Regional Wheeling & Lake Erie [see TRAINS, July 2008] gets one to three weekly visits from Powder River Basin coal trains. The coal goes to FirstEnergy’s Warrenton River Terminal transload dock at Rayland, Ohio, beside the Ohio River. Once there, it’s blended with coal from Bailey Mine in the Monongahela coal fields of Pennsylvania. Barges deliver the coal to utilities located on the river. Both BNSF and UP have originated the coal at times, and Norfolk Southern forwards it from the Chicago area to Bellevue, Ohio, where W&LE takes over.
BNSF Railway has at times won the contract to move coal bound for Portland [Oregon] General Electric’s Boardman, Ore., plant. The 550-MW plant sits adjacent to Union Pacific’s Columbia River Gorge line between Portland and Hinkle, Ore., so UP must make final delivery to the plant. The shared contract is what led to this scene, where a BNSF-powered coal train soars high above the Snake River atop the Joso Viaduct, a famed Union Pacific landmark.
Owned by the Western Fuels Association, the Escalante Western moves coal between the Lee Ranch Mine and the Tri-State Generating & Transmission Association’s Escalante Generating Station near Prewitt, N.M. The train operates a 74.8-mile round trip, mostly over BNSF rails.
In the mid-1970s U.S. Steel, which operated several coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania, commenced development of the Cumberland Mine at Kirby, Pa. The mine tapped the No. 8 Pittsburgh Seam, well known as a source of high-Btu, reduced-sulfur coal. As part of the development, Steel built a 17-mile private railroad to connect the mine prep plant with a barge loading terminal on the Monongahela River near Girards Fort, Pa. Although bracketed to the north and south by the then-Monongahela Railway (now NS/CSX), the Cumberland Mine Railroad is completely isolated; all locomotives and cars were transported in by highway.
The intended customer was Ontario Hydro; under the plan, coal was shipped by rail to the transloading terminal, then by barge downriver to the (USS-owned) Union Railroad’s coal dock at Duquesne, Pa. Reloaded into railcars, the coal went north to Conneaut, Ohio, via the Union and fellow Steel road Bessemer & Lake Erie. At Conneaut, the coal was transferred to lake boats for the last leg to Ontario. As it turned out, the Ontario Hydro contract never really came to fruition. The mine and railroad passed through several owners, and it’s now operated by Alpha Resources.
In 1976, EMD delivered a single SD38-2, USS No. 1, painted in corporate colors. A number of years later, No. 1 was joined by ex-Yankeetown Dock SD38-2 No. 22, which retained its number when painted to match No. 1. The single train set is usually 30 coal hoppers, bracketed by the SD38-2s in a “pull-pull.” – Lee Gregory
