Eastern Railroad Discussion > Keep Them Coal Drags Running....

West That Is On The NS Alabama East End District

 Of late on a few occasions there have been as many as two a day west bound empty PRB coal drags running on the Alabama East End District instead of running north out of Atlanta to Chattanooga, then west to Memphis. Not certain if this will be the norm as part of the NS's new operating plan? We shall see. Works for me!!! 

Loaded BNSF PRB coal trains are interchanged to the NS at Memphis and run east to Chattanooga, then south over Braswell Mt. to Atlanta and on south to Juliette Georgia to Georgia Powers' plant Scherer just north of Macon Georgia.Loads are even numbered as: 732, 734 & 736. Empties are odd numbered as: 733, 735 & 737. At last account I had, there were about 28 130-135 car sets of RWSX, HYWX and a few other reporting marked cars in service to this Georgia Power plant. 

#1. Loaded PRB NS 736 (PRB WYOMING - GP JULIETTE, GEORGIA) south bound on the NS Atlanta North Districtcrests the top of Braswell Mountain at Milepost 109.0H.

#2. Empty west bound NS 799-12 with two BNSF units and the standard of 135 cars @7,100ft. rolls over the Bremen Diamond on the NS Alabama East End District. The consist was sorted out with about 2/3 HYWX Thrall manufactured hoppers on the head end with the remaining 1/3 RWSX Trinity manufactured hoppers trailing. This trains symbol tends to make me think this one is headed to SOCO Yard in Marion, AR for maintenance. There were no DPU's applied to this one. 

SOCO (Southern Company) owners of Alabama Power / Georgia Power built a yard in Marion back in the early 2000's for the purpose of doing car maintenance on their coal hoppers. The BNSF line into Memphis sees a good number of RWSX, HYWX & JHMX coal drags on a daily basis. The JHMX cars service Alabama Powers Plant Miller and run on BNSF tracks out of Memphis into Birmingham Alabama.

#3. A west bound NS 733-18(GP JULIETTE, GEORGIA - PRB WYOMING) runs under the recently installed new cantilever east signal bridge at CP Taylor on the NS Alabama East End District.

 ...more to follow....

 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

---

---

---

#4. Running on the main just past CP Sewell, NS 733-18 casts a wide shadow in what little sun light is available this time of year at this location. 

#5. With little to no sun light available the BNSF unit # 9431 brings up the rear in DPU mode. On the loaded south bound trip into Plant Scherer the #9431 was leading. At Scherer when needed they can reverse the entire train set before sending back north. Wish they hadn't done that on this one. 

#6. As Douglasville local NS A25 occupies the Baggett / Villa Rica siding another NS 733-29 heads west bound on the mainline just east of Villa Rica Georgia. ...more to follow.... 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

---

---

---

#7. BNSF #6140 along with a CREX #1348 provide the head end power for this west bound NS 733-29 move. 

#8. BNSF #8818 & # 6021 bring up the rear in DPU service. 

#9. On the last day of 2018 it was as most days in December have been, under cloudy skies and a lite drizzle. I wasn't even planning on going out this day but when I heard that an empty coal drag was headed west I couldn't resist. Off to Temple I headed and set up just east of CP Taylor. To be honest, if it weren't for photo editing software this one would have never made the cut. Not sure that it still does!!! 

Happy New Year Folks and always BE SAFE when you are out track side!!!

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

---

---

---

You are the coal drag daddy

gmojim

Nice to see the documentaion in photography of the coal drags; will always remeber these as a kid as coal back then seemed to be every other train. Now you have intermodal, ethanol, oil and etc. Again really enjoy you work and you hit the nail on the head for me witih this "Keep Them Coal Drags Running." Thank you...

Some interesting locations in your photos. I wonder why PRB coal rather than coal from much closer KY. WV. or PA. ? 
John

jmbreitigan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Some interesting locations in your photos. I
> wonder why PRB coal rather than coal from much
> closer KY. WV. or PA. ? 
> John

Cleaner burning! At one time Plant Scherer burned Eastern coal in two of it's four units. I don't know the exact numbers but a ton of Eastern coal
will produce more BTU's then a ton of Western coal. At the time in the 90's when EPA regulations were tightening Georgia Power decided in the long run it
would cost less to meet the ever increasing demands of the EPA  by burning Western coal Vs Eastern coal. So in the early 2000's they went to 100% PRB coal.
 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA