G&W TPW / ex-ATSF / ex-TPW Watseka traffic?

[ns145]

Convicted One

Probably one of the more remarkable things about the TPW track, is that it never got pulled up and survives to this day? Lots of other lines of similar heritage are gone. I guess we can thank Santa Fe for it's survival giving it purpose during the "bloodbath" era?

One of the primary reasons the TP&W kept going in the late 80's and early 90's was the coal traffic to the Edwards power plant in the Peoria area.  These coal trains were received from CSX via the connection to the UP/CSX joint line at Watseka.  Ironically, the actual interchange occurred a few miles south of Watseka at Coaler (used to be a coal dock located here back in the C&EI days).  There were long storage tracks on both sides of the double track mainline that could be used to stash the loads and empties away on if CSX and the TP&W couldn't arrange a rendezvous. My memory is fading on this, but I think it amounted to at least 2-3 coal trains per week.

I don't remember when the TP&W lost this traffic, but it did help keep the line in business after it was sold off by the Santa Fe.  I lived 20 miles south of Watseka at the time and it was hard to find any TP&W trains moving during daylight hours.  Most trains on the east end back then seemed to only run at night/early morning.

 

Here are a few photo links from that era:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/32522264656

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wales23/32410270642

 

[Dr Leonard]

Working only from memory (from David Jordan's videos of rail traffic in the Peoria area, posted on the "Peoria Rails" group), there is occasionally TP&W traffic east of Peoria, including some interchanged from CSX in Indiana. As to "bridge route" activity, Conrail canceled TP&W's eastern connection routing; and when a barge destroyed the TP&W's bridge over the Illinois River at Peoria the TP&W was severed and had to use the former P&PU to connect its two sections. With the abandonment of the M&StL ("The Peoria Gateway") and later the sale of the "west end" to (eventually) the Keokuk Junction, the TP&W lost any western through route connections except BNSF's Peoria branch from Galesburg, and BNSF isn't interestedin shorting itself from its Chicago connections. As to any routing to BNSF's former ATSF "Transcon" through the Keokuk Junction's connection at Lomax, the KJ is a slow line (maybe 15-20 mph at most?) with light rail, and the connection from La Harpe to Lomax is currently used for car storage. These factors inhibit any resumption of Peoria as a gateway bypassing Chicago, leaving TP&W limited to industrial traffic in the Peoria area plus whatever it can get from its eastern CSX connection and various elevators, etc. along the way. In my opinion, this is a serious missed opportunity to mitigate the Chicago congestion that CREATE is trying to fix.

[Convicted One]

Dr Leonard

In my opinion, this is a serious missed opportunity to mitigate the Chicago congestion that CREATE is trying to fix.

I can see how the prospect of "handing-off" to Norfolk Southern at Kansas City, or WB junction, or even St Louis might give the western roads legitimate concern over short hauling itself.

But, BNSF handing-off to Norfolk Southern at Logansport, as opposed to Chicago, shouldn't be that big of a concession IF mitigating Chicago congestion is a worthwhile objective to the railroad.

So, you get back to the consideration of just how big a problem is Chicago, from the railroad's perspective. Is it something that they would materially like to do something about? Or is it simply a convenient grievance to loosen up funds for CREATE type projects?

I realize that relies upon a certain amount of backward looking re-evaluation of decisions that were made long ago. Monday morning quarterbacking is nothing if it is not a platform for finger pointing. But still, there are, and always have been alternatives to simply piling everything up on Chicago, and then complaining about the result. 

 

[LCHI107]

Chuck Finley

I recently spent a day in Watseka for work and saw a couple TPW trains run through town, mainly covered hoppers.  It looked like they were moving at 10-15mph maybe. Is there much traffic on that line anymore?  And, aside from grain elevators, who are the customers?  IIRC, it was once considered as a possible bridge line for ATSF-Indiana traffic. A bit nostalgic - my oldest son and I took a caboose ride on that line farther west when it was the TPW (again) a couple of decades ago. TFAI!

 

TP&W serves a number of elevators on its East End (East Peoria to Logansport). Those at Cruger, Gridley (2), Meadows, Greenfield (new rail loop), Weston, Fairbury, Piper City, LaHogue, Crescent City and Sheldon (on KB&S line), Illinois and at Goodland, Indiana are served at present. The elevator at Remington, Indiana closed a couple of years ago. Several others have had their sidings and/or switches removed in the past decade or so. 

TP&W also serves Incobrasa Industries' soybean processing plant at Gilman (also served by CN). Fertilizer facilities at Crescent City, Illinois and Kentland, Goodland, Burnettsville and Idaville, Indiana still get service. Several have had switches removed in the past decade or so, or have relocated to new facilities which do not (yet?) have rail access, such as at Fairbury and Webster.

TP&W serves a Plastic Express plastic pellet transload at the Hoosierlift. There also seems to be an occasional lumber load transloaded here as well. 

The TP&W is operator and lessee or the Winamac Southern Railway's Logansport-Bringhurst/Kokomo lines, which generates a lot of traffic now. Fertilizer/ag chemicals go to The Andersons at Logansport and Walton. Lehigh Hanson Cement at Clymers gets waste in COFC containers, used fuel oil, gypsum and maybe clay by rail, and ships bulk cement. Kokomo Grain Co. and OmniSource at Kokomo are also online.

