generates some decent local business - mostly grain and grain products.

NS serves ADM's East Plant complex which turns soybeans into soy meal and oil, and corn into ethanol, corn syrup, sorbitol, steepwater, gluten feed pellets, corn starch and gluten corn meal. NS exclusively serves ADM's West Plant, which is an oil refinery, receiving corn germ for conversion to corn oil and crude corn and soy oils for refining. ADM's Railcar repair facility is served by CN and NS. Also served is the massive Tate & Lyle (former A. E. Staley) wet corn mill on the south side of the NS yard and also the massive adjacent grain terminal. Tate & Lyle turns corn into corn syrup, meal, starch, sorbitol, steepwater and feed pellets. Both ADM and Tate & Lyle plants receive carbon mix, hydrochloric acid (and probably some other haz-mat), diatomaceous earth and sulfur for use in their plants.

In addition to the grain processors, NS served the Intermet Decatur Foundry, delivering scrap metal and also serves Sol Tick & Co., both of which are adjacent to their classification yard. Adjacent the scrap yard is Pacific Rail Services' container terminal. A Bulk-Matic transport rail-to-truck facility is located on the NS somewhere in Decatur. The remaining few miles of the Illinois Terminal's Belt Line is used to serve ADM's West Plant and the ADM railcar repair shop, which is near the former ITC Storeroom Yards, and near the closed North Plant. Also near this yard is Parke Warehouse, which uses former ITC shop buildings to store and ship bagged corn syrup solids in boxcars.

Canadian National has considerably less train traffic but quite a bit of locally generated business, switching several hundred cars per day. They also serve more customers than NS. Most of these are concentrated on the NE quadrant of the city in the vicinity of CN's "Runaround Yard" - Caterpillar (inbound scraper bowls/outbound scrap metal), Keen Transport (ships Caterpillar machinery), ADM's East Plant, grain elevator and co-generation plant complex (to which CN delivers both Illinois and western coal). A spur that allows access to Tate & Lyle diverges from the yard, crossed the NS Belt Line then ducks under the east end of the NS yard. The branchline up to Cisco is owned by CN as far as Green's Switch and access an industrial park called "Park 101." Here, Morgan Distributing (inbound oil products), Ring Can Corp (inbound plastics) and Parke Warehouse No. 9 (inbound sugar, starch and flour for packaging) are served. CN serves a small soy lecithin manufacturer on Garfield St. (overpass over Grand Avenue Yard) owned by Cargill Texturizing. South of the NS crossing, the Decatur Herald & Review gets boxcars of newsprint, Christy-Foltz gets rock and at Elwin (furthest point south of CN ownership on the mostly grain co-op-owned Assumption Branch) rock is delivered to Illinois Valley Paving/UCM. On the Peoria Sub southeast of town is the large PPG Industries flat glass plant (inbound silica sand, soda ash and limestone). CN also has access to ADM's railcar repair facility.

CN and NS seem to interchange in the NE quadrant of their crossing.

CSXT maintains a small yard by the SE quadrant of the CN-NS crossing and has access to the Tate & Lyle facility. Interchange is made with both CN and NS in the SE quadrant of the CN-NS crossing.

Decatur Junction Railway has the contract to operate Topflight Grain's Green's Switch - Cisco line and the Elwin - Assumption line owned by Moweaqua and Assumption grain co-ops. The railroad has trackage rights on the CN through town and interchanges with them at both the Grand Avenue and Runaround Yards. DT can interchange with NS at the former ITC Storeroom Yards.

Though CN serves more customers, they act as switching carrier for others. DT delivers some 2,500+ carloads of corn to them each year; most Caterpillar traffic goes to NS at Decatur or BNSF at Peoria. They also switch Decatur traffic for CSXT. The scraper bowls coming to Caterpillar are probably still coming out of Granite City (Bulk Services?) to Decatur on the NS. CN does handle ADM's export soy meal and gluten feed pellet business to Cairo/Mound City, the main reason for the existence of manifests M303 and M304.

 #376820  by dhaugh
 
That's more of an answer than I would've dreamed of getting. Thanks a lot. Now, a related question. Assuming I have limited time in this part of Illinois - I am looking at spending some time in a few of these towns -
Decatur, which I now know a lot about
Effingham
Springfield
Peoria

What in anyone's recommendation would you do, say you had time to hit two of the above four. Keep in mind I like a nice cross between seeing frequent manifests, but I also am into seeing big industry (Caterpillar, ADM, tractor plants if any... etc...
 #376918  by caboose9
 
Hi,

There are 10 off-line cabooses reported in Decatur, IL, and I have questions about 2 of them:

1. There is a wood, cupola, truckless, possibly CB&Q caboose in poor condition at 2541 Baltimore Ave. Is this a CB&Q waycar? How about a number?

