Western Railroad Discussion > Mine to Power Plant Private Rail

Now that the Escalante Western and the Black Mesa and Lake Powell have closed, I believe there are only three private rail lines that run from mine to power plant.   They are: Luminent Power in Texas Kosse mine to plant: Navajo Mines and Deseret Power Railroad.

Are there any others?

28 Sept 2011 Deseret Power Railway (DPR) 1, 4 and 3 passed Midway Siding, near Dinosaur, CO.

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What about the one south of Douglas, WY which was all on private property which ran with 1 GP38(-2) and an SW1200?

I recall that the power plant had converted to gas. But my memory may be faulty on that point.

I stopped there once decades ago and the GP had just left northbound with mtys to load. The supervisor asked if I wanted a tour of the plant while I waited for the return. I said sure so he assigned a nice guy who was on duty in case someone did not show up for work or went home sick. If not needed he swept floors cleaned idle machines and just kept busy.

He took me down to the bottom underground space where the coal got finely ground to the size of baking soda. Then it was mixed with water and blown into the firebox under air pressure where it nearly exploded into the fire. From there we worked our way through every open office and control space in the plant. We even went to the collector half way up the stack which was taking ash out of the stack.

No cameras allowed in the plant though I was allowed to get the locomotives as long as the coal plant was not in the background.

What a memorable day.

fbe Wrote:
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> What about the one south of Douglas, WY which was
> all on private property which ran with 1 GP38(-2)
> and an SW1200?

The Dave Johnson Power Plant, east of Glenrock is still coal-fired as far as I know but their was talk last year of switching to either natural gas or a locally produced petroleum product.  The coal now arrives via BNSF off its Casper to Cheyenne line.  The fate of the SW1200 is unknown but the GP38-2 is now #5 at the power plant in Joseph City, Arizona.

Wyoming is trying to keep the Johnston plant open. The owner plans to shut it by 2023.


https://trib.com/business/energy/rules-to-keep-coal-fired-power-plants-burning-in-wyoming-are-expected-soon/article_f6feb1f0-21c6-54b6-8de9-91cb98615263.html

Posted from Android

Joseph City which is due to close shortly.

Out 

NormSchultze Wrote:
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> Now that the Escalante Western and the Black Mesa
> and Lake Powell have closed, I believe there are
> only three private rail lines that run from mine
> to power plant.   They are: Luminent Power in
> Texas Kosse mine to plant: Navajo Mines and
> Deseret Power Railroad.
>
> Are there any others?

I think the Kosse plant is either shut down or will shut down soon.

For those interested, the Deseret Power Ry in western Colorado and eastern Utah is very much in business today. A couple of years ago Deseret Generation reached a deal with a group of environmental groups regarding the future of the Bonanza Power Plant that the Deseret Power Ry serves. The plant now has a “coal budget” of 20 million tons of coal.  In talks with Marty Belmont, Deseret Power Ry’s Superintendent a couple of years ago, he said that much coal should last until around 2030 or so. After that, more negotiations might prolong the life of the plant using coal if additional polution control equipment ,such as scrubbers are added; or not.  There are more coal leases available in the vicinity of the Deserado Mine if it can continue mining.  If all else fails, the plant sits in the middle of a large natural gas field, so switching to gas would be a pretty obvious choice. But of course, no railroad is needed to transport natural gas!           Dick Ebright,  Roosevelt, Utah



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/01/20 12:22 by 2ebright.

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fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> He took me down to the bottom underground space
> where the coal got finely ground to the size of
> baking soda. Then it was mixed with water and
> blown into the firebox under air pressure where it
> nearly exploded into the fire. From there we
> worked our way through every open office and
> control space in the plant. We even went to the
> collector half way up the stack which was taking
> ash out of the stack.
>

Pulverized coal is not mixed with water. As a matter fact during the pulverization process the surface and inherent moisture of the coal is reduced as much as possible. The coal at Glenrock usually requires inlet air temperature of 450 to 550 to reach an outlet temp of 150 before being blown into the boiler furnace burners. Rainy days or crummy coal may mean the 150 is not possible. I worked on those pulverizers at that plant more than once.

Yes, it's still coal fired, it's one of the only customers that comes into Coal Creek mine at the moment, there's one scheduled to come in sometime tomorrow morning.   And since I live across the street from the mainline in Douglas, I hear or see these trains occasionally go back and forth even when I'm not at work (coal train operator at the Arch PRB locations)   and they just added a 2nd trainset to the rotation. 

Triva:  The original rail line from Dave Johnston to their mine, after it was closed, was salvaged and not for scrap.  Some of it ended up at Antelope Coal Mine when they added some inbound tracks many years ago, laid against the wear.    One of the trackworkers told me this, and said the dates on the rails were from the early 60s.  

BNSF6400 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> fbe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What about the one south of Douglas, WY which
> was
> > all on private property which ran with 1
> GP38(-2)
> > and an SW1200?
>
> The Dave Johnson Power Plant, east of Glenrock is
> still coal-fired as far as I know but their was
> talk last year of switching to either natural gas
> or a locally produced petroleum product.  The
> coal now arrives via BNSF off its Casper to
> Cheyenne line.  The fate of the SW1200 is unknown
> but the GP38-2 is now #5 at the power plant in
> Joseph City, Arizona.

DD40 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> fbe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> >
> > He took me down to the bottom underground space
> > where the coal got finely ground to the size of
> > baking soda. Then it was mixed with water and
> > blown into the firebox under air pressure where
> it
> > nearly exploded into the fire. From there we
> > worked our way through every open office and
> > control space in the plant. We even went to the
> > collector half way up the stack which was
> taking
> > ash out of the stack.
> >
>
> Pulverized coal is not mixed with water. As a
> matter fact during the pulverization process the
> surface and inherent moisture of the coal is
> reduced as much as possible. The coal at Glenrock
> usually requires inlet air temperature of 450 to
> 550 to reach an outlet temp of 150 before being
> blown into the boiler furnace burners. Rainy days
> or crummy coal may mean the 150 is not possible. I
> worked on those pulverizers at that plant more
> than once.

My tour was some time around 1973-1974. The coal and water were not mixed as a slurry the water was misted with the finely ground coal. I was told this was to increase the density of the fire. That's all I know.