The Wyoming coal trains are feeding the older electric plants in the Eastern half of the USA. They are very busy. 2-3 locomotives, 120 cars each. Saw lots of them riding the Pony Express Trail in 2001. Impressive.
My current project is hosted on 5 coal cars in Alabama. When I finish hardware/software upgrades next week, those cars will be headed for a fill up at the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. That coal has a low sulfur content necessary to meet emissions requirements. The heat content is lower, so they have to burn more. The plant where I'm working next week burns 45 tons per minute. It is a 4 GW facility. About 1/3 of what California is expecting.
A lot more trains than that!
139,629 carloads of coal a week in the United States.
>>They are very busy. 2-3 locomotives, 120 cars each. Saw lots of them riding the Pony Express Trail in 2001. Impressive.
When they had the older engines they usually used 5 engines, in various arrangements. Sometimes 3 in front and three in back. Sometimes 2 each front, middle, and end.
With the newer engines, and someone more expert than I with have to explain the differences other than brute horsepower, They usually use just 4 engines, 2 at each end.
It's an awesome sight, I never get tired of admiring mans skill and ingenuity.