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| Jim Pearson Photography posted Waiting on a fresh crew at Calvert City, Ky On November 17th, 2020 BNSF 6092, 6370 and 9196 head up empty coal drag SPC1 as it sits in the loop at Calvert City Terminal (CCT) waiting for a fresh crew from the Paducah and Louisville Railway to ferry the train back to their yard at Paducah, Kentucky. There a fresh BNSF crew will pickup the train and take it on north for another load of coal. CCT offers its customers unprecedented flexibility through its rail & barge loading, rail & barge unloading, short and long-term storage, and material blending services. Tech Info: DJI Mavic Mini Drone, JPG, 4.5mm (24mm equivalent lens) f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 100. [The Tennessee River is on the other end of the track loop.] Jim Pearson The Terminal, to be known as Calvert City Terminal, is located at Mile 14 on the lower Tennessee River, near its confluence with the Ohio, and began operations in February. Calvert City Terminal is strategically located on the Paducah and Louisville Railroad in a large industrial park at Calvert City, Kentucky. This central location provides ready access to BNSF, CNIC, UP, NS, and CSX railroads, as well as the Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.The new terminal is capable of receiving 3500 tons per hour of rail delivered coal on a 150-car loop track. The rail unloader can handle rotary dump and rapid discharge cars, and the coal can be sent direct to barge or to stockpile. “We built it to address the expanding need for transloading and for stockpile space, but also to provide a competitive advantage for us and our customers to meet today’s transloading needs more efficiently and more precisely,” says Bill Rager, SCH VP and General Manager. The stockpile is capable of holding up to one million tons of various quality coals. Accurate blending can be accomplished all from the stockpile, or by blending the stockpiled coal simultaneously with coal from a train being unloaded. The rated capacity of the barge loadout is also 3500 tons per hour, and Calvert City Terminal intends to load 15 to 20 barges per day The high capacity terminal will operate 24 hours per day, seven days per week, and SCH already has commitments for throughput of about six million tons per year. The terminal offers computer controlled state of the art weighing, blending, and sampling equipment, with both inbound and outbound weighing and sampling. The abilities to reload and blend coal back into railcars and to unload and blend coal from barges are additional features that are planned to be available at Calvert City Terminal in the near future. These facilities will enhance the already substantially flexible capabilities of the terminal. [e-crane was Scotty's source. UP indicates they are up to 4,000 tons per hour. They can store 2 million tons. [UP]] |
When I first saw the empty train at a facility by a big river, I presumed it transloaded Illinois Basin Coal (high sulfur) to barges to be taken down the Mississippi to be transloaded to ships for export. If a country has no coal, they are willing to add scrubbers and/or they don't care about sulfuric acid. But the comments introduced the notion of blending coal. In fact, one of their customers is TVA, for whom the blend Western and Illinois Basin Coal.
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| TVA, p3 |
I saved a satellite image because it is interesting to see how the coal piles move around.
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| Satellite |
If they do also transload coal to barges for export at New Orleans, CCT has to be happy the Olmsted Dam finally opened. It has two 110' x 1200' locks. That means it can lock through a 15-barge tow without having to break it up. And Olmsted is the only lock between this dock and the Gulf of Mexico.
E-Crane has updated some of the barge unloading facilities at power companies that CCT can ship to.
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| E-Crane-bulk |
I should have defined a label for shortlines. The Paducah & Louisville provides connectivity to five Class I railroads.
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| Paducah & Louisville with "Rail Connections" selected |
I knew Watco operated shortlines. I've learned that they also operate coal handling facilities.
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| Paducah & Louisville with "Coal" selected |
A satellite image caught an empty train on the outside track ready to leave and a full train with six locomotives on the inside track ready to unload.
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| Satellite |
When I noticed that the river looked high around the barge loading facility, I looked around. I think this verification of the flood plain between New Liberty and Brookport was worth capturing.
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| Jim Pearson Photography posted That's a lot of coal!! A driver uses a John Deer Bulldozer to push and smooth coal up a very large pile at the Calvert City Terminal in Calvert City, Kentucky. In case you're wondering, it takes a lot of coal and coke trains to build a pile that high and they come from Paducah & Louisville Railway, BNSF, CSX, Union Pacific and occasionally Norfolk Southern to add to the piles at the terminal, where the coal and coke is blended and transloaded onto barges and trains for shipment where ever the customer is. When you're out shooting pictures trackside, don't forget that not every shot needs to have the train! Look for the details and work surrounding the operation as there's always great pictures to be had! Tech Info: Nikon D800, RAW, Sigma 150-600 @ 390mm, f/6.3, 1/800, ISO 900. Fred Heilich: They have to constantly move the coal due to natural heat build-up causing it to smolder and burn especially in the summer. Kim Abbott: We used to have coal cars spontaneously combust enroute... especially the ones they would try filling with, mostly, dust.: We used to have coal cars spontaneously combust enroute... especially the ones they would try filling with, mostly, dust. |
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