Black Diamonds along the Frozen Mississip'
UP 3057 is technically the DPU on this northbound set of coal loads destined for the Columbia Power Plant near Portage, Wisconsin although you can't tell it from this angle. The leader was a sharply painted UP 5364 but since that was running away from the light, this SD70AH-T4 was still neat enough to be worth a little time to try this shot this morning. The train is rolling along the west bank of the beautiful frozen Mississippi River valley at the south siding switch for the railroad siding location of Edmore. This siding is immediately adjacent to the John Deere Plant (the areas largest employer) on the north side of the City of Dubuque, Iowa, on the Canadian Pacific Marquette Subdivision.
For many, many years the BNSF (and the BN before) had the primary contract for supplying Powder River Basin coal for the Columbia Power Plant near Portage, WI. Somewhere circa 2010 (I'd have to look up the exact year, though please chime in if you know!) the UP won the contract away and instead of the BNSF trains running on the CP from St. Paul, the UP started running trains to Clinton, IA where they get on the CP for the trip North of LaCrescent (La Crosse) and make a right turn for Portage.
But in mid 2022 the BNSF won the contract back again, and the railfan rumor was that these UP trains would be done by July 2022. However, while they are definitely nowhere near as frequent, there still continue to be the occasional UP train running via Dubuque/Marquette like this one 7 months later - apparently there must still be some amount of tonnage left on the contract. Either way, Alliant Energy is working on winding down the Columbia Plant as the coal era continues to shrink; they originally announced in 2021 that Columbia Generating would close in 2025, through then in mid 2022 they extended that to 2026. Time will tell when the last coal trains to the plant run, but when I find a good-looking unit on these trains (they're often pitiful looking yellow bricks) I try to shoot them when I can, as they definitely won't last forever.
Black Diamonds along the Frozen Mississip'
UP 3057 is technically the DPU on this northbound set of coal loads destined for the Columbia Power Plant near Portage, Wisconsin although you can't tell it from this angle. The leader was a sharply painted UP 5364 but since that was running away from the light, this SD70AH-T4 was still neat enough to be worth a little time to try this shot this morning. The train is rolling along the west bank of the beautiful frozen Mississippi River valley at the south siding switch for the railroad siding location of Edmore. This siding is immediately adjacent to the John Deere Plant (the areas largest employer) on the north side of the City of Dubuque, Iowa, on the Canadian Pacific Marquette Subdivision.
For many, many years the BNSF (and the BN before) had the primary contract for supplying Powder River Basin coal for the Columbia Power Plant near Portage, WI. Somewhere circa 2010 (I'd have to look up the exact year, though please chime in if you know!) the UP won the contract away and instead of the BNSF trains running on the CP from St. Paul, the UP started running trains to Clinton, IA where they get on the CP for the trip North of LaCrescent (La Crosse) and make a right turn for Portage.
But in mid 2022 the BNSF won the contract back again, and the railfan rumor was that these UP trains would be done by July 2022. However, while they are definitely nowhere near as frequent, there still continue to be the occasional UP train running via Dubuque/Marquette like this one 7 months later - apparently there must still be some amount of tonnage left on the contract. Either way, Alliant Energy is working on winding down the Columbia Plant as the coal era continues to shrink; they originally announced in 2021 that Columbia Generating would close in 2025, through then in mid 2022 they extended that to 2026. Time will tell when the last coal trains to the plant run, but when I find a good-looking unit on these trains (they're often pitiful looking yellow bricks) I try to shoot them when I can, as they definitely won't last forever.