Powerton, IL: Lost/C&IM Depot and NRG Powerton Power Plant

Depot: (Satellite)

Power Plant: (Satellite)

C&IM = Chicago & Illinois Midland

This is one of those depots in Illinois where a town did not develop around the depot. It wasn't much more than a legal entity.

Dave Durham posted
Ryan Crawford: I think this flag stop shed was basically where Manito Rd goes over the tracks at Powerton.
Richard Fiedler shared
Phil Shadid: Where was Powerton on the C & I M? Near Petersburg or Havana?
Richard Fiedler: Phil Shadid just south of Pekin.

Dennis DeBruler answered Phil's question
I think the depot was north of Powerton Road between the spur and the mainline, https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5379563,-89.6791092,437m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu.
1927 Peoria Quadrangle @ 1:62,500

Jan May Smith posted four photos with the comment: "UP at and in the Powerton Power Plant and it's yard near Pekin, Illinois. 01-06-2019"
Dennis DeBruler I'm glad to see that NRG has not yet shut down all of its coal plants in Illinois.This 1536 MW plant is the largest one in Illinois. [http://www.mcindustrial.com/.../mc-industrial-nrg...]

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UP's C&NW tracks come within a few hundred feet of the plant, but it appears it uses IMRR tracks to access the plant.

John Stell posted
C&IM 61 & 50 at Powerton on 9/10/94. Don Faris slide John Stell collection.

Lance Wales posted
Although this scene from April of 1996 is the I&M technically, the sight of the 84, 83 and 80 bringing a coal load down to the power plant at Powerton was a great way to enjoy final chapter of the C&IM.
Kathy Guy This picture is at the South end of the A yard at Powerton. The C&IM did not go to South Pekin..🚂 The railroad at South Pekin was the Chicago Northwestern.
Kathy Guy Lance Wales I worked for the C&IM and Illinois Midland for nearly 34 years. Was 3rd Generation locomotive Engineer there.🚂 My Grandfather, My Father and youngest brother all were engineers there also.
Roger Kujawa Kathy Guy I worked Pekin Tower on and off on the extra board and saw you and your crew go by a few times.
Kathy Guy Roger Kujawa Think that all the other RR employees knew who I was as the only female for many years in that job. After some time, there were other Railroads that also hired women for the Engineer position.

Paul Brewer That looks like southbound loads, possibly headed for the power station at Kincaid (Ellis) or headed to Havana.

Lance Wales Paul Brewer these loads stayed here. Got some other photos this day of them being shoved up into Powerton.
Kathy Guy These loads were for the Powerton plant - they are in the A yard. If they were headed for another facility South of Pekin, they would have been pulled down the main line.

Ryan Crawford posted
On July 17, 1987, photographer Tom Baldner was very fortunate to bag two C&IM trains at Powerton yard. The Chain Gang crew from Springfield, with SD38-2s 72-71, is in the process of putting their southbound train together on the main as the Powerton Job with SD38-2s 73-74 and SD18 61 sneak by on track B-1 with a loaded BN coal train for the Powerton plant. It was around this time that a major Army Corp of engineer project was commencing at some upriver lock and damn locations which drastically reduced C&IM’s coal tonnage to Havana. Coal traffic did resume by early October as the lock and damn projects were completed. It was very lucky to catch two trains at Powerton on this day because the Extra North from shops only ran about twice per week, if that. Tom Baldner photo, Ryan Crawford collection
Harold J. Krewer: In 1987 not only were the locks at Brandon Road (Joliet) being rehabbed, the lower lock gates at Starved Rock Lock & Dam had been hit by a rogue barge and torn off their hinges, it took several weeks to repair them.
I covered the repair effort for the newspaper in Ottawa, which ran under the headline: "New Bolts Key to Lock Problem."

NRG is the current owner of the coal-fired generating plants that ComEd used to own. NRG bought the plants from Midwest Generation after they went bankrupt after both of their plants in Chicago (Fisk and Crawford) were closed.

MCindustrial (Oct 2015)
[I see I'm not the only photographer that sometimes includes too much dirt in the foreground because the primary subject is in the center. I would rather see more booms and less dirt.]

May 2020 Update: I wasn't able to find the above photo, but I did find these three photos on the MCindustrial page. The article indicates the blue Lampson Transi-lift crane can handle a 2,500 ton load.

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Dennis DeBruler commented on a post
I'm glad to see the pollution control upgrades they did in 2015 were not in vain. That is, the plant is still running. I've seen some plants closed remarkably soon after money was spent to upgrade them.
https://www.mccarthy.com/projects/nrg-energy-powerton-units
To put the 1,536-megawatt capacity into perspective, I've noticed that most new hydroelectric plants can do just double digits of megawatts. And even big wind turbine farms are a long way from a gigawatt of power, even on a windy day.
Those upgrades had to be expensive because just assembling and disassembling this crane would cost a pretty penny.

 

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The MCindustrial page says the 2015 environmental upgrades will "assure compliance with the Combined Pollutant Standard (CPS) rules developed by the IL EPA and approved by the Illinois Pollution Control Board." So what were those standards in 2015? The CPS seems to regulate NOx and SO2 emmisions. I see nothing about Mercury. [ilga] Are they adding a sulfur scrubber to the plant so that they can again burn local Illinois Basin coal rather than Wyoming Powder Basin coal?

In 2017 the standards reduced SO2 by another 20%. [BusinessWire] According to the Executive Summary, the Illinois plants have reduced "particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5)" since 2005. But we are learning that there are sources of health hazards other than power plants. Petcoke storage piles along the Calumet River were generating "clouds" of particulate matter pollution in residential areas. Does the "volatile organic compounds and toxic compounds" in the 2016 Air Quality Report include the chemical that was causing cancer in Willow Springs? And air quality is not the only issue with power plants. Mercury and other heavy metals getting into the rivers is another issue.

Will the "Ash Handling and Precipitator Installation project" done in 2015 allow them to sell the fly ash as a cement replacement?

I posted the comment concerning the MCindustrial photo above:

Does the fixed gantry mean this is a 2250? http://www.mcindustrial.com/…/mc-industrial-nrg-powerton-ge… Are they doing assembly? Specifically, is a partial counterweight stack good enough to raise the boom into a jackknive position, but you need a full stack to lift loads?

Brandon Storie Yes. Counterweight lifting cylinders cant lift up series 2-3 configuration of weights. So the the 4th and 5th stack have to be added after the tray is attached to the crane.
Andrew Erickson That must’ve been before Lampson showed up. Because the 2250 with a Luffer had techni colored boom in it when I was there. They also had a 999 and 14000 there for Manitowocs.

Gary Talsky posted six photos with the comment: "Powerton Shots from 05/03/2020."