2. The wood, cupola, N&W Class CF caboose, built 6/24, on display at the Macon County Historical Museum has been reported as #518361 & #518364. Which is the correct number?

I assume the Decatur Junction Railway doesn't own a caboose.

Thanks, Roger

 #377105  by bn13814
 
dhaugh wrote:That's more of an answer than I would've dreamed of getting. Thanks a lot. Now, a related question. Assuming I have limited time in this part of Illinois - I am looking at spending some time in a few of these towns -
Decatur, which I now know a lot about
Effingham
Springfield
Peoria

What in anyone's recommendation would you do, say you had time to hit two of the above four. Keep in mind I like a nice cross between seeing frequent manifests, but I also am into seeing big industry (Caterpillar, ADM, tractor plants if any... etc...
Well, Effingham is a hotspot where major CN and CSXT lines cross. A shortline, Effingham Railroad (EFRR - http://www.efrr.com/), serves an industrial park there and interchanges with both Class 1's. If you want heavy mainline action, this is the place to go among the other three.

I live in Peoria and we are blessed with ten common carrier railroads, mostly shortlines with a variety of motive power, traffic and industry.


BNSF's Chillicothe Subdivision passes through the northern extremes of Peoria County and goes through Chillicothe, Edelstein, Princeville and Monica. This double track CTC line sees 50 to 70 trains per day depending on the time of year.

BNSF's Peoria Subdivision (from Galesburg) sees unit coal and grain (almost all CN haulage trains) trains, with occasional feed and potash trains showing up some days. TP&W operates BNSF's manifest trains Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays under a haulage agreement. There is little online traffic as almost everything is interchanged to and from Peoria connections. TP&W switches Caterpillar's southside rubber components plant and occasionally delivers a flat car load of machinery to the demonstration grounds at Edwards.

CN's Peoria Subdivision (from Mattoon through Decatur) sees much heavier traffic on its north end than in IC days. A daily local makes a turn out of Decatur to East Peoria with the hope of completing the run within the crew's 12 hours of service, but doesn't always. Grain trains coming out of Iowa are handled by BNSF under a haulage agreement between East Dubuque and Peoria, and a coal trains comes from BNSF every week and foreign power runs through to Decatur. A coal train is also run each week to interchange with the Iowa Interstate at Peoria. CN serves Amerhart and Hanna Steel in Pekin and Taloma Farmers Grain in Delavan.

Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) operates a small portion of the city-owned Peoria, Peoria Heights & Western to serve O'Brien Steel. They use a trackmobile to do this. Service is as needed.

Illinois & Midland (IMRR) operates mainly coal trains received from BNSF and Union Pacific at Powerton (just SW of Pekin). Locomotives from these RR's are used to switch the train at Midwest Generation LLC's massive Powerton Generating Station and to run coal trains to Havana and Kincaid (SE of Springfield). Powerton Switchers are on duty twice per day, seven days a week. One may catch one of them making a transfer turn to sister road Tazewell & Peoria's East Peoria Yard. A local operates the length of the system to handle non-coal traffic as needed. The world's only EMD RS-1325's - #'s 30 and 31 - are still operated by this railroad. At least one is based at Powerton. IMRR serves Aventine Renewable Energy's wet corn mill, Agridyne LLC, American Milling, a railroad-owned rail-to-barge facility, Midwest Generation LLC and Reed Minerals.

KJRY operates TP&W's former West End between Lomax/Keokuk and Hollis with trackage rights on BNSF to reach Fort Madison and Union Pacific and Tazewell & Peoria to reach East Peoria. Coal trains are received from Union Pacific about 2 or 3 times per week (suspended until April due to boiler modernization at AmerenCILCO's Duck Creek Station near Canton) and local trains based at Canton Monday, Wednesday and Friday (these "turn" to Good Hope and East Peoria). A new siding at Kolbe (near Mapleton off Rt. 24 and Wheeler Road) is the location of a pair of newly-painted ex-Algoma Central FP-9's lettered "Peoria & Western," the name KJRY will assume at some point in the near future. Also, an EMD-reengined RS-3 (#102) is usually parked there for use by the car repair shop crew. GP20's may be sitting there was well awaiting their next assignment.

Norfolk Southern's operations to Peoria are usually nocturnal with roadswitcher D49D going on duty at Good Yard in Normal at 2000 hrs each weekday. A turn is made to East Peoria each night. The 0800 roadswitcher, D47D, may relieve the train if the crew can't complete its run within their 12 hours of service. NS serves no customers west of the Bloomington-Normal area.

