"Units and In-Service Dates: 593 MW (1971), 593 MW (1972)" The planned closure was Feb 21, 2018. The plant switched from mine mouth lignite to Powder River Basin coal in Sep 2011. [gem]
The power company created Fairfield Lake for cooling water.
Steve Kole added nine photos to an album with 171 photos with the comment: "Texas Utilities Big Brown (BBSES) Lignite Coal Surface Mine & Power Plant-Fairfield, TX."
Steve Kole shared
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| 2 Joseph Norman: That’s a big cut 🫣 Steve Kole: Joseph Norman 120’ wide with 65 cy Dragline. |
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| 4 Texas Utilities (TXU) Big Brown Lignite Coal Surface Mine-Farifield, TX--1976 Photo shows CAT D9H Crawler Dozer preparing a walkway for the 1500-W Bucyrus-Erie Dragline (65 cy) seen in the background. --Steve Kole Photos-1976 --UPDATE NOTICE as of 04-27-21 I have 34-Facebook Albums of Historical Photos totaling over 1,000 photos. Majority are in color; many have interesting written descriptions. --FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THE PHOTOS, please acknowledge photos were taken by either Skeet or Steve Kole as indicated. --Steve Kole E-mail: awssixwheeler@gmail.com Marc Awalt: No fond memories of the angle blade.Steve Kole: Marc Awalt I understand, it was a research and developments project that needed a lot of tuning and tweaking. After 30-years of scratching my head and winding my watch I think I have come up with the ultimate Wheel Dozer-Loader-Tractor that can effectively handled a dozer blade at a 45-degree angle of attack. If you care to see my concept it is in the following PDF Presentation which you can access by clicking on the following LINK: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.252778299214324&type=3 |
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The power company created Fairfield Lake for cooling water.
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| 1982 Fairfield and Young Quads @ 24,000 |
They did a good enough job of land recovery that I could not tell what was mined without looking at the topo map. Which makes me wonder why they didn't recover what was probably their last strip.
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"According to the Sierra Club, Big Brown’s closure ended the largest source of sulfur dioxide in the US in 2016, based on EIA data." I thought PRB coal was supposed to be low sulfur. [gem] Below explains the SO2 was because the switch to PRB was not 100%.
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| PowerMag "1. Thoroughbred. Luminant’s Big Brown Plant currently burns a mix of 42% PRB coal and 58% lignite. The PRB portion is slated to grow to 60% in the coming years. Courtesy: Luminant" This source rates the plant as1,190netMW. It used supercritical boilers. "The firebox size and convection surface tube spacing of a boiler designed to burn lignite are much larger than for a boiler designed for an Eastern bituminous coal. This fact enabled Big Brown to avoid significant boiler tube changes to accommodate increased percentages of PRB coal in its fuel mix." |
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| CommercialLiabilityPartners The plant was sold in Dec 2019 for redevelopment. |
I've seen enough videos of smokestacks being blown up that I didn't even bother to look at the ones for this plant.
While looking for evidence of this mine, I noticed a bunch of white dots further to the south. When I zoomed in, my first thought was a recently built wind farm. But when I looked closer I determine each "dot" is an oil well. And according to Google Earth, these dots have existed since at least 1995.
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And I noticed some strip mining. I quickly found two draglines that are still operating. This mine will have to wait for another day.
