I have some questions about coal unit trains. If these questions have already been answered I apologize in advance. I work in Highland Park, IL and I daily see loaded U.P. coal trains heading up (North) to power plants in S.E. Wisconsin and coming back (South) empty.
#1: If I see a loaded Northbound train at 9:00 a.m. on a Monday, when should I expect it to return empty?
#2: The power on that Northbound train will always/sometimes/never be the power on the return trip?
#3: If I see an empty Southbound train at 9:00 a.m. on a Monday, when should I expect it to return loaded?
#4: Do these trains go through Proviso, or is there a cutoff?
All of you, thanks so much for your wisdom and expertise!
You’re probably in as good a position to answer these questions yourself, through observation, as anybody. Maybe somebody here who lives on your side of Chicagoland can be of help.
#1. If you’re seeing these trains in the vicinity of Highland Park, you’re along the Milwaukee Sub (somewhere near U.S. 41). That means you have four or more different power plants to which your coal trains could be going (I’m using “historic” names in most cases; please don’t get on me about that): Com Ed’s trains to Waukegan (CWEX cars, usually), Wisconsin Electric’s trains to either Pleasant Prairie or Oak Creek (WEPX cars), or Alliant Energy’s trains to Sheboygan (EDGX). The answers about unloading times would be different in each of those cases.
#2. Almost always. Keeping the consists intact will save on the number and/or intensity of tests and inspections.
#3. You’d have to consider the next train to be a different train altogether. In most cases, the CWEX and WEPX cars are not exclusive to one of these power plants; their next load in Wyoming could be going somewhere completely different. The EDGX cars are used exclusively to take
You’re probably in as good a position to answer these questions yourself, through observation, as anybody. Maybe somebody here who lives on your side of Chicagoland can be of help.
#1. If you’re seeing these trains in the vicinity of Highland Park, you’re along the Milwaukee Sub (somewhere near U.S. 41). That means you have four or more different power plants to which your coal trains could be going (I’m using “historic” names in most cases; please don’t get on me about that): Com Ed’s trains to Waukegan (CWEX cars, usually), Wisconsin Electric’s trains to either Pleasant Prairie or Oak Creek (WEPX cars), or Alliant Energy’s trains to Sheboygan (EDGX). The answers about unloading times would be different in each of those cases.
#2. Almost always. Keeping the consists intact will save on the number and/or intensity of tests and inspections.
#3. You’d have to consider the next train to be a different train altogether. In most cases, the CWEX and WEPX cars are not exclusive to one of these power plants; their next load in Wyoming could be going somewhere completely different. The EDGX cars are us
I’ve seen loaded WEPX unit trains heading east through Rochelle, Ill., enroute to Wisconsin just as people have said above.
The four-letter code tells us who owns the coal cars, but not where the coal originates.
Is it possible for the non-professional to know what mine site the coal comes from? Also, would the name of the train itself be something like a six-letter alpha code that tells us origin and destination? I’ve heard of this happening but don’t know if the practice is universal.
Even so, since the voices on scanner refer to the train by number and not alpha code or name, is there any way for the non-professional to get such an (alpha) name of the coal train??
I’m quite sure the actual letter codes have since changed since I retired, but FWIW: the CNW trains used to be designated by a 5-letter code; the first two letters indicated origin station, the second two letters indicated destination station, and the last letter indicated commodity.
For example: BTSHC indicated the train originated at the Black Thunder mine (BT), the destination is Sheboygan (SH), and the commodity was coal (C).
I believe the UP puts the commodity letter at the front of their alpha codes (i.e. CBTSH), and also uses numbers; however, I am not sure what the numbers represent.