The Coal Trail-Part 1

Anyone who has spent time railfanning the Staples Sub, especially that portion west of Staples, knows how important coal traffic is to this stretch of railroad. It's relatively easy for us to picture where that coal is being dumped-who can miss the MERC facility on a visit to the Twin Ports, or the Becker plant along the railroad? While some of the coal trains continue on into Wisconsin, it's still not hard to imagine the destinations.

What's been harder for me is visualizing where this coal comes from and the route it travels to get here. Last year, as part of a visit to Yellowstone, Mrs. L4T and I were able to spend a day in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, where many of these trains are loaded (I believe some still come from mines in Montana). Even after that experience, though, the question remained-how does it get from there to here? And so, as part of a visit to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton areas, this year we planned a stop in Sheridan and a trip along what I call the "Coal Trail". This post is the first part of my report on that trip.

In a reversal of last year's trip, the weather this time was spectacular while we were in the parks and driving the scenic highways of northwest Wyoming. But almost as soon as the agenda turned to railfanning, the clouds and rain rolled in for good. Not to be deterred, I railfanned on through the weather, although the photos show the effects clearly. As an example, I offer this Burlington 4-8-4 steamer that is stuffed and mounted in Sheridan:


Sheridan is an active railroad town, where quite a few trains seem to change crews. I suspect that trains from the Gillette area are re-crewed in Sheridan for the continuation of their journey. Another interesting operational facet of Sheridan is the use of helpers, at least on loaded coal trains headed toward Montana. I believe the helpers shove for about 25 miles north out of Sheridan, and a number of helper sets are present in the yard. This photo shows 3 sets of SD70MAC's sitting near the turntable waiting to go to work. There was a fourth set out and about at this time as well.


As we headed north toward Montana, on two lane roads that follow the tracks rather than the interstate a mile or so to our east, everything I spotted signalled a slow day for rail traffic. There was a rail train preparing to go to work, and then a ballast cleaner hard at work. However, I did spot this unused grain elevator in Wyola, MT, and couldn't resist stepping out into the drizzle for a shot.


After stopping at the Little Bighorn battlefield, we continued on toward I-94, intersecting with the interstate and the Coal Trail again near Custer on the south bank of the Yellowstone River. A couple of false starts and u-turns later, we were lucky enough to spot a westbound DEEX empty moving slowly as he left Forsyth, MT. I was able to easily get ahead of the train on what is called "Old Highway 10" for shots of the head end and DPU as the train snaked along the south bank of the Yellowstone River (which, incidentially, is the longest un-dammed river on the continent, or in the nation, or something like that).




Once we were east of Miles City, I searched out Old 10 once more, and after a few mintues we came across an eastbound manifest. The chase was on, and my first chance for a shot was the west side of Terry, shown here:


After hopping ahead once more, I shot the six units this train had for power between Terry and Fallon, where the interstate crosses the tracks and the river.


I noticed this slow moving train was looking at yellow signals, and sure enough a loaded coal train was ahead of him. The tracks swing well south of the interstate in this area. I made one try of accessing the river, but it was a dead end, and given the weather and the miles left to go we decided to give up on that train and keep moving.

So that's all the action from our first day along the Coal Trail. We pulled into Dickinson in a steady rain about 5:45, ready for a meal and sleep to prepare for the rest of journey to Wadena. That day's report will include a surprise sighting, and some photography from an old favorite location.

Jim

Wyoming

I love Wyoming. I love the scenery, the grandeur, the vast open expanses, the people that I get the chance to talk to. Wyoming also has some fantastic railroading, most of which I've only had the chance to read about. Last year I got to spend a bit more than a day in the Powder River Basin and came away awed by the intensity of the railroad action there.

This year Mrs. L4T and I decided to return to Wyoming for a fall vacation. We were able to drive the Beartooth Highway (closed last year due to snow), spend more time in Yellowstone, visit the Grand Tetons and spend a night in Teton Village (which is a strange place-not at all like the rest of Wyoming I've seen). We also have driven the Cheif Joseph Scenic Highway and the Bighorn crossing, both of which are spectacular and rival any National Park for scenery.

Then, this afternoon we arrived in Sheridan. I've wanted to check out the railroad action here for quite a while, partly due to Al Krug's Tales and partly because much of the coal that travels the Staples Sub also travels the Bighorn Sub of the BNSF.

Oh, almost forgot that we came through Greybull on the drive over, where I spotted the first train of the day. Since it was sitting in about the worst light possible, I worked the photo over heavily:


One interesting point (to me, anyway) is the "NSS Greybull" sign. I can't ever recall seeing railroads designate locations as north or south before-always east or west. Probably just ignorance on my part. Anyway, on to Sheridan.

When we came into town, two coal trains were sitting on the north (west?) end of the yard. After we checked into our hotel and ate supper, we went back for a look-see, and they were both gone. I headed north in hot pursuit, knowing that at least one was loaded. Perhaps I could catch him? Around Ranchester (about 15 miles north of Sheridan) I spotted a helper set headed south. The sun was nice and I looked for an exit so I could chase him down. After I finally found a way to access the tracks, it seemed a hopeless task but we carried on-and were surprised by headlights heading north at Ranchester. It was a pair of NS GE's on a manifest train, with two Boeing cars right behind the engines. This train was grinding up the grade to Parkman, working hard and not moving very fast. I shot him in two locations, shown here-the second spot I couldn't resist trying to catch the sun glinting off the train with the Bighorn Mountains as a backdrop.




Tomorrow we head north at a leisurely pace, hoping to get the chance to shoot some more action on the Bighorn Sub.

Jim

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