did they take tank cars with cooking oil etc i know they had flour and grain. and wasnt the old switch back was behind the flour mill i thought nice photo
Judging by the cars and trucks, this photo of Allied Mills in Bartonville, Illinois (about a mile south of Keystone Steel and Wire Mill and 2 miles south of Iowa Junction in Peoria) was taken in the 1940s. It was Continental Grain and, later, Wayne Foods (a pet food company) in the later 1900s. When I moved to the Peoria area in 1974, rail service may have been provided by Rock Island RR (RI's Collier Yard was about 1 mile north) and I know Peoria and Pekin Union Ry was providing service in the 1980s after the Rock went bust. I only recall seeing covered hoppers and box cars there...but rail traffic may have included tank cars of syrup/oil during times I lived or worked in different parts of the Greater Peoria Area and didn't drive through Bartonville so often. Decades ago, there were a number of coal mines along the river bluffs south of Peoria, and one with a switchback may have been located relatively close to Allied Mills...but I think all the mines had been abandoned by the time I moved to Peoria. (Sorry, Peoria historians might have more accurate info than me.) After the Rock was gone, the Chicago & Northwestern; Peoria and Pekin Union Ry; and Toledo, Peoria & Western all three had tracks running parallel to each other on the other side of the highway by Allied Mills. The P&PU locos would push cars into Allied after crossing the TPW main at a diamond and then crossing 4 lanes of automobile traffic on Rte 24.
I remember the box cars and hoppers I sat at the ppu yard many of years. I was in the Peoria train club friends with Mike and the Kajawas Roger and John I use to run trains ad Sanduskys house many moons ago lol.I want to model the Allied mills and the pabst plant on my layout I am building.back in the early years they had a switch back going up to the top of the hill there I thought it was behind the mill. By the way nice N-scale layout