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The owner of the power plant, Vistra Energy, was leasing the cooling lake and surrounding land to Texas for free. Over the decades, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department invested $70m to maintain it as a state park. When the plant closed in 2018, Vistra gave TPWD a two-year notice for lease termination. It has now been sold to a private developer that "plans to transform the park into an exclusive community with multi-million dollar homes and a private golf course." The state did not do anything during the two year notice. Now a state representative is filling a bill. But Vistra has given a 120-day notice to vacate the property before it is turned over to a new owner. [kxan]
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| Steve Kole posted via album via albums DEMAG Cross-Pit (XPS) Spreader Under Erection at Texas Utilities Mining Companys' Big Brown Lignite Coal Surface Mine near Fairfield, TX--1985 Photo shows the DEMAG Cross-Pit Spreader Conveyor (XPS) Mounted on Six Crawler Tracks which are same Size Crawler Tracks as on Space Shuttle Transporter at Cape Kennedy. XPS weighs 6-Million lbs. In addition Twin Compact Bucket Wheel Excavators on Crawler Tracks weighs an additional 2-Million lbs. Total Purchase Price was $27 Million. Moves 20 Million Cubic Yards of Earth per Year. Saved Customer $20 Million per Year vs. using Fleet of 30-Conventional Twin Engine Scrapers. First-Of-A-Kind in the World. Idea conceptualized and sold by Steve Kole while employee for Plains Machinery Company. My sales commission for work done on this XPS project was in the mid six figures. I made my first crude conceptualized scale drawings in June-July of 1980. DEMAG spent some two plus years Engineering and doing Wind Tunnel Test Calculations, etc., in order to prove out the feasibility of the concept. This was done at a high risk to DEMAG since they had to spend $1 Million Plus in design, engineering, testing, etc., without yet having a firm purchase order from the customer. Once DEMAG successfully completed their design, engineering, testing and pricing calculations a $27 Million Purchase Order was issued jointly to DEMAG and Plains Machinery Company in Jan 1983 from the customer, Texas Utilities Mining Company based in Dallas, TX. The XPS was placed into service in 1986 at Texas Utilities Big Brown Lignite Surface Mine at Fairfield, TX. It required some 250 Permit Truck Loads to haul the many pieces of XPS from Port of Houston to Fairfield, TX. Also it required 14 months to assemble and erect machine once XPS pieces arrived on job site. XPS, etc., was engineered and manufactured in a Bolt-Together-Pieces-Design at DEMAG Factory in Dusseldorf, Germany. To review an impressive 27:41 minute color video on this DEMAG XPS Cross-Pit Spreader with short tail-end video segment about Plains Machinery Company, including yours truly, please click on the LINK pasted immediately below: The above DEMAG XPS, etc., video can also be reviewed on my website listed below. Once on my website's home page look in the left- hand margin / index and select the following: DEMAG XPS Cross-Pit Spreader The above listing is located about half way down the left-hand margin / index. Website: www.six-wheeler.com or (Either Domain Name will take you to the same website) Below is a YouTube LINK to a 2:23 minute Trailer Video done by the Discovery Channel on the Tex Utilities Sister XPS working at their Winfield South Lignite Coal Mine near Mount Pleasant, TX. You can also see this same Trailer Video on my Website's Home Page by selecting: Discovery Channel Video. To see additional photos on the XPS please click on the LINK directly below and it will take you to my FB Album titled: DEMAG Cross-Pit (XPS) Spreader. Joe A. White was the Texas Utilities Project Engineer who was put in charge of the Erection / Assembly of the DEMAG Cross-Pit (XPS) Spreader and the Twin DEMAG Bucketwheel Excavators (BWE). --Joe A. White Photos-1985 --UPDATE NOTICE as of 03-03-20 I have 17-Facebook Albums of Historical Photos totaling over 1,000 photos. Majority are in color, many have interesting written descriptions. To view my FB Albums, follow these 2-Steps. --MOBILE DEVICES: Toggle down Facebook Page, select the following: Step 1.) Photos (Gray oval tab under the word Post) Step 2.) Photos----Uploads----Albums----Videos (Select Albums and my 17-FB Albums will appear) --PC DESKTOP COMPUTERS: Click LINK below: --FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THE PHOTOS, please acknowledge photos were taken by Joe A. White as indicated. --Steve Kole or (Either Domain Name will take you to the same Website) [Steve also has an album for the mine and power plant.] |
Steve Kole added two photos. Both have the same comment:
Texas Utilities (TXU) Big Brown LigniteCoal Surface Mine-Farifield, TX--1976Photo shows 1500-W Bucyrus-Erie Dragline (65 cy) seen in the background with a Bucyrus-Erie Electric Shovel (16 cy) seen in the foreground.At the time I took this photo, I was employed byJ. W. BARTHOLOW MACHINERY COMPANY as a Junior Field Salesman charged with responsibility of obtaining J. W. BARTHOLOW MACHINERY a toehold into the new emerging Texas Lignite Coal Surface Mining and Coal Power Plant Industry.At that time, J. W. Bartholow was the North