Western Railroad Discussion > Powder River traffic ?

Ive been to Powder River twice, the last time about eleven years ago. Traffic was heavy. How much has the slowdown in the coal business affected traffic? In percentage, how much of a drop in business has there been? Thanks.

Posted from iPhone

I was in the PRB for two days in May 2019. Over the course of 10-11 hours we saw 18 trains one day and 20 the next. I know we missed some as we stopped for lunch away from the tracks and moved from location to location. We covered the line from Donkey Creek to East Walker.

Jim

There is no need for quadruple track on the amount of traffic that Jim saw in May 2019.  Just think of that investment which they will probably never need again.

Randy Lundgren
Elgin, TC

i thought i heard one of the mains near logan hill was being used to store/park mty coal hoppers.  anybody know it this is true?

thanks for any info.........

66

goneon66 Wrote:
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> i thought i heard one of the mains near logan hill
> was being used to store/park mty coal hoppers. 
> anybody know it this is true?
>
> thanks for any info.........
>
> 66

Why on earthe would they store cars on a one (1) per cent grade?  That makes no sense to me at all.  Logan Hill is a nasty grade, and the
other way is just as bad, just not as long.  I would think any stored cars would be well away from Logan Hill, certainly not near or on it.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

The railroads will park cars on the track account it is available. They have CYA rules for securing cars on grade. If that includes 100% applied handbrakes, push tests to prove they are secured and perhaps chaining the bottom car and other cars through the length of the cars that is for the crews to deal with.

If you want to be there for the absolute peak of traffic you missed it by quite a few years, if you want to see a lot of coal trains the PRB is still the place to go.

I was able to go there a few years ago for my second visit, when the traffic was said to be slow, They simply ran a lot of trains at certain times of the day, as opposed to all hours of the day and night. There's something about getting trains into the area later in the day, three trains trying to get through the crossovers became five trains pretty quick.

If you want to see lots and lots of trains at all hours, the BNSF main in Arizona and New Mexico has a larger train count, just depends on what you're looking for.

ntharalson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > i thought i heard one of the mains near logan
> hill
> > was being used to store/park mty coal
> hoppers. 
> > anybody know it this is true?
> >
> > thanks for any info.........
> >
> > 66
>
> Why on earthe would they store cars on a one (1)
> per cent grade?  That makes no sense to me at
> all.  Logan Hill is a nasty grade, and the
> other way is just as bad, just not as long.  I
> would think any stored cars would be well away
> from Logan Hill, certainly not near or on it.  
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

cuts of cars have been tied down on numerous grades on the needles/seligman subs (ash hill, cadiz, essex, goffs, athos, harris, and walapai).  just secure them with handbrakes.  no problem..........

66   



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/19 10:43 by goneon66.

You need to put our train count in perspective. We were only in one place at any one time. The Orin Sub is over 100 miles long and trains were entering and leaving the line that we would never see. Even with our small sample size it's obvious that it's a very busy line. Expand our 10 hour sample to 24 hours and you're up to 50 trains. Consider the traffic not visible from our single obsevation point and the train count would be much higher. It is still a very impressive show.

BTW we didn't see any hopper cars sets tied down during our trip

Jim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/19 10:34 by JayK.

We were up on Logan Hill May 18 of this year and no cars were stored on the hill but were stored on each side of it.  First shot is looking north and the second one is looking south on this snowy/rainy day.  Dan Tracy

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JayK Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was in the PRB for two days in May 2019. Over
> the course of 10-11 hours we saw 18 trains one day
> and 20 the next. I know we missed some as we
> stopped for lunch away from the tracks and moved
> from location to location. We covered the line
> from Donkey Creek to East Walker.
>
> Jim

Are these train counts loaded trains only or a combination of loads and empty?

Posted from iPhone

On average for April and May the mines in the PRB loaded 50 trains a day. I would expect the numbers to be similar even with two mines closed the coal is still being burned so the other mines can pick up the slack easily on the spot market.
Compare today with 10 years ago when they loaded 120-140 trains a day it may seem quiet but still 100 trains enter and exit the region every day.

Posted from iPhone