Western Railroad Discussion > Coal trains in Colorado

Hi everybody, I mad a recent trip to Colorado (Glenwood springs-Fraser area) and I was just wonderingwhere the coal trains usually come out of and head to.


Thanks

Up near Craig,CO. Down near Montrose, CO. And Price/Wellington Utah area.

SD45X Wrote:
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> Up near Craig,CO. Down near Montrose, CO. And
> Price/Wellington Utah area.

Not Montrose so much as East of Delta, CO.

Rob

They head primarily to Chiles, Kentucky, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, and export to Mexico.

On the afternoon of Oct. 31 I was stopped by a coal train at Delta Co crossing and wondered where it was coming from. Using Google Map I followed the railroad to I think where it come from. On the map is a place called Arch Coal.
Then coming back to Utah on Nov. 2 west of Green River (Wood side) Utah I passed a westbound coal train and wondered if it could have been the same train. This train had 2 plus 2 units and moving extremely slow.
Blaine

3 mines in the Paonia/Somerset Colorado area: Bowie #2 near Bowie, Oxbow (Koch Bros.) at Somerset, and West Elk (Arch Coal) east of Somerset. All three produce low-sulfur, low ash, low moisture, high-BTU coal that is used mostly to mix with high-sulfur coal and is burned in older power plants--mostly in the Midwest and East (TVA is a major customer). Markets for that coal, which is high cost to produce, are shrinking as older plants are either closed or converted to burn natural gas. There is some coal being shipped west--mostly for export, but it is not the lion's share of production.

If the "compliance coal" market in the Midwest and East dries up--and there are some who think that it will, particularly if the current "anti-coal" policies continue at the federal level--the entire UP mainline west of Denver (probably all the way to Helper, Utah), the Craig Branch and the North Fork Branch could be in danger of abandonment. Coal is what keeps it alive--there is not sufficient other traffic to warrant its retention without the coal traffic. And that includes the current routing of the California Zephyr.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/12 10:32 by WW.