how many coal cars does take to load one barge.
Well, this article says 110 tons per railcar and 1,750 tons per barge. So about 15.9 cars/barge.
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/16/river-barge-transportation/
The writing contains interesting information about a new lock and dam they’re trying to build at Olmsted, KY on the Ohio River. It’s taken over two decades and consumes just about all of the money paid in to the waterways trust fund. She’s a mess.
Interesting article on how barge companies operate and what it’s taking to build one new lock and dam…
For the proposed Port of Morrow rail-to-barge coal port at Boardman, Oregon, here’s what they say:
http://morrowpacific.com/economic-impact-analysis
Take their approx 3500 tons per barge, with movements downriver in 4-barge clusters, and you have about 14,000 tons of coal per river trip. Pretty close to moving what would be delivered in a single unit train.
So these barges are significantly larger than the type commonly used on the Missippi/Missouri/Ohio rivers. What river will they run on?
Back when CSX owned American Commercial Barge Lines, there was a movement of coal from the mines in Kentucky to Florida Power & Lights plant at Bostwick, FL. Movement was loaded in rail cars to a transhiping location on the Ohio River where it was loaded in barges, ACBL moved the barges from there to Port St. Joe, FL, where the contents were transloaded to rail cars. A short line moved the cars, in trainloads from Port St. Joe to Chattahoochee, FL where CSX then moved the train from there to Bostwick, via Jacksonville. The movements from Chattahoochee to Bostwick and the return of the empties were a daily, 7 day a week movement.
On the one hand, the multiple transloadings would seem expensive, however, since the consignee is contracting and paying for the product on a delivered ton basis, which includes the cost of transportation - it must have been efficient enough to be the low cost alternative at the time. Soon after CSX sold off ownership of ACBL, the movement stopped. Current deliveries of coal to the Bostwick plant by CSX are all rail from mine to destination.
The barges for the proposed Port of Morrow coal port would travel down the Columbia River.
For comparison, here’s a list of barges which Tidewater uses to move grain down the Snake and Columbia rivers, with tonnage capacities shown for each: