Nostalgia & History > Toss Back Tuesday - More Mixing and Mingling at Madison Yard

A view looking east off the Ill. 203 overpass at the joint C&NW (ex-Litchfield & Madison) - ICG (ex-IC) Madison Yard in Madison, Illinois, just northeast of downtown St. Louis in summer 1977. The C&NW coal train was bound for the Central Illinois Public Service (CIPS) Coffeen Power Station at Coffeen, Ill. about 65 miles to the northeast on the N&W ex-NKP. That service was a bit unusual in using the big rotary-dump coal gondolas (probably Thralls, which were favored by Illinois and Indiana utilities), and which were less common than other car types in the extensive coal traffic through the St. Louis area. And on the adjacent track, an ICG freight arrives from Springfield and north with mixed ex-IC and ex-GM&O power.

All of this mixing and mingling at Madison Yard, including N&W ex-NKP not seen here, was sadly to completely disappear. From a grainy and contrasty Agfachrome that could only be partially repaired, but worth it I think for the content.  Another view of mingling and mixing at Madison Yard previously posted: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,6002437,6002437#msg-6002437

MC

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I like the IC black and white + GM&O black and white consist.

Matthew

Real nice catch. I was thinking the same thing. That IC and GMO black white goes really well as a pair.
JB

Did the coal come from strip mines northeast of Peoria, then at Madison engines re-positioned to the train's south bound north end.?  Wondering why the CNW train is facing/heading north.

Nice shot !
Gary

The mines west of Peoria had closed by that time.  There were still some mines open around Canton, IL, but I doubt that was the source.  Southern Illinois had plentiful coal mines in 1977.

rantoul Wrote:
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> Did the coal come from strip mines northeast of
> Peoria, then at Madison engines re-positioned to
> the train's south bound north end.?  Wondering
> why the CNW train is facing/heading north.

Good question. I'm not sure of the coal's origin. If it had come south from near Peoria on C&NW, then yes the engines would have run around the train from its south end to its north. I did some research, but could not determine the coal's origination mine.

By this date Coffeen had two units. The first unit, opened in 1965, was a mine-mouth plant, with a large underground mine (Hillsboro Mine - Consolidation No. 63) directly adjacent to the power plant, and which was operated by Consolidation Coal (Consol). That mine had an earlier history and operator as the Hillsboro Mine of Truax-Traer Coal Co., which was absorbed by Consol in 1962.

Central Illinois Public Service (CIPS) originally had a contract with Consol which made the mine the exclusive supply source for the power plant. The plant's Babcock & Wilcox-designed boilers were specifically tailored to this coal which was delivered crushed and initially cleaned (run through sorting screens to sift out other material), but not washed. It was thus considered to be "raw" coal, and was delivered by conveyor directly to the stockpile in order to achieve a lower delivered price. The coal Consol was to supply was required to have an average calorific value of 10,235 BTU per pound.  Consol delivered some one million tons per year under this arrangement through 1972.

In 1970 the contract was renegotiated in anticipation of the construction of Unit 2, which then opened in 1972. The contract reduced Consol's delivery obligation from a full commitment to supply the second unit (probably at least doubling the supply) to about 1.7 million tons per year. The contract also allowed CIPS to buy some other coal in small amounts for blending, particularly to raise BTU values as needed. That apparently was an issue, because in 1976 CIPS sued Consol for failure to supply the quantity or quality of coal specified. The matter was then legally dormant for some time while the parties attempted to settle their dispute.

That dormant period would include the date of this image in 1977. So, in seems reasonable that this is a train of higher BTU-value coal that was going to Coffeen for blending with the coal from Consol's mine that was the regular direct supplier. And having found information on all of this, I now recall discussion among local railfans about occasional unit trains to Coffeen to make up for local coal. Among them was a longtime member of the St. Louis Chapter NRHS, Clyde Anderson, who worked as an operations analyst for Missouri Pacific (and later UP in Omaha), and was very knowledgeable about freight traffic patterns in the region, including coal. My recollection is that my understanding was that this was mainly to make up for tonnage shortages as the Consol mine started to have production issues. But reading the legal filing from CIPS' 1976 suit, it seems that such trains were not just to meet tonnage needs, but also coal quality needs.

