I really want to catch TP&W more...
One of the railroads I really want to see more of and get more familiar with is the TP&W Railroad which is a shortline that runs from Peoria east to Indiana. I've only filmed them a few times and photographed them a hand full of times. My problem is never being over there the sametime they are in the Peoria area and as far as I'm willing to go Eureka....( the joys of a gas budget). Anyways in various groups see people posting from various towns in eastern Illinois and sometimes from Eureka and westward. The TP&W used to run west to Iowa but sold their western section over a decade ago to Pioneer Rail Corp who has Keokuk Junction Railways running that segment. The TP&W does continue to run as far as Mapleton to some facilities in that area so they share track with KJRY and you can see some movement or see a locomotive parked across the road from the KJRY shop. I have filmed them in East Peoria a few times. I regret not going to Farmdale Road during one of those times since i didn't know where it was and went the wrong way and ended up in Morton....I was going to go there anyway so meh!
Growing up in Canton we seen our fair share of TP&W trains and had several trains a day at a point and even night trains once in a while. I remember Santa Fe locomotives in the mid 1990's even though they split with AT&SF ( well AT&SF split from them) in 1989. Around 2001 or 2002 rail service ceased and we didn't see trains at all for a few years. At the time thought it was abandoned. I wasn't aware there was a court battle between TP&W and Pioneer. Pioneer wanted to purchase the west end and TP&W wanted to scrap it. Luckily courts ruled in Pioneer's favor. The line was reactivated in 2005. They ran trucks over the line, the removed brush and anything on the tracks and they worked on signal boxes to reactivate crossings. For a while they ran very slowly with the conductor getting off the train at each crossing walking across the road with a red flag flagging traffic to stop while they crossed. The trains started off very short and picked up over time. At the time it was Peoria & Western but the name was changed around 2010 or 2011 to Keokuk Junction Railway and the name has stuck.
My goal is to try to catch them at Farmdale road at the bridge, at Washington to Krueger then out to Eureka. I doubt it will be all in one day unless i have the gas to do so. I hope to get the blue locomotives before they are repainted to the G&W orange paint scheme. If not I don't care as long as i nail one of them. If i ever came into money i'd like to follow it out to Indiana but that isn't very likely in the near future. A gal can dream can't she? :)
Growing up in Canton we seen our fair share of TP&W trains and had several trains a day at a point and even night trains once in a while. I remember Santa Fe locomotives in the mid 1990's even though they split with AT&SF ( well AT&SF split from them) in 1989. Around 2001 or 2002 rail service ceased and we didn't see trains at all for a few years. At the time thought it was abandoned. I wasn't aware there was a court battle between TP&W and Pioneer. Pioneer wanted to purchase the west end and TP&W wanted to scrap it. Luckily courts ruled in Pioneer's favor. The line was reactivated in 2005. They ran trucks over the line, the removed brush and anything on the tracks and they worked on signal boxes to reactivate crossings. For a while they ran very slowly with the conductor getting off the train at each crossing walking across the road with a red flag flagging traffic to stop while they crossed. The trains started off very short and picked up over time. At the time it was Peoria & Western but the name was changed around 2010 or 2011 to Keokuk Junction Railway and the name has stuck.
My goal is to try to catch them at Farmdale road at the bridge, at Washington to Krueger then out to Eureka. I doubt it will be all in one day unless i have the gas to do so. I hope to get the blue locomotives before they are repainted to the G&W orange paint scheme. If not I don't care as long as i nail one of them. If i ever came into money i'd like to follow it out to Indiana but that isn't very likely in the near future. A gal can dream can't she? :)
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