Colorado, Midland & Pacific RR ? _Diesel Fried Chicken and his troops are seriously getting after it. (STB FD-36471) . should be hitting the newswire.
Front row seat for this one - How do they stitch this thing together.
Tennessee Pass will no longer be out of service - first trains will need something a little bigger for a cow/people catcher and NIMBY remover.
kgbw49 Per this site, there are supposed to be about 300 billion barrels of oil in the shale in Utah. Read down to the fourth paragraph. For comparison, the Bakken has been estimated at between 4.4 billion and 11.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil on a field estimated at 24 billion barrels. https://geology.utah.gov/resources/energy/oil-shale/
Per this site, there are supposed to be about 300 billion barrels of oil in the shale in Utah. Read down to the fourth paragraph. For comparison, the Bakken has been estimated at between 4.4 billion and 11.4 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil on a field estimated at 24 billion barrels.
https://geology.utah.gov/resources/energy/oil-shale/
Just a TRAINS Forum, Point of Interest! Best Wishes to Mark Hemphill on this endeavor, and look forward to 'updates' from anyone interested in its progress! That can supply information....
miniwyo samfp1943 OK, This might be considered ,Kinda, Sorta, BUT It is concerning the UNITA(H) BASIN area. After all it is in the UNITAH Basin! This past Tuesday night; after the History Channel show 'Curse of Oak Island'. They ran a brand new offering, it was called 'Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch" [A story of a 'hot spot of paranormal activity] produced by the same group that has 'The Curse of Oak Is." See link@ https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch Skinwalker Ranch is about 5 miles from the proposed western terminus. My dad lives near there, (About the same distance actually) and of course they have heard the stories. He's never seen anything strange but does at times get weirded out when he's out checking cows at night.
samfp1943 OK, This might be considered ,Kinda, Sorta, BUT It is concerning the UNITA(H) BASIN area. After all it is in the UNITAH Basin! This past Tuesday night; after the History Channel show 'Curse of Oak Island'. They ran a brand new offering, it was called 'Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch" [A story of a 'hot spot of paranormal activity] produced by the same group that has 'The Curse of Oak Is." See link@ https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch
OK, This might be considered ,Kinda, Sorta,
BUT It is concerning the UNITA(H) BASIN area.
After all it is in the UNITAH Basin! This past Tuesday night; after the History Channel show 'Curse of Oak Island'. They ran a brand new offering, it was called 'Secrets of Skinwalker Ranch" [A story of a 'hot spot of paranormal activity] produced by the same group that has 'The Curse of Oak Is."
See link@ https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch
Skinwalker Ranch is about 5 miles from the proposed western terminus. My dad lives near there, (About the same distance actually) and of course they have heard the stories. He's never seen anything strange but does at times get weirded out when he's out checking cows at night.
In honor of Halloween,let me point out that the "Indian Canyon Alternative" on the STB map (In TRAINS newswire today 10-30) would seem to skirt the northern boundary of Skinwalker Ranch:
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch Full Episodes, Video & More | HISTORY
OPEC and the other major oil producing countries just agreed to cut over-production to keep the world oil industry from collapsing. Not a good time for oil related infrastructure.
RJ
"Something hidden, Go and find it. Go and look behind the ranges, Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go." The Explorers - Rudyard Kipling
http://sweetwater-photography.com/
I guess it is now time for me, and Eduardo Moreano( PHL Engineer) to break out our tin foil hard hats!
see@ https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/04/02/train-derails-usns-mercy-coronavirus/
Must be a case of COVID19+ induced 'Cabin Fever' !
Jusgt heard (Mar. 2020) that the Surface Trasportation Board turned down the offer from Colorado Pacific RR (Soloviev 's line) to buy the tennessee Pass line. The UP doesn't want to sell to anybody and this pie in the sky Uintah basin scheme is just a UP pretext to not sell.
All bench mark prices now below $25 except two here is the link for all benchmarks that is continually updated. So do not bame this post if these numbers change,
https://oilprice.com/
[/quote]
As to the advisibility of a railroad into the area, US 40 is a two lane highway, and many people who drive there and back do not like the truck traffic. I last went through Vernal 12 years ago, and the traffic was not bad then.
Johnny
Right, not at $30 per barrel. It may be 200 years from now after the existing proven world-wide reserves of 1.73 trillion barrels are depleted.
There are also more traditional oil reserves in the Uinta Basin.
The numbers I could find on a quick search - 24 million barrels of oil and 280 billion feet of natural gas produced in 2016.
https://geology.utah.gov/map-pub/survey-notes/uinta-basin-produced-water/
Production could increase with more lateral wells, apparently. But not at $30 per barrel. Although at $30 per barrel everyone is losing money so expect to see that rise back up after not too long at that level.
