ButchKnouse To me, it seems like unloading a coal unit train onto a barge and then reversing the process somewhere down river would be a lot more work than just hauling the train to the power plant. Unless of course we are talking export coal.
To me, it seems like unloading a coal unit train onto a barge and then reversing the process somewhere down river would be a lot more work than just hauling the train to the power plant. Unless of course we are talking export coal.
Yes, but it has been done. Don't know if it's still going on, but a number of years ago CSX was part of such a deal to haul coal from (I think) Kentucky to a powerplant in Palatka, FL. The coal was put on barges to go down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, then thru the Intracoastal Waterway or the Gulf to (IIRC) Port St. Joe FL. At PSJ the coal was transferred to hoppers; the Apalachicola Nortern delivered it to CSX's ex-SAL/L&N Jacksonville-New Orleans line somewhere (Chattahoochee, FL?), and CSX hauled it east to Palatka. I used to watch the loaded trains bellowing upgrade on the east side of Tallahassee.
Why would it be done that way? I don't know. This was a long-term contract, ten or twenty years. One commentator said the power company thought the barge costs would be lower over the term of the contract than the RR costs. Can't say whether that was the real reason or whether the idea was correct, but one would have to suppose that someone did quite a bit of "figuring" before signing onto a long-term contract.
ButchKnouse To me, it seems like unloading a coal unit train onto a barge and then reversing the process somewhere down river would be a lot more work than just hauling the train to the power plant. Unless of course we are talking export coal. I've heard that most of the grain DM&E hauls ends up on barges at Winona. When the coal hauling has been mentioned, they talk of hauling to power plants east of the Mississippi.
I've heard that most of the grain DM&E hauls ends up on barges at Winona.
When the coal hauling has been mentioned, they talk of hauling to power plants east of the Mississippi.
Some power plants were built without rail access. They can receive coal only by barge. When the plants had to switch from Illinois Basin coal to Powder River Basin coal it became necessary to transload the trains into barges in order to reach these generating stations.
The I&M rail to water coal transfer facility at Havana, IL was built to transload Illinois coal into barges. It now transloads PRB coal into barges.
Interesting. I guess I hadn't considered, that the coal might be coming off the barge, and onto the train. I'm surprised that barge>UP>DM&E>Rochester shipping can be competitive with Barge>truck>Rochester shipping, comsidering the short haul.
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
That barge loading facility is not railroad owned. And the 'yard' across the street is the UP(ex-C&NW) yard. DM&E delivers to the UP yard. CP(ex-Milw) is across town. The barge facility loads grain & rock, and unloads coal that is loaded into rail hoppers. Rochester RPU plant recives rail hauled coal from the east and I suspect some of it comes from that facility. I think they 'blend' low sulfer coal with high sulfer coal to meet EPA requirements.
A rail to water coal transfer facility that can unload 100+ car trains and transfer the product to barge would have to be far larger. Look at the large facility in Superior, WI.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Reality TV is to reality, what Professional Wrestling is to Professional Brain Surgery.
al-in-chgo And just-plain "P" would be what kind of operating entity, Sir?
And just-plain "P" would be what kind of operating entity, Sir?
I was in Winona over the weekend. I recall from some past threads, that DM&E may have wanted to build a barge loading facility there, to send PRB coal down the Mississippi River. It appears to me, that CP already has that capability?
North of the highway bridge is a barge loading facility, between a city street and the river. Accross the street to the west, is the CP yard(?). There is also a big ADM grain handling facility of some sort. It appears, that there are converer belts, and pipes running over the street to connect the two. East of the street, were big piles of coal, and what looked to be limestone, ready to be barge loaded.
Would this mean, that CP would be able to trans-ship PRB coal already, or would this be on too small of a scale?
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