That still doesn't settle the point of origin. It seems unlikely that it was western low-sulfur coal, which probably would have been lower BTU value, and less likely to serve the quality issue CIPS and Consol had. And since the plants boilers had been built by B&W for Illinois Basin coal, it seems more likely that the train is carrying such coal. That said, I can't recall any origin for Coffeen unit trains from the many large strip mines southeast of St. Louis, such as Arch Coal's big Captain Mine near Cutler, Ill,  or Consol's Burning Star No. 2 Mine near Pinckneyville, both of which were popular for supply to other power plants in the region. They drew from coal seams that probably would have been similar to that near Coffeen, and thus might have met the plant's needs.

Here's a link to the legal case file on this matter. It's not too intricate or filled with legalese, and makes for some interesting reading if you care to pore through such things as an historical matter. Link:https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/527/58/2369145/

Later addition:
Here is a link to documentation on the Hillsboro Mine (Consolidation No. 63) that served the plant as its direct supply (previously Truax-Traer Hillsboto Mine). The mine map shows the relationship to Coffeen Lake, the large cooling lake for the plant which was formed by damming a tributary of Shoal Creek. The power plant was located on the peninsula jutting out into the lake at the leftmost point of the largest room of the mine. If you zoom in on that area, the track unloading loop is faintly visible. Link: https://ilmineswiki.web.illinois.edu/wiki/0871   The mine used the Herrin Seam (No. 6) at a depth of about 500 to 510 feet.

The Herrin was the most heavily mined of all of the Illinois coal seams. It is also found in the large mining area southeast of St. Louis that was mentioned above as a possible alternate source for the Coffeen Plant. Its values in those areas were comparable to those around the plant in Montgomery and Bond Counties, with some higher average calorific BTU values that would have possibly made it a reasonable substitute for mixing.

Comments in this thread have also suggested an alternate supply from near Canton, in Fulton County, Illinois. Coal there would have been from the Springfield Seam (No. 7), which was heavily surface mined, and probably the second most heavily mined seam after the Herrin. As with Herrin Seam coals from southeast of St. Louis, values for Springfield Seam coal in Fulton County are roughly comparable to those for Herrin Seam coal near the plant, so it could have been a substitute for mixing also.

A section from the 2010 Keystone Coal Industry Manual for Illinois. See particularly pp.465 and 466 for descriptions of the comparable values for Herrin and Springfield Seam coals Link: https://wikiimage.isgs.illinois.edu/ilmines/webfiles/Illinois-coalgeology.pdf

In the original post to close, with later revisions:
Years later St. Louis-based Ameren (previously Union Electric) gained control of CIPS and the plant. Ameren in turn later spun off the plant to merchant power vendor Dynergy in 2013, which in 2018 merged with Vistra. They then announced that Coffeen Power Station would go out of service in 2019.

In its final years, coal supply shifted (I believe almost exclusively) from Consol's mine, which by then probably was largely played out, to a large new underground longwall mine near the town of Hillsboro, to the north. The mine served the power plant via a very interesting shuttle unit coal train service via BNSF's Beardstown Sub (the former Burlington "Coal Line" north-south down the middle of Illinois) and NS ex-NKP to the plant. That service got a fair amount of coverage by railfans, including here on TO. Trains came off BNSF and onto the ex-Nickel Plate at a newly constructed junction connection at the town of Sorento, Ill.,  southwest of Coffeen.

There was also at some point a new direct connection loop line built from the mine to the power station. BNSF then continued to deliver western low-sulfur coal  for mixing to help meet ever more stringent air quality standards, still using the connection to the ex-NKP at Sorento to do so.

An interesting story. Thanks for asking. Maybe someone will be able to determine the origin mine for those coal loads. But if not, the reason why they probably were there at Madison Yard that day certainly was an interesting one to explore.

MC



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/25 08:32 by ironmtn.