Tazewell & Peoria RR (TZPR) is the area's terminal and switching carrier, centering all operations out of its large East Peoria Yard. The TZPR has about six or seven jobs going each day switching industries and making transfer runs. Most area carload interchange involves the TZPR and the interchange of unit trains takes place on TZPR's Wesley Jct. - Pekin double track CTC line and/or they are handled by TZPR crews. Customers served are: Komatsu America International, PMP Fermentation, ADM Growmark, Archer Daniels Midland (grain delivery, outbound grain products), Archer Daniels Midland (alcohol loadout), American Allied Freight Car, R. A. Cullinan & Son, Peoria Barge Terminal, Peoria River Terminal, LS Lumber, Allied Iron & Steel and Behr Peoria in Peoria; Alter Recycling LLC and Keystone Steel & Wire's steelworks and rod mill complex, the Mid Mill and Wire Mill in Bartonville; Mosaic's fertilizer warehouse and barge dock are served across the river from Pekin via a spur which diverges from the Union Pacific mainline at Sommer; McFarland Cascade's pole yard and Caterpillar's Building's LL (tractor frame fabrication) and SS (track-type tractor assembly) are served in East Peoria; in Creve Coeur, Carver Lumber and Peoria Brick & Tile lease space in the freight house, Keen Transport stores Caterpillar machinery and consolidates shipments and misc. freight is handled such as liquid plastic and roofing shingles. A short distance down the Pekin mainline along the southern end of Wesley Road, an ADM Growmark grain elevator and barge dock are served as are Terra Nitrogen, ConAgra Fertilizer and Koch Industries. In Pekin, Aventine Renewable Energy's wet corn mill and newly-opened dry corn mill are served while BOC Gases, MGP Ingredients, Praxair and Tomen Grain are served as well.

Toledo, Peoria & Western operates its East End between East Peoria and Logansport, dispatching an alternate-day "through" freight to and from Remington, Indiana to handle merchandise, some local traffic, CSXT traffic and CN intermodal. AM and PM switchers handle local customers, interchanges and transfer runs daily. The Kolbe Local works the Mapleton Industrial Spur (trackage rights on TZPR, UP and KJRY required to reach it). TP&W serves numerous grain elevators and fertilizer dealers on its East End but closer to the Peoria area, Grainland Co-op at Cruger (which has a UP switcher still in armour yellow); Fort Transfer and Morton Buildings, Nestle USA/Libby's (last served in 2005) at Morton; the East Peoria Materials and Rail Yard (inbound aggregates and road salt) and intermodal terminal at East Peoria; ADM Growmark, Caterpillar (rubber products), Peoria Barge Terminal and Peoria River Terminal at Peoria; and Chemtura, Degussa-Goldschmidt, Corn Products, Lonza, Caterpillar foundry and CF Industries are served at Mapleton.

Union Pacific's Peoria Subdivision sees mainly unit coal trains (2-4 loaded per day, plus corresponding empties) but also sees alternate-day Clinton, Iowa - Peoria manifests, daily manifests MPRPB and MASPR, plus extras; unit urea trains in winter, seasonal grain and potash trains and an occasional northbound coal train. Coal trains for the KJRY came from th Monterey Mine near Carlinville, though when the boiler modernization is complete, western coal may come instead. Sunday through Thursday, the Peoria Wayfreight goes on duty at 1700 hrs at Adams Street Yard on Peoria's far south side. UP serves Akron Services at Akron (just south of the BNSF overpass west of Edelstein), ADM Growmark, Peoria Barge Terminal and Peoria River Terminal in Peoria and AmerenCILCO's E. D. Edwards Station at Sommer. Traffic on this line norht of Edelstein will increase considerably during the next several years as the connection to the BNSF is completed, new passing sidings and eventual double track and CTC is installed, enabling the line to host multiple intermodal and motor vehicle trains.


SPRINGFIELD has little industry but action on Norfolk Southern's Decatur - Kansas City line is moderate and if lacking much in the way of freight operations, Union Pacific's East St. Louis - Joliet line sees ten daily Amtrak trains. Alternate-day MASBN and MBNAS ply the line between East St. Louis and Bloomington and a local works out of Bloomington on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday AM, returning north the next day. IMRR bases a switcher here to interchange with other railroads and to perform local work. The shortline uses UP power for its Kincaid coal trains that run through the city. CN has a daily job out of Clinton to handle local traffic, interchanges and the coal mine at Farmersville. KCS has a tri-weekly local comin gout of Roodhouse, though I believe it's nocturnal.