i grew up in manitowoc and as a kid i would watch the c&nw service the coal power plant. In the mid 80s i believe the the shaker for the coal cars was removed and the railroad stopped bringing coal to the plant. why? isnt rail service cost effective to these power plants? Most are served by rail. why did manitowoc stop?
According to the plant’s website:
The plant is fueled by a combination of resources including coal, petroleum coke, natural gas, fuel oil, and waste paper pellets. Fuel is brought in by lake vessel or by rail car, and in some cases by truck.
Originally designed to burn high grade stoker coal, MPU has invested in pollution control and fuel handling capabilities to burn lower cost western fuels.
Coal storage is located on the Manitowoc River, near the car ferry dock, and just east of the power plant.
When we took the SS Badger across the lake from Manitowoc last summer it appeared as though coal was still arriving by rail. There were a number of coal cars staged just south of the carferry dock. Tom
About a year ago, I had spoken w/ the regional Supt for CN about the Mtwc yard and a possible development project there. CN would not part w/ any yard space as they indicated that they should be getting a unit train of coal 3 - 5 day per week for the plant. At that time there was a lot of work going on along the water side to build out the plant as well.
Since even the last C&O carferries (City of Midland 41, Spartan, Badger) were built as coal-burners, the hoppers staged by the carferry dock were probably for fueling the boats.
Several large Commonwealth Edison plants receive their coal by barge. The coal is transloaded from rail to barge at Havana on the Illinois & Midland.
The carferry’s have not been able to load coal via rail for quite some time. Several years ago the rails were removed from the dock approaches on both sides of the lake. I believe the coal for the boats is now simply trucked and dumped. Tom
I’m pretty sure that the boats got all of their coal at Ludington, and probably carried at least enough for a round trip. Had they needed coal at the other end, they would be utilizing some of their own cars. As OldBNfan said, it was no doubt trucked in after the tracks were removed to the slips (and probably for some time before), but PM and C&O used longitudinal hoppers (first ore-type cars, then larger former ballast hoppers) to load the boats. The coal came from mines on the C&O, at least when they were in charge.
You’re completely correct Carl. I used to spend hours watching the car ferry’s loaded and unloaded in Ludington (we vacationed there), including shoving coal cars on to fuel the boats. Having ridden the boats several times as a kid, I never saw coal loaded on the Wisconsin side of the lake.
That all seems to have reversed itself now, though. My folks have a place in Ludington now and never see any coal brought on board while over in Wisconsin there is a pile of coal with a payloader and dump truck standing by to load. I have no idea where the coal comes from - given it’s now loaded on the Wisconsin side, I suspect it’s Western Coal. Tom
Thanks for the info everyone!