The town in which I live (Alliance, Ohio), as well as the model railroad club to which I belong (Sebring, Ohio), are alongside the NS mainline between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Tons of traffic from Chicago and points west pass through on the way to the east coast, and the reverse is true as well, obviously. But yesterday I saw two trains that just made me curious and I knew that someone here almost certainly knows the answer. On the way to our train club, I saw a lengthy, loaded, coal train traveling westbound with two locomotives in front, two in the middle, and two more at the rear. A hour or two later, I saw a similar train, unloaded, traveling eastbound. I realize that coal in Ohio was as common as grass in your lawn, and even now is not at all uncommon, though nothing like it was in years past. The thing that got me curious was that, while most of the motive power represented the home team of Norfolk Southern, both trains had a Union Pacific loco up front with its NS host. Obviously then, these trains were going/coming from farther west than Chicago. So where out west would trains be taking coal? West Virginia coal (my best guess at its origin, though it could be from farther south) has had a hard time because it almost all has a high sulfur content and requires expensive scrubbers to meet air quality standards. Some of the plants in the Ohio River valley are so equipped. But who would be using it out west? Or, is it heading west for export to the Pacific Rim somewhere? Does anyone know?
95% of all BNSF coal trains are for export to China, only one gets delivered to a steam plant in Centralia, Wa. Maybe this was a reroute? I know prices have soared lately, and big company's are stockpiling any coal they can get they're hands on.
Historically, the biggest factor in the price of coal - Delivered - is the cost of the various modes of transportation involved in getting the commodity from the mine to the end user. Needless to say, the further distance the coal is transported, the higher the delivered cost. In most cases, the price of the coal itself is only a small fraction of the delivered price of the commodity to the end user. With you observing Westward movement at Alliance, OH my best guess would whatever steel mills are still operating in the Chicago/Gary area. Feature that it would be far too costly for coal to cross the continent for export through Pacific Coast ports. Baltimore and Newport News/Norfolk are the coal export ports on the Atlantic Seaboard. At the present time, the Port of Baltimore is effectively shut down for coal exports account of the MV Dali striking and collapsing the Francis Scott Key Bridge at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor, thus keeping deep draft colliers from entering or leaving the harbor. Normal depth of the channel serving the port allows a draft of 50 feet for bulk carriers. April 25 wreck clearance cleared at single width channel for vessels with a draft of 35 feet. Wreck clearance is still underway with opening of the channel to normal depth forecast for the end of May. During my working career I was involved with the billing of coal being exported from both of CSX's coal piers at Baltimore and Newport News in the late 1970's and early 1980's. At the time I was involved, the maximum draft allowed in Baltimore was 39 feet. Vessels would dock in Baltimore and load to their maximum draft, which would be between 50K and 60K tons. After leaving Baltimore the vessels would steam down the Chesapeake Bay and go to one of the Newport News loading piers and take on another 100K tons of coal or more before setting said to their ultimate destination across the seas. Bailey Mine in Southwest Pennsylvania, serviced by NS for both NS & CSX loads multiple trains per day. Last I heard they were loading SEVEN 130 car trains of 100 ton cars per day. Coal that is destined electric producing power plants is known as STEAM coal. Coal that is destined steel plants is known as METALLURGICAL coal. Each mine's coal has chemical properties that are unique to that mine and grade of coal. Each end user of coal desires their coal to have specific chemical properties so that it will work best in the use they are making of it
Many of your suggestions are things that I had considered. Often, West Virginia export coal goes by barge down the Ohio River. As I said, it isn't that coal trains are rare in these parts, but the Union Pacific motive power made me wonder just how far west it was going? Wouldn't Chicago/Gary steel mills be serviced by NS or CSX?
In 21st Century railroading, for the most part, power is power - it doesn't make that big of a difference who the owner of it actually is. With all the various run-through operations the carriers have with each other, everybody is using everybody's power. Power gets interchanged between carriers just like cars do. Each of the carriers have 'Horsepower Hour Accounts' with each other. Every month the carriers will settle up any outstanding differences in accordance with the AAR rules in place for the for the purpose. Carriers do keep track of their Horsepower Hour Accounts and will make management decisions about it from time to time. If a carrier is short of power for their 'current needs', holding on to foreign power for a few trips helps them through the shortage.
Cool. I did not know that. I assumed that non-NS power on NS trackage was originating or en route to that corporation's home trackage. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
When I was working (Retired in 2016) I was able to look at applications that kept track of the various Horsepower Hours accounts for CSX. In viewing those accounts - you would see other than Owner power listed in that Owner's Horsepower hours account - seeing NS engines listed as being in the BNSF or UP Horsepower Hours account was not a unusual happening - a BNSF run through is interchanged from the BNSF to CSX with NS power in the engine consist - that NS power will remain in CSX's BNSF Horsepower Hours account until it is interchanged to another road or back to NS. In my quick perusal of the various accounts there were always at least handful of 'foreign' power in any to the Horsepower Hours accounts of the other carriers. Most of those Horsepower Hours accounts had engines from every Class 1 carrier in each of the accounts.