Not at today's price of $30 per barrel.
https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2010/3010/pdf/FS10-3010.pdf
Page 3 indicates 1.32 trillion barrels locked in the Uinta Basin oil shale. However, it is my understanding that much of it would need some type of processing after initial extraction before it could be refined and so is not yet competitive in the marketplace.
https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/ds69DD
Read the abstract paragraph.
The Green River Basin in Wyoming has 1.44 trillion barrels embedded in the oil shale and the Piceance Basin in Colorado has 1.53 trillion barrels embedded in the oil shale.
At some point in time, at some price, we will figure out a way to turn that in to useable, marketable oil.
BOB WITHORN Just read in RT&S, that the Utah coalition selected Drexel Hamilton to finance and build the new railroad. They are partnered with Rio Grande Pacific to operate it when done. Thought this was dead and gone. Seems I read somewhere that the Basin holds more oil than anywhere else? Should be interesting.
The Navajo Nation is trying to keep the Black Mesa coal mine open, even if its customer, the Navajo power plant in Page is shutting down. The tribe would take over ownership of the BM & LP line connecting both. It wouldn't be that much of a challenge to run a rail line from Black Mesa to the BNSF main line, connecting somewhere between Winslow and Holbrook.
mudchicken charlie hebdo For starters, the name is the Uintah Railway. It ceased operations in 1939. Different railroad, different endpoints, different gauge, and certainly different alignment curvature and grades. Had finances been different, BigBoy might have had a narrow gauge brother.
charlie hebdo For starters, the name is the Uintah Railway. It ceased operations in 1939.
For starters, the name is the Uintah Railway. It ceased operations in 1939.
Different railroad, different endpoints, different gauge, and certainly different alignment curvature and grades. Had finances been different, BigBoy might have had a narrow gauge brother.
Never built, never got off the drawing board. Not a railroad.
CSS, Who needs economic justification!! It's the Govm't talking and they are always rich.
kgbw49 http://uintabasinrailway.com/ Looks like the preferred route is parallel to Highway 191. it is being proposed by a coalition of seven counties.
http://uintabasinrailway.com/
Looks like the preferred route is parallel to Highway 191.
it is being proposed by a coalition of seven counties.
True that. They haven't even started with the inevitable environmental group lawsuits. It will be decades if ever.
This project reminds me of the Six County Assocation of Governments' 2001 proposal to build a new 43 mile line to Sevier, mainly to serve a large coal mine. I guess that the coal slump is the reason why that project languished.
http://utahrails.net/utahrails/six-county.php
I see that Sevier County has now joined the Seven County Coalition. I see they also have a Moab to Winslow, AZ proposal. I guess these isolated counties can dream.
http://scic-utah.org/projects/moab-arizona-rail-line
It looks like the proposed extension of the D&SL from Craig
kgbw49Here is a dated article about the potential future resources in the basins straddling the Utah-Wyoming-Colorado borders. Not yet economical as oil prices are too low right now, but one also has to think that American innovation will eventually figure out a way to lower the extraction cost. Time will tell. https://abcnews.go.com/Business/american-oil-find-holds-oil-opec/story?id=17536852
Back when I was a Geology grad student almost 50 years ago, they were talking about different proposals for tapping the Colorado/Utah oil shales. I'm not holding my breath.
I can’t believe people are considering new construction these days, especially on this scale. When BN build in the Powerder River Basin in the 80s they had to sacrifice something’s elsewhere to make sure they had enough finances, for example they had to keep F units on the roster for alot longer than other lines. Can people really afford to build a new railroad? You’d need perfect conditions to do so if you ask me.
Regards, Isaac
I model my railroad and you model yours! I model my way and you model yours!
When I was young one of the 'rail fan fascinations' in Trains and MR was the Uintah/Sumpter Valley "Mallet Mogul" 2-6-6-2T (there were two of them, with an early brass model a thing of excitement). It was my impression that the name was pronounced something like oo-EEN-tah (where the middle is between pure 'ee' and the short I of 'win', like the middle of the audio clips at howtopronounce.com)
I never saw the name spelled anything other than 'Uintah' so was starting to bridle at the shorter spelling. Then I remembered "Wahsatch"...
You're welcome, Wayne. Another note as to the pronunciation--as I was returning from my most important rail trip ever (I was on the City of Portland, headed for Chicago., I asked the UP conductor about the identity of the mountains to the south of the train, and he told that they were the U-IN-tas.
Deggesty Flintlock76 That robot voice sounds like "you-it-tah." Is the robot right? It seems to me that You IN ta correct, from I have heard local TV reporters say.
Flintlock76 That robot voice sounds like "you-it-tah." Is the robot right?
That robot voice sounds like "you-it-tah." Is the robot right?
It seems to me that You IN ta correct, from I have heard local TV reporters say.
Thanks Johnny! Up until I got your confirmation and given a lack of consensus I was going to exercise my right as a New Jersey native and pronounce it any way I wanted to! Now that's not necessary.
Wayne
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