Mendota Illinois [Grain Termnal] ?

Last friday going south on Hw 51 {I-39} I saw a train pushing hoppers on a large circular track into a large bldg…The corn is still high so could not get a good view of it.It Apears to be branched off the rails just east of Mendota.Drive by there often and have never s een it before Must be new.Any answers? Thank you

That is a shuttle terminal. The BNSF brings in covered hoppers. The siding is in fact circular. The shuttle terminal is NOT a storage terminal, but a loading facility. If you stayed there and observed, you would see truck after truck bringing corn that is unloaded into the facility and then loaded in a train. The storage of the corn is very brief.

The elevator is owned by ADM among others. The train is operated by local nonrailroaders. It takes about 10 hours to load. The rates for the grain are considerably lower than nonshuttle type terminals.

I stopped in there a year ago and was given quite the verbal tour of how it works.

ed

That is the greenwood grain elevator owened by Fasco’s, we set empty covered hoppers in and 18-24 hours later we are ordered to pull the loaded unit grain train out most often the train goes to Texas.

Rodney