UTAH COAL LOADING CITIES

spbed · August 17, 2005, 6:44am

Any one know a good city easily accessable where to watch coal loading taking place in Eastern Utah? [:o)][:p]

spbed · August 17, 2005, 9:42am

Thanks I will be as far east as Crescent Jct working my way North to Ogden. I had a old UPRR system map & they showed the old DRGW routes in Eastern Utah & Helper & Soldiers Summit were 2 of the cities they had on the map. I think it would be real interesting to see a coal unit train being loaded. I will also be going down the UPRR Tintic sub in Western Utah south of the GSL. [:o)][:p]

[quote]
Originally posted by Mark_W._Hemphill
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dldance · August 17, 2005, 12:02pm

I think that there is a coal transload facility just south of Wellington. I know that they are trucking coal to that location - but I don’t know if they are shipping from there.

I have also seen coal trains coming off the Schofield branch - but I don’t know the loading location.

There is also a coal loader near I15 near Levan. No trains were loading when I was passed there two weeks ago - but there was activity.

Both the coal loader on Hwy 6 at Castle Gate and the one on the Sunnyside Branch are in the process of being dismantled[:(]. Those were the easiest to see.

dd

dldance · August 17, 2005, 1:16pm

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mark_W._Hemphill

DD: The coal loader south of Wellington is the CV Spur (CV stands for Castle Valley, because that’s where the spur leads). There are actually two loaders nested inside this spur, one the old Arco Beaver Creek loadout that’s the tall concrete silo you can see from U.S. 6, and the other the Savage Bros. loadout that’s much smaller but puts a lot of tonnage through anyway. The Savage loadout is the former Carbonera Coal loadout built circa 1980 at Atlas Spur, just west of Sphinx. It loaded exactly one train and was dismantled after standing idle for several years (the Carbonera coal mine turned out to be too costly to operate once they started it up).

The Schofield (actually spelled Scofield) Branch is actually called the Pleasant Valley Branch. There were three mines on this branch in recent years: White Oaks, Valcam (from Valley Camp) and Skyline. I believe all are closed now. This branch has been up and down in the last 40 years. It was moribund from about 1965 to about 1975, reopened, and will probably be reactivated at some future date.

The loader near Levan is Sufco (Southern Utah Fuel Co.). Sufco is a very big mine about 90 miles to the east.

Sunnyside Mine and Horse Canyon (Geneva) Mine on the Sunnyside Branch and Carbon County railway, respectively, were dismantled over 15 years ago. If you’re seeing something being dismantled now, that would I guess be the small loadout at Banning, which loaded from the Soldier Canyon, B Canyon, and Genwall Mines, among others. I believe all that coal now goes to CV Spur.

Willow Creek is at Castle Gate. There have been at least six distinct mines at Castle Gate, the Willow Creek being the name of the most recent. Willow Creek is the drainage running east right behind the Carbon Generating Station.

Thanks for the name updates. I only know what I see and read on the maps. But I did see a loaded coal train ent

dldance · August 17, 2005, 6:34pm

Mark - I will be relocating to Utah in a month or so. There is a lot of new interest in both coal and oil in that area. I will try to get a better handle on traffic changes.

dd

spbed · August 18, 2005, 7:17am

When I was in Ogden in May I saw a coal train moving east that had come north from SLC. Any guess where it came from in Utah? A fellow railfan who was there & was a DRGW fan said it was loaded in Carbon County. In SLC behind Union Station there is a juncture point & I saw 2 empty coal trains coming east turn south there. Anybody know where they were going for loading?

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mark_W._Hemphill

dd – If you saw a train on the branch, it really was on the branch, not a move to clear the main (which would be pretty weird these days, what with the light traffic and two main tracks). I’ve heard various reports on opening and closing of the mines on that branch, and to be frank, I’ve sort of lost touch from here.

The “dirty dirt” trains go to ECDC – East Carbon Development Corporation – located on the Sunnyside Branch at Columbia Jct. ECDC runs an immense landfill permitted for semi-hazardous materials (non-nuclear) that can’t be dumped into your garden-variety landfill such as the contaminated earth around leaking gas-station tanks, scrapyard dirt, sewage sludge, etc. They’ve been notable among paint-scheme fans in recent years because unrepainted D&RGW SD40T-2s were the typical power.

MWH

Mark

spbed · August 18, 2005, 9:38am

OK thanks I found Emery county on Mapquest & it is east of rt 6 as I am traveling north. [:o)][:p]

[quote]
Originally posted by Mark_W._Hemphill
[

dldance · August 18, 2005, 11:31am

I also saw east bound coal in Weber Canyon and was a bit surprised at first - but I think that this is just another example of economics - it is cheaper for UP to route coal west out of the Price/Helper area through SLC and Ogden, then east on the UP main through Wyoming that it is to move those trains directly west through Grand Junction and the Moffet. The single track Moffet line is heavily impacted by coal going east out of SW Colorado.

dd

spbed · August 18, 2005, 12:54pm

OK sounds practical & that would account for the one coming north from SLC then turning east at Ogden. The other 2 were coming from the west then they turned south south of Union station in SLC. When I was in Rock Springs, Green River, Granger & various other spots west of Green River on the UPRR mail in WY I did not see nary a coal train. Also I did not see any in Weber/Echo canyons or westward towards Ogden. The scenery there though is just terrific. Anyway I will be going up RT 6 so whatever will be will be. Hopefully I will get lucky. If not then I will have to plan a trip to the PRB to see one being loaded. [:o)][:D]

[quote]
Originally posted by dldance