Coal to Newcastle

Mrs. L4T and I piled into the Escape and pointed it east on I-90 early the morning of October 7. I had a rough plan in mind, which called for paralleling the Black Hills Sub as far as Newcastle before peeling away from the tracks to traverse the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Our target for the evening was somewhere in the Medora area.

We passed the WyoDak power plant as we headed east out of Gillette, and could see Donkey Creek Yard to the south. I was hoping for some action along the highway and the BNSF didn't disappoint. I caught a loaded eastbound before we even made it to Moorcroft. My first shot of the (very cloudy, again) day was of the power on a TXU train as he entered Moorcroft. Matching MACs!


We made a quick stop in Moorcroft and I figured the train would pass us by. There must be a grade up out of there, though, as he was grinding out of town as we left. The tracks curve away from the highway, but I knew I could get ahead of him and took a side road to the southwest a couple of miles out of town. I had to wait for the train to show up, and got him as he snaked up the hill. See if you can find the antelope in this shot.


With miles to go before we slept, working this train wasn't really an option. We were off again, and it wasn't long before another load showed its DPU. TXU again, this time the power was a matched set of GE's. I leapfrogged him to Upton, site of a small Black Hills Power generating plant. As the track curves back toward the highway here, I stopped to shoot him under very cloudy skies. But before the loads showed up, an empty from the southeast came bounding into view.


The loads behind the GE's showed up as the empties were passing by. Didn't leave much to work with but since I was there I pressed the shutter release on this.


Somewhere in this general area the land had gone from treeless prairie to, all of a sudden, pine trees. It was like there was a line, with grass on one side and trees on the other. I've no idea what caused such a drastic change.

Anyway, I once again sped past the loaded train in search of another shot. Some curves just outside Newcastle seemed promising, and I took a peek, but decided to head into town. In the meantime another empty showed up and I didn't even get a shot. I decided to stake out the loads where the track passes along the hill on the north edge of Newcastle. The sun was even playing games with me by this time.

The loads took more time to arrive than I expected, but finally showed up. I got a couple of shots as they passed through town, but even with nice scenery I couldn't make much of them. The sun wasn't helping, either, as you can see in the second shot.



And we had arrived at the end of our journey with the Black Hills Sub. Highway 85 beckoned us toward the Black Hills, and we headed north for what turned out to be a gorgeous drive. I'll be posting some of those shots on my photostream over the next few days.

That's it for my Powder River Basin adventure. I got one day of fantastic weather, a lot of trains, and a good feeling for what the area is like. I would love to go back someday, and would be able to use my time more efficiently now that I have an idea of what is what. If you ever have any questions about the area, I would be glad to offer any information I have. Just email me and I'll be in touch.

Jim

Orange (and a touch of Green and Cream) in the PRB

A little Wyoming trivia: there are not a lot of trees in the Powder River Basin.


What the area lacks in trees, though, it makes up for with a pretty good assortment of BNSF locomotives and coal trains. The train pictured above is grinding north (railroad west) at Lawyer Road the morning of October 6, 2009. As you can see, the previous night's snow has not yet had a chance to melt. This is the first of many BNSF coal trains I will see on my day in the PRB.

So where to next? Mrs. L4T was pretty convinced that she would be more comfortable with an idea of where the nearest civilization was. The logical response was to find the city of Bill, Wyoming, well south on the Orin line. So that we did. But as we crossed the multi-tracked mainline on Wyoming State Highway 59 about 15 miles north of Bill, my keen eye spied a train stopped to the north. I pulled over and got out to grab a shot, and luckily, I had eaten well the previous evening or I may have been carried away by the wind. I managed to make my way to the overpass, where I was able to brace myself for this shot. It even turned out that a UP empty showed up to insert itself into the photo as well.

I know you can't tell from this extreme tele shot, but the orange unit facing you is the last thing I expected to see when I visited the coal fields. It's one of BNSF's 25 ES44C4 units, seen here on the point of a ballast train. See, when you get out and look for trains, you never know what kind of oddity you may find.


Continuing on to Bill, traffic was what I consider heavy. I grabbed a shot of BNSF loads rolling by UP loads headed south. BNSF has the advantage of being able to route loaded trains out either end of the area, while UP is limited to sending trains south. Once again the Bill water tower makes an appearance.


After lunch we were once again northbound, and at some point found ourselves hot on the trail of a BNSF northbound empty. In this shot the train is passing a stopped UP empty as it approaches Reno Junction, where a spur heads east to Black Thunder Mine and Jacobs Ranch Mine.


And here we have trains staged in the yard that sits alongside the spur to the two mines mentioned above.


Think about this for a minute. According to this site, Black Thunder has produced a billion tons of coal in 27 years. That's 1,000,000,000 tons. Current production rate is 91 million tons a year. At 15,000 tons per train, that equals 6000 trains a year, or 16 trains a day, from one coal mine.




