View allAll Photos Tagged LOADOUT
Been a while since posting something for "Switcher Saturday", so why not remedy that with going to where switchers were once king, moving coal trains. Once upon a time, on various Pennsylvania operations it was proven day after day that nobody need's those silly six axle turbo charged things to move the coal thru the hills and valleys. I sure liked things better back then and was glad to have been able to enjoy the final years of these operations.
Headed for the mine loadout at Dora, three SW-9 units have an empties train rolling southwest. They would load at Dora, and then either continue west for interchange to the B&O, or take loads back to Brookville for Conrail interchange. At the time, the run to Dora was still pretty much a daily thing, with a second train on some days. The P&S featured a number of these nice trestles, making for a fun day of old fashioned railfanning.
Canadian National coal train No. 769 prepares to load at Teck’s Luscar Mine near Cadomin, Alberta, on July 15, 2013. The Luscar Mine coal processing plant and loadout are part of Teck’s Cardinal River Operation and is located on a line operating out of Leyland called the Luscar Industrial Spur. The mine produced steelmaking coal for 51 years and, unfortunately, ceased operations in June 2020.
A combination of persistence and dumb luck led me to stumble into a Weller crew loading coal at Consol at the crack of dawn this morning. We had expected to see something load here on Saturday, but found no empties at the mine or at nearby Weller Yard. I decided to make an extended side trip to the mine on my way back north just in time to see them bringing their first set of cars under the loadout. This is actually the start of the second half of the train, which they began loading three hours later - I had much better light for this half since it was closer to mid-day. Although still called Consol by the railroad, this mine is currently operated by Coronado Coal. It is at the end of track on the NS Buchanan Branch, and at present is the busiest mine on this scenic coal country branch. Those trees on the hillside are looking good for this early in the month!
A Canadian National coal train prepares to load at Teck’s Luscar Mine near Cadomin, Alberta, on August 8, 2016. When arriving at the loader, the train pulls completely through it, allowing the loadout operator to fully inspect the empty cars for contaminates. The train then backs down and begins the loading process with the first car behind the power. This loadout and processing plant is part of Teck’s Cardinal River Operation and is located on a line operating out of Leyland called the Luscar Industrial Spur. This particular train is the third section of 50 cars (of a 150-car train) to load at Luscar, and the reason for this is the steep 3% grades on the 5.5-mile Luscar Industrial Spur out of Leyland.
Western Fuel's trio of SD40s (Lead by a former B&O unit) heads southbound at MP 25 on BNSF's Lee Ranch Subdivision. Lee Ranch Jct, where the train joined the main from the branch to the loadout, is about six miles north of here. In about twenty short miles Escalante Jct will be reached, where the branch to the power plant splits off.
NS 4392 pushes U52 out of Consol after loading 104 cars for Wheelersburg, OH. The last car of the train is a bad order that will be set out at Weller. 4392 will help ease the train down the grade to the Buchanan branch at Dismal where the engine will detach and wait for another empty train to take to the loadout.
Deseret Power Railway’s westbound unit coal train is making a run at grade over Holum Pass two miles west of the Deserado Mine Loadout on the afternoon of October 21, 2015. Three General Electric E60C-2s power the 44-car train bound for Utah’s Bonanza Power Plant. To me, the scenery in this stretch of railroad is “Milwaukee Road in eastern Washington meets Cajon Pass.”
One of Appalachia's most interesting coal-loading operations is United Coal Company's Carter Roag mine. Located in Randolph County West Virginia, trains to the mine require movement on a Class I, a Regional, and a Shortline to get to the loadout. CSX takes the trains to Grafton, where the Appalchian and Ohio takes over for the southward journey down the vast network of ex-B&O coal branches until they reach Alexander, WV. At Alexander, the cars go in 20-car increments to Carter Roag via the Beech Mountain Railroad. Catching a mine run for Carter Roag is a rare treat, whether on the A&O or on the Beech Mountain side. The empty trains typically run out of Grafton in the cover of darkness, so we lucked out to have a chance to shoot the southbound run on a sunny winter afternoon. Operating as CSX foreign road symbol Z81315, the empty train for Carter Roag passes the former B&O CPLs at Berryburg Junction with four Geeps and 80 empty coal gons in tow.
Norfolk Southern coal train 81N eases under a couple coal loadouts at Hurley, VA on their way up the Buchanan Branch.
Westbound Utah Railway from the loadout at CV Spur near Price charges up the bottom of Solider Summit with five up front and six manned mid-train. This is one of the last signal bridges standing along the line without a replacement looming over it. Jun 30, 2014
Train 768 starts to pull through the silo at the Gregg Creek mine at the end of the Luscar Mine spur. This was highest point on CN but the mine closed and the track is abandoned.
Continuing with the Bessemer theme for F Unit Friday we see 2 F's pulling loads up the steep hill just east of the Kaylor engine terminal on June 23. 1978. The Western Allegheny became a Bessemer branch in 1967 after many years being owned by the PRR. F units were rebuilt and assigned to the branch in the mid 70's making it a local railfan target. Nearly all of the pictures you will see of the WA branch will be in the summertime as they were called at 4:00 PM. The main function and the only business I ever saw was to take coal the almost 20 miles from loadouts like this one in the Kaylor area to the junction with the main line at Queen Junction
On my western March trip I lucked into four chases through Jefferson Canyon in two days, two with the the Logan local and two with this stone train that I never expected to see. Here 4311, and 265 creep slowly forward as a front end loader dumps ballast onto the conveyor leading to a long drawn out process. It is hard to see but in the distance you can see a signal mast still standing back in the curve. It would take this crew several hours to load making for a long boring wait with a well worth it quick chase to Sappington.
An empty coal train begins the shove into the loadout at Tom's Creek, Virginia with the Erie Lackawanna heritage unit on the lead.
NS P87 heads west from the Bridgewater chip loadout near Nebo, NC toward Asheville with a pair of 40s.
High sun? No problem... Black Mesa & Lake Powell empties swing around the loop track at the loadout for Peabody Western near Kayenta, AZ. Aug 2, 2019
The Big Eagle Railroad ducks underneath the former C&O now CSX mainline at Chesapeake, West Virginia. With 27 cars of loaded coal from the West Carbon Mine, GP38-2 JTPX 2011 brings the first half of the 27 cars for the CSX interchange that sits on the other side of the transload yard against the Kanahwa River.
The whole process of loading the 27 cars takes about 2 hours on average depending on the quality and wetness of the coal at the loadout. After finishing loading the train it's about a 35 minute run back down to the interchange with CSX at the entrance to the hollow.
For more info regarding the Big Eagle and it's history, please visit the website provided in the link below.
A westbound Deseret Power Railway unit coal train is making a run at grade over Holum Pass two miles west of the Deserado Mine Loadout on the afternoon of October 21, 2015. Three General Electric E60C-2s power the 44-car train bound for Utah’s Bonanza Power Plant.
Thus ends a three-hour wait for the morning westbound train to unload at the Bonanza Power Plant near Bonanza, UT. The train is headed back east under Utah State Route 45 to load at the Deserado Mine near Dinosaur, CO.
A pair of CSXT 3300’s shove the first cut of Cope empties above the tipple at JRL’s Creech Loadout in Mary Helen, Kentucky as the sun comes out for a brief minute before an evening storm sets in. This is a OUCX unit train from Cope, South Carolina and is still cooling its heels from the trip over from Kingsport.
Loaded coal train C765 heads south on CN's Chetwynd Sub at Tacheeda British Columbia. The coal traffic comes form a loadout nears Falls, and is a welcome addition to traffic on the former BC Rail line.
Deseret Power Railway's afternoon empty unit coal train approaches the aptly-named Midway siding near milepost 17. In about 30 minutes, the crew will tie up at the Deserado mine loadout near Blue Mountain, CO and the cycle will start all over again...like clockwork this day.
Empties for the West Elk Loadout pass MP 38 on its way from Grand Junction on this former Rio Grande branch.
DRGW 5372 at the Energy Mine loadout, west of Craig, CO, July 27, 1977. This is train #702. How easy it was to just drive onto the mine property!
UP MRVHK-22 rolls east through Biggs Junction. Towering above the train is a large, vacant grain elevator that once served as a loadout for farms in this part of north-central Oregon. Even this grain elevator is miniscule compared with Mount Hood, which towers over 11,000 feet above the river level here.
A Kanawha River Railroad empty coal train clings to the cliffside deep within the Kanawha River Valley. The train is destine for the High Power Mountain loadout near Drennen, WV along the former New York Central West Virginia Secondary.
I finally took a chance on finding some of the more remote views available on the Deseret Power Railway. Luckily, the unit train was running like clockwork, and my borrowed Honda Pilot did not break down. This is definitely not mini-van territory.
Although I've not broken any new ground with this shot, I've always wanted to get to this location, one of the nicer S-curves on DPR's 35-mile system, located at about MP 24.5. Only 2.75 miles to the Utah-Colorado border.
The morning train, led by E60C-2 #1, has been emptied at the Bonanza Power Plant and is returning east to the loadout at Deserado mine near Dinosaur, CO.
We are at the end of the Conrail Good Spring Branch at Good Spring, PA on May 12, 1988 and train WHWC-21 has just arrived from West Cressona. SW1500 No. 9527 and MP15 No. 9627 slowly negotiate the crumbing track structure, worn out rail setting on rotten ties in cinder ballast. The glory days were long gone in the anthracite region. There was a sizable truck loadout around the curve. Ten to fifteen loads would be pulled, and the same number of empties spotted. Amazingly, if I rercall correctly, Good Spring was still served several times a week. Much has changed over the years. The track has been greatly improved by Reading and Northern and coal is still loaded out, although at a newer facility.
After dropping a loaded coal train at the CSX interchange in Thurmond, WV, an R. J. Corman crew picks up empties to be brought up the Loup Creek Branch to Alpha Metallurgical Resources loadout in Pax, WV. RJCC 7107 is the newest edition to R. J. Corman's West Virginia Lines fleet, having been delivered in early 2022. Two SD70M's are expected to be delivered sometime in the future, potentially displacing the iconic Tunnel Motor duo.
Land locked in the far northwestern reach of Colorado lies the loadout for Deserado Mine, a coal mine served exclusively by the Deseret Power Railroad, that feeds coal exclusively to the Bonanza Power Plant just a few miles into the Utah border to the west. The 3 Deseret Power E60s pull the train slowly under the flood loader before heading back to the power plant in the afternoon.
H801 shoves their 50 mtys under Coronado Coal’s ‘Greenbrier’ loadout after making the 32 mile trek from Meadow Creek. Soon the flood loading chute will move into position and engineer Hal Osborne will begin flood loading the head 20 cars before tying down for the night. ‘Plug Mode’ is used here alike many flood loaders all across Appalachia.
This met coal operation last loaded coal in early 2020 due to Covid. The coal that was loaded into this train has been sitting on the ground for almost a year; enough for this train and possibly one more this month. After the stockpile has been loaded the Anjean loadout will again sit idle indefinitely awaiting its fate.
An empty hopper train heads for the Savage Coal loadout on the CV Spur east of Price, Utah. At this point in time, Utah Railway was running coal to Provo on M-W-F schedule and also a few tank trains a month over Soldier Summit. The coal contract was lost to Union Pacific less than two years later and the oil and other freight traffic dried up. The re-engined MK5000Cs have since shipped off to the Kyle Railway and some of the SD50S models were shipped off to the Indiana & Ohio.
An R. J. Corman empty coal drag emerges from the tunnel near Mount Hope, WV along the Loup Creek Branch. RJCC 7107 along with two SD40T-2's guide the train up to the Alpha Metallurgical Resources loadout in Pax, WV while a pair of CSX engines shove the rear.
Coming out of the narrow and short canyon between Sappington and highway 2 the stone train comes back out into the sun and passing a long abandoned ranch.
An SD70ACe pair creeps through the loadout at Tom's Creek, Virginia as coal dumps into the first of 105 cars.
After loading the last of their 50 cars at Coronado Coal’s Anjean loadout, veteran NF&G engineer Hal Osborne guides Rainelle Mine Run H801 off the 1.7% grade along Big Clear Creek in Anjean, West Virginia. He’ll pull down and pick his conductor up at the south end of Gumm Siding and be on their way to Rainelle. This section of 7 degree curve was washed out 5 years ago and rebuilt, and was done so reusing the original 1926 100 lb rail.
Hartwell Railroad's former EJ&E SD38 spots a combination of loaded and empty gondolas of granite at a loadout on the outskirts of Elberton, GA.
A local was operated east out of the division point terminal of Schreiber on the Lake Superior route. A few pulpwood loadouts were served as evident by the empty log cars. This was as far "west" in Canada that I photographed a CP MLW locomotive.
On a rainy fall afternoon, Bell County Coal's old GP9 still sits on her track at the mouth of Hignite Holler. After years of wear, its former Kenney Branch Mining logo is beginning the show through.
The 1956 C&O veteran was used by Bell County to place cars under the Hignite #1 loadout in the background. I was told that the current owner of Bell County Coal is interested in getting the old Geep up and running again.
Taken with permission.