The Providence and Worcester Railroad may soon be showing up in an unlikely location - New York - as a series of test unit coal trains are being shipped to a power plant near Binghamton, NY.

Scheduled to begin late this week or early next week, Providence & Worcester will originate the first 50-car test coal train at Providence, Rhode Island and deliver it to the AES Corp. Westover Power Plant in Johnson City, New York.

The deal is hinged on the outcome of a 40,000 ton test burn, which could yield a much larger 3-year contract for more than 300,000 tons of coal for the power plant and subsequently the P&W. P&W will handle the 50-car trains of South African coal from Providence to a connection with the New England Central and furtherance to the Vermont Rail System, Canadian Pacific Railway and Norfolk Southern.

The current plan is for P&W to supply a pair of B39-8Es bracketing a pair of cabless B30-7A locomotives for the entire trip to New York. The first train will move out after the arrival of the ship in Providence, which hasn't arrived as of Wednesday morning. When it does arrive at the power plant, the motive power will return to the P&W and pick up the second train. A cycle will start with the arrival of the second train, where the power will then take the empties back to Providence for the next load.

Coal hauling is not new to the P&W, however this particular type of shipment to New York is. There is no timeline on when an actual transportation contract could be reached, as the test burn loads will have to be delivered in eight trains over a period of several weeks.