My. That is a huge amount of coal.

Makes for a great place to take pictures of trains.

And one oddity (the first one was seeing an ES44C4 in the PRB) wasn't enough for the day. I waited for the DPU on another train in the hopes of getting a going away shot. While it turned out the engine was presenting its tail to the sun, it was interesting enough to shoot. This lonely C44-9W must have felt out of place in what seemed to me like an ocean of AC units. It was one of the only times I have ever seen a DC motor GE on a BNSF coal train.


I'm honestly embarrassed to admit that by late afternoon, I was just about railfanned out. It wasn't the gorgeous weather, or the lack or trees, or the physical exertion of getting in and out, and racing across ditches and fields to shoot trains. It was mental overload. Trying to read maps and signs, spot trains, listen to the scanner, and avoid antelope while taking pictures of dozens of trains wears a guy out. And so we retreated to our motel for a few minutes rest.

Refreshed, I headed east of Gillette to once again check out Donkey Creek Yard. I never did find Donkey Creek, but you can't miss the yard. Luckily, I was able to catch the DPU on a loaded eastbound as it passed the sign identifying the yard.


I shot my last train in the Powder River Basin proper in the same location as my first. This southbound empty had just negotiated Donkey Creek Junction on the way to a loading slot at one of the mines. It also seemed kind of symbolic to me that I had finally captured one of the my favorite locomotives (SD70MAC) in my favorite paint scheme (although someone had defaced it by removing the nose logo) doing just exactly what it was built to do-pulling a coal train in the Powder River Basin. I doubt that there are many success stories in railroading like this-a revolutionary locomotive, built to do a single job, and doing so successfully, over such a long time period. Congratulations, EMD and BN. You have done well. Thanks for the memories, and here's to many more.



Note: This is the 150th post I have made to look4trains.com. Thanks to all the readers. I hope you find them a bit entertaining. They are fun for me to put together.

Jim

Sunshine in the Powder River Basin

If your electric utility burns coal to generate electricity, I am tempted to advise you to buy a generator. It seems likely the BNSF and UP will haul all the coal in creation away by next week.

Just Kidding!!!!!

The thought did cross my mind at one point this afternoon, though, as I stood on the Wyoming Highway 450 overpass at Black Thunder Junction in gale-force winds and counted 8 (EIGHT!) trains. Those are trains I could see from where I was standing. Five of them moved during the less than 10 minutes I stood there.



If you look closely, you can see 5 of the trains in these two photos. There was one out of view to my right, loads coming from the Black Thunder Mine, and two more behind me and to my left, empties for further up the line.

From now on, three things will come to mind when the words "Powder River Basin" are uttered-LOTS of coal trains, lots of antelope, and lots of wind. The common theme is "lots". I had always heard about the volume of trains in this area, but until you visit and see it with your own eyes it's hard to really appreciate what is going on. The description on this sign sums it up pretty well.


I've got more shots that I will be processing after I get home, and I expect at least a couple of more posts with a PRB theme, but being excited about the trip I wanted to share some information right away. Here's one backlit shot I managed to squeeze out on this computer.


Until I make it home for long enough to sit down at the computer, that's all I got. I encourage every railfan to venture out to the PRB at least once and see big time railroading at its absolute peak!

Jim

PRB First Impressions

Well. It seems like there are a few locations every railfan should get a chance to visit during his or her life. Tehachapi, Cajon Pass, Marias Pass, Horseshoe Curve, The "Funnel", and UP's Nebraska main all feature some combination of scenery and traffic that put them on the list in some way, shape, or form.

Then there is the Powder River Basin. I don't think it is famous for scenery, but the traffic level has to be almost unrivaled. Plus, the newest high-horsepower locomotives from BNSF and UP (along with other lines) are featured moving heavy coal trains to utilities across the country.

This week is my chance to visit PRB country. After visits to the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway, Yellowstone National Park, the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway, and the Bighorn Scenic Byway, Mrs. L4T and I arrived in Gillette, Wyoming this afternoon to spend a couple of days chasing trains in the area. (Here are some of the scenery photos.)

After checking in to a hotel I set out to find Donkey Creek Junction. Within 10 minutes I had a COLX loaded train in sight. In another 5 minutes, I was in position to see three trains moving at once. Within half an hour I had spotted about a dozen coal trains. I knew in my mind traffic would likely be heavy but this caused me to overload a bit. I didn't even know where to point the camera. Thought I would share a couple of the cloudy, snowy shots with you.


This empty was staged on the line from Alliance, waiting for a couple of loads to leave the yard.

For this last shot, I ran down a muddy county road and got an empty headed south. I just missed the tail end of the load that was moving north.


Tomorrow, hopefully, the sun will come out. You can bet we will be out looking for trains regardless of the weather.

Jim