South Pekin, IL: UP/C&NW Yard and Boxcar Homes

(Satellite)

Satellite

A treeline shows where the connection to the CN/IC used to be. And we can see that the turntable pit has filled in with a round blob of trees. See below for 1939 aerial photo.

Gary Talsky posted
After 12 years here I finally made it to the UP South Pekin Yard, not realizing it's so close to Powerton. Big disappointment however as the place looked practically deserted on 02/25/2018 around 13:42. I stood in the same spot but pushed in the zoom for the details. Nor was there anything on the old IC now CN line a stone's throw east of here.
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. Chicago & North Western ceased classification at South Pekin in September 1982. Most tracks were removed a few years later, but what remained served the railroad well until shortly after the Union Pacific merger in 1995. Manifest trains were combined (southbound) and split (northbound) and the interchange with Illinois Central was active until then.
Paul Tincher As a young student trainman, I delivered a train to the IC. Shortly after, they took the connection out of service!

That place was crazy busy back in the day. Amazing to see what’s left of it...nothing!
David Daruszka If I remember correctly from my C&NW days there were some labor issues at South Pekin and damage was done by employees. The C&NW had a snit and closed the place down.
David Plotts Results of the UP takeover
Paul Tincher Nope. South Pekin died way before that. One of the former SP yardmaster’s told me the N&W-SOU merger killed a lot of traffic that used to go through SP for interchange in STL.
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. David Plotts Paul Tincher Both of you are correct. When N&W and SOU created NS Corp. in 1982, it created a new route for Iowa grain bound for southeast poultry processors...C&NW to Chicago, then N&W to the SOU at Cincinnati. That reduced traffic on what had been two pair of daily Iowa - St. Louis manifests.

The N&W-SOU merger as well as the earlier BN-Frisco merger (December 1980) is said to have reduced traffic on the two pair of daily Proviso - St. Louis manifests. C&NW apparently acted as a bridge line between St. Louis connections and Chicago connections. When carriers such as the Frisco and Southern found merger partners with access to Chicago, C&NW SI Line business fell like a boulder in water. The economic recessions of 1980 and 1981-1982 hurt as well, though the addition of Rock Island trackage probably softened the effects of the former.

Although South Pekin Yard ceased being a classification yard on September 25, 1982, the C&NW continued to use some of the tracks not only as a crew-change point but also a facility to combine Iowa and Proviso trains southbound and split them northbound (this practice ended in 1994 but probably resumed by UP in late 1995).

The IC/G interchange was active, especially in 1988 when severe drought conditions closed the Mississippi River to commercial navigation for weeks and forced export grain shipments to move to New Orleans via an all-rail routing. The C&NW handed off many unit grain trains to IC at South Pekin in those days.

Believe it or not phosphate fertilizer received via barge at CF Industries in Mapleton was routed ATSF/TPW-Sommer-CNW-S. Pekin-IC/G to a number of Growmark FS fertilizer warehouses in Central Illinois. When I worked for Pioneer Railcorp, I recall a Repetitive Waybill Code (RWC) for such a routing to the Decatur Junction Railway (Macon, Illinois I think). UP, not C&NW, was in the routing, so this movement must have continued for a time post-merger.

That merger occurred in 1995. I may have seen the last car to be routed via the IC interchange track at South Pekin. In October 1996, the cupola caboose now parked outside Pioneer Railcorp's present Peoria HQ was parked on the IC siding just south of Main Street. It was sent via UP to Adams Street Yard and then trucked to its present location.

UP shifted IC interchange to P&PU, but there wasn't much. In 2002, the connection was removed. Although South Pekin Siding was rehabilitated with ribbon rail at the same time, one yard track was stubbed. Subsequently, tracks into the engine facility (used by the UP a few years to park locomotives) and car repair facility were removed. UP shifted the pair of Proviso-St. Louis manifests to the Villa Grove and Pana Subs in fall 1996 (though it shifted them back to the C&NW in 2000-2007) and ended through manifest service south of Peoria in 1997. Barr-Girard and DeCamp-Edwardsville segments were abandoned in late 1998. If Taloma Farmers Grain Co hadn't built its unit train-capable facility at Allen Station in 1997-1998, the Crescent-Barr segment might have been abandoned as well.

Fortunately, the Peoria Sub provides UP with a good detour route and a congestion-free route for work trains and Sterling grain trains. PTC has been installed, so the line will likely be retained for the forseeable future.

Below is the PJStar article dated September 26, 1982 on the South Pekin Yard's closure.Manage


Paul Tincher I can’t remember when i helped deliver that train to the IC, but I hired out in Jan. ‘96 and worked as a trainee out of SP until April or May of that year when I had to go to Proviso.

I DO know I was on the last crew to use the turntable at South Pekin. We spun a unit in the middle of the night, took our train to Clinton, woke up the next day and there was a bulletin that it was OOS, never to be used again!
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. Paul Tincher What kind of train was it?
Paul Tincher Manifest. Mixed freight.
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. A whole train or just a cut of cars? I remember covered hoppers on the interchange track about December 1995.
Paul Tincher It was the whole train. And we also tied on to 10-15 cars that were already sitting in the connection.
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. Paul Tincher Some kind of detour?
Paul Tincher I believe it was.
David JordanDavid is an administrator in this group. Obviously, the article leaves a lot to be desired. Example...

"The stop before Pekin on the line originating in KANSAS CITY is within 100 miles..."
Paul Tincher When my uncle worked there he took me down one night and got me a cab ride with one of the engineers he knew. That place was busy as hell! Then before we left a northbound freight did a “rolling” crew change at the yard office...the head end crew stepped off and I started yelling “THERES NOBODY ON THE TRAIN!” and my uncle said “Wait for it...” and here came the new crew out of the office, jumped on and away they went!

1939 Aerial Photo from IHLAP

Evan Johnson posted
1984

 

Andy Zukowski posted
Chicago and North Western engine facility scene at South Pekin, Illinois. 1980
John Windish: Steam locomotive equipment rotting away. [Nope, see below.]

 

Andy Zukowski commented on this post
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad SD40-2 #6836 at South Pekin, Illinois on November 10 , 1980.
Dave Crociani: Andy Zukowski Great photo. That was 3 years before the yard closed and all 3 towers were still there. They were used for fuel oil for some years. They're all gone now.

Tim Howard commented on Andy's post
Railway Age Gazette Vol 56 1914 - CNW Extension in Illinois - S Pekin IL
Dave Crociani: The Illinois River Bridge was built in 1913, so this was the first full year of operation for South Pekin. There would later be 3 more of those water towers erected. I remember that roundhouse and as a kid would go over there with my friends and explore. There was a tunnel system underground to dump water and ash into the 'sink hole' which was about 100 yards beyond that stack.

Dave Crociani provided the following four diagrams on Andy's post with the comment: "That became a very active and productive facility. I have blueprints of the yard as of 1939."

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Dave Crociani posted
C&NW South Pekin. Box Car homes for many transfer families. Around 1913 or a little later. Many of those boxcar homes are still there.
[I could not find any boxcar homes still existing.]
Dave Crociani: In South Pekin most of the East side were boxcar homes. There were some conventional homes built there too. But many, many boxcars. It was a mass immigration or the Railroad for people to move there and there not being lodging facilities. The RR had just expanded the line from Nelson, IL to Benld, IL hooking up with the L&M that they would eventually buy. They needed a lot of workers to pull that off. The blueprint I have of that yard shows and very large and active rail facility.
Dave Crociani posted
C&NW Yard at South Pekin, IL. Somewhere around 1913.

Comments on Dave's second post
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