Eastern Railroad Discussion > Plant Scherer Coal Train Detour

Earlier this morning, I observed a southbound loaded coal train at Winton Plane (North side of Cincinnati).  It had 2 BNSF GE's on the point.  Hopper reporting marks were RWS . . . which I recognized at belonging to Plant Scherer, located on NS's Atlanta South District at Juliette, GA. 

These are 700 series trains on NS -- which receives them at Memphis.  Normal routing is BNSF from loading at Wyoming's Powder River Coal Basin to Memphis.   After the hand-off, NS takes them to Chattanooga, Atlanta, and finally to Juliette.  Empties can take 2 or 3 different routes back to the mine.  Depending on the season, Plant Scherer receives 3 to 5 of these trains per day.

Here is a shot I made several years ago at Juliette.

John

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Interesting, thanks for sharing.

Is flooding on the BNSF taking this train that far out of the normal route?

Holy cow, what type of camera do you use? That is a crisp photo!!

Saw two last week on the Rathole heading south out of Cincy, last Friday at Erlanger, Ky.  702 SB loads with DPUs followed minutes later 701 SB empties, with all 4 on the front. 6/7/19 Erlanger Ky.

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Nikon D300

jwl1973 Wrote:
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> Depending on the
> season, Plant Scherer receives 3 to 5 of these
> trains per day.
>
> Here is a shot I made several years ago at
> Juliette.
>
> John

Several years ago the 3 to 5 trains per day would have been right. Back then upwards of 34 - 36 train sets in service with 2 always in maintenance.
In those days about 123 to 125 hopper train sets. These days 135 hoppers is the standard.
These days the number of Trains In service is around 26.

All great pics, thanks for posting. 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

I've seen two of these detours on the BNSF Chicago Sub. They appear to be handed off from NS at BNSF's Western Avenue Yard in Chicago.

A plug for Juliette . . . .
Not only is it a good place to watch trains.  Across the tracks from where I was standing is the Whistle Stop Cafe . . . . famous for fried green tomatoes . . . .and very popular with tourists.

The day I made the image, I stopped in for lunch at the Whistle Stop and ended up eating with an NS Trainmaster.  I guessed it took 37-38 trainsets at that time to serve Plant Scherer and he confirmed it was 35. But as Phil commented, things have changed somewhat since then..