Online industrial development has taken off recently. The new Prairie Central Coop rail loop between Chenoa and Meadows (called "Greenfield") loads CSX-bound grain trains and receives wind turbine components. The Grainland Coop elevator at Cruger (just west of Eureka) expanded its track capacity to enable unit train loading, with a lot of CSX-bound trains sent east in recent months. The old Smith Logistics Co. building just east of I-65 (between Remington and the Hoosierlift) has been purchased by IntePlast, which will likely receive plastic pellets by rail. Sweetener Supply Corp. is planning to build a plant near the Hoosierlift as well, with inbound corn syrup, sugar, molasses and woodpulp arriving by rail. Waelz Sustainable Products is building a zinc recycling facility at Clymers, on the WSRY trackage. Inbound bag dust seems likely to arrive by rail. 

At Mapleton, TP&W has access to Caterpillar's Mapleton foundry, though there have been no rail shipments in several years (suppliers are local, finished products go by truck), but serves Growmark, Ingredion, Lonza, Evonik and Lanxess facilities. It delivers unit coal trains to Vistra Energy's E. D. Edwards Power Station at Sommer, Illinois (although this plant is slated to close in late 2022) and grain to ADM in Peoria. Morton Buildings transloads lumber at the East Peoria Yard, East Peoria Materials transloaded aggregate and salt, and Fort Transfer Company receives liquid herbicide at Morton on a remnant of Santa Fe's Pekin District. 

David P. Jordan
Morton, Illinois
(formerly bn13814)

[Convicted One]

LCHI107

TP&W serves a number of elevators on its East End (East Peoria to Logansport). Those at Cruger, Gridley (2), Meadows, Greenfield (new rail loop), Weston, Fairbury, Piper City, LaHogue, Crescent City and Sheldon (on KB&S line), Illinois and at Goodland, Indiana are served at present. The elevator at Remington, Indiana closed a couple of years ago. Several others have had their sidings and/or switches removed in the past decade or so.  TP&W also serves Incobrasa Industries' soybean processing plant at Gilman (also served by CN). Fertilizer facilities at Crescent City, Illinois and Kentland, Goodland, Burnettsville and Idaville, Indiana still get service. Several have had switches removed in the past decade or so, or have relocated to new facilities which do not (yet?) have rail access, such as at Fairbury and Webster. TP&W serves a Plastic Express plastic pellet transload at the Hoosierlift. There also seems to be an occasional lumber load transloaded here as well.  The TP&W is operator and lessee or the Winamac Southern Railway's Logansport-Bringhurst/Kokomo lines, which generates a lot of traffic now. Fertilizer/ag chemicals go to The Andersons at Logansport and Walton. Lehigh Hanson Cement at Clymers gets waste in COFC containers, used fuel oil, gypsum and maybe clay by rail, and ships bulk cement. Kokomo Grain Co. and OmniSource at Kokomo are also online. Online industrial development has taken off recently. The new Prairie Central Coop rail loop between Chenoa and Meadows (called "Greenfield") loads CSX-bound grain trains and receives wind turbine components. The Grainland Coop elevator at Cruger (just west of Eureka) expanded its track capacity to enable unit train loading, with a lot of CSX-bound trains sent east in recent months. The old Smith Logistics Co. building just east of I-65 (between Remington and the Hoosierlift) has been purchased by IntePlast, which will likely receive plastic pellets by rail. Sweetener Supply Corp. is planning to build a plant near the Hoosierlift as well, with inbound corn syrup, sugar, molasses and woodpulp arriving by rail. Waelz Sustainable Products is building a zinc recycling facility at Clymers, on the WSRY trackage. Inbound bag dust seems likely to arrive by rail.  At Mapleton, TP&W has access to Caterpillar's Mapleton foundry, though there have been no rail shipments in several years (suppliers are local, finished products go by truck), but serves Growmark, Ingredion, Lonza, Evonik and Lanxess facilities. It delivers unit coal trains to Vistra Energy's E. D. Edwards Power Station at Sommer, Illinois (although this plant is slated to close in late 2022) and grain to ADM in Peoria. Morton Buildings transloads lumber at the East Peoria Yard, East Peoria Materials transloaded aggregate and salt, and Fort Transfer Company receives liquid herbicide at Morton on a remnant of Santa Fe's Pekin District.  David P. Jordan Morton, Illinois (formerly bn13814)

 

Welcome to the forums Mr Jordan. Your first post was a duesy!!  Very informative

[LCHI107]

Convicted One

Welcome to the forums Mr Jordan. Your first post was a duesy!!  Very informative

 

 

I've been a member of this forum for a long time, but somehow my old username, bn13814, got separated from my login/password. I've decided to use a subsequent BNSF Peoria Local symbol, LCH107, used from 2011 to 2015. I saw this topic a few weeks back but couldn't reply. Eventually, I created a new username, and was able to reply. 

[Convicted One]

Well, it (your post) was very informative.   When I look at a railroad, I usually try to "see it" in the context or what work it is doing.   And just based upon the dearth of sightings I've made when near that line, it's current purpose was always somewhat of a head scratcher.

With the info you provided, things make more sense.

Be careful  with that "multi-user name" stuff though. The tin foil hat guys here will have you on 'the grassy knoll' in no time if you give them half a chance.