BNSF Coal Line in North Dakota

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

I recently returned from a trip to photograph operations on this route and would like to obtain a little bit more information. Any answers that anyone can provide to the following questions will be greatly appreciated:

  1. What is the ruling grade between Glendive, MT and Fryburg, ND and where is it located?

  2. Where does the coal on this route come from? Powder River? Colstrip? Someplace else?

  3. Any idea as to the proportion of coal from the various locations?

  4. Any thoughts on where to look for this information?

Thanks for any help. rkap2.

2

This first bit of info you’re looking for may be in the timetable. BNSF kinda hid that section on their website, luckily I had it bookmarked so here’s the link:

http://www.bnsf.com/ttc//Timetable/pdfs/Montana_No_6.pdf

You can find a grade chart for the Dickinson Sub on page 21. The grades are listed between the station names for both eastbound and westbound.

3

Are the grades for all BNSF lines listed in the timetables? I’ve always wondered what the grade was on the hill in my town, Sioux Falls, S.D.

4

I’m going to say that the coal probably comes from the southern Montana mines, and not the Wyoming Powder River mines. Most Wyoming coal heads east through Nebraska.

5

AFAIK all divisions are available online, thus all subs are. Grades themselves are listed, although the best source AFAIK for grade info are track charts. Of course, not a whole lot of them are available to the public. But timetables should give you a good indication of the grade between two stations. You can find the “index” for timetables at:

http://www.bnsf.com/ttc//Timetable/pdfs/

All the divisions are listed there, and a boat load of other pdfs relating to safety, signalling… the lot.[dinner]

6

Thanks for all the help. rkap2

7

If you know what mines ship over this sub (I think it’s the southern Montana ones and maybe the Decker area in Wyoming) you can find their annual production (and as such also their annual tonnage by rail) in the BNSF Mine guide. I don’t have a link handy where you can find it, but I have a copy on my PC if you want one and cannot find it @ BNSF’s website.

Look what I found: http://www.bnsf.com/markets/coal/mineguide/index.html

I’m pretty sure any coal going over this line is NOT coming from the PRB portion in Wyoming, since almost all of that coal is either going over the Black Hills and Butte subs eastwards, or south out of the Basin and then onto the Canyon sub (?). Anything going west of Gillette is going west, not west → north -->back east.

Looking at the Mine Guide, I see a total of 5 mines being served by BNSF in the Montana portion of the PRB. Let me know if you want a copy of the Mine Guide.

8

Some of that coal heads east on the BNSF/former Milwaukee Road line, accross the top of S.D. as well.

9

The coal moving across North Dakota comes from both Montana and Wyoming mines. The only coal on the former MILW is that bound for the Big Stone Powerstation. There are few crews and few useable passing sidings, and no longer CTC west of Aberdeen.