733 photos on Flickr

In 1969, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad’s Director of Unit Train Operations J.E. Timberlake developed a scheme to convert coking coal transportation to U.S. Steel’s Geneva Works north of Provo, Utah, from carload to unit train. Geneva Works was then consuming 1.9 million tons of coking coal annually, delivered from three different mines: U.S. Steel’s Geneva Mine, on the Carbon County Railway via Columbia Jct. on Rio Grande’s Sunnyside Branch, 128 rail miles from Geneva (including CBC’s 6 miles); U.S. Steel’s Somerset Mine, on Rio Grande’s North Fork Branch east of Grand Junction, Colorado; 351 rail miles from Geneva; and Mid-Continent Coal & Coke’s Dutch Creek Mine, loading at Carbondale, Colorado, on Rio Grande’s Aspen Branch, 362 miles from Geneva. Coal from Somerset and Geneva Mine made an intermediate stop at U.S. Steel’s coal wash plant at Wash, Utah, 95.8 miles from Geneva, where the coal was unloaded, washed, blended, and reloaded. Mid-Continent ran a wash plant at its Carbondale loadout and moved direct to the Geneva Works.

Three unit train symbol pairs handled the movement:

734, empties from Geneva to Columbia Jct., and 735, loads from Columbia Jct. to Geneva, 48 cars between Columbia Jct. and Wash, and 40 cars between Wash to Geneva, with two SD45s. The “shrinkage” in cars was because approximately 17 percent of the raw coal from the mine was dirt, shale, and sulfur, which was washed out and sent to the wash plant’s tailings ponds. 735s loaded Monday through Friday.

782, empties from Geneva to Somerset, and 783, loads from Somerset to Geneva, 48 cars between Somerset and Wash, and 40 cars between Wash to Geneva, with two SD45s. The “shrinkage” in cars was similarly due to the wash plant reduction. 783s loaded Monday through Friday.

798, empties from Geneva to Carbondale, and 799, loads from Carbondale to Geneva; 70 cars nominal, with three SD45s. 799s loaded Saturday only.

The operation was necessarily complex because it was required to mirror the production and labor schedules and the facility capacities at U.S. Steel’s and Mid-Continent’s coal mines, the coal wash, and the steel mill. It had to withstand the scrutiny of the Interstate Commerce Commission, which flyspecked unit train contracts, had to comply with Rio Grande’s labor agreements without creating exorbitant differentials and arbitraries, and not the least, had to efficiently utilize Rio Grande’s coal hoppers and locomotives.

These unit trains were small by post-deregulation standards, though this was very common in the early unit-train era, when few shippers or receivers could accommodate long trains. Coal mines, wash plants, steel mills, power plants, sugar factories, cement plants … all had been designed and constructed in the loose-car era with the expectation that railroad service was provided daily or at least every weekday. In every 24-hour period, what was delivered empty was loaded, what was delivered loaded was emptied. To accommodate longer unit trains at coal mines required construction of storage facilities to retain enough of each day’s production to fill an entire train every second or third day, and at least one track long enough to accommodate an entire train. The same applied at steel mills, power plants, wash plants, and other coal-consuming facilities, except now provision had to be made to rapidly empty and stack, store, and reclaim the small mountain of coal empties from a single train. Eventually that happened but not overnight; small trains were the norm for nearly two decades for most existing coal receivers and mines after the ICC finally gave the go-ahead for unit coal trains, in 1958 (the first was on the Baltimore & Ohio).

Doug Harrop’s wonderful photograph shows Rio Grande’s U.S. Steel unit train 733, operated weekdays from Columbia Jct., Utah, to Wash, with an average of 48 hoppers of raw coal, and from Wash to Geneva with an average of 40 cars of washed coal. Typically empty 732 left Helper at 9:05 am with 2 SD45s and 48 Rio Grande 100-ton empties. It dropped these at Wash and picked up between 39 and 57 70-ton Carbon County Railway empties. Upon arrival at Columbia Jct. at 11:30 am, the CBC interchange on the Sunnyside Branch, the 732 swapped the empties for 39 to 57 CBC loads, and became the 733. Departing Columbia Jct. at 2:00 pm, it dropped the CBC loads at Wash and picked up nominally 40 loads of washed coal, now in Rio Grande 100-ton hoppers. At arrival back at Helper at 4:55 pm, the 733 recrewed and picked up a two-unit helper, and departed for Geneva at 6:00 pm. It arrived Geneva at 9:30 pm, dropped its loads and picked up empties, became the 732, and was back in Helper at 1:00 am. Its road power helped the U.S. Steel 783 loads up to Soldier Summit, returning in time to take Tuesday’s 732 to Wash and Columbia Jct.

Doug photograph of the 733 on April 19, 1977, west of Kyune on the “flat track” above the 2.40 percent helper grade in Price River Canyon. It illustrates that Timberlake’s operating plan had been modified somewhat. His careful apportionment of locomotives and cars had been abused by realities of mines, steel mill, and railroad. Locomotive and car utilization had declined. The SD45s were no longer assigned. Coal power on the Rio Grande by the late 1970s was typically a mix of SD40T-2s, SD45s, and GP40s, without discrimination because good locomotive utilization was much more important than perfection of a plan. Typically one more road locomotives was now used because the two-unit trains, even with helper, were a little too slow climbing Soldier Summit. On the rear of the 733 is a two-unit GP40 helper enthusiastically adding speed to the 733 above the 2.40 percent. It cut off at Soldier Summit.

Rio Grande painted yellow lower corners on its system hoppers assigned to U.S. Steel, and green on the lower corners of system hoppers it assigned to Kaiser Steel.

#733│My baby... by Paulla

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733 by nao@japan

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# 733 by ❤・The Original・❤

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193 733, Vilshofen by Manuel Schmid

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Im ersten Licht des Tages rollte die ELL/NS 193 733 mit NJ 491 auf Passau zu und konnte bei Vilshofen abgelichtet werden. Bis zum Fahrplanwechsel im Dezember 23 kann man 3x die Woche die NS 193 noch bis Wien beobachten.

753 733-5 by Paweł Niemiec

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2017.04.02 || Skrochovice || 753 733-5 ze składem Pn 55077 Krnov - Zárubek, zbliża się do stacji Skrochovice. Nurek przewozi naprawione w Karniowie wagony.

733 by Олександр Дем'яненко

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instagram: @konophotography | tumblr: konophotography

Daun Labu 733 by Seni Pelita

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Pumpkin leaf

733 by carley benazzi

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carleybenazzi.wordpress.com/2015/08/30/733/

D753 733 by Mattia Deambrogio

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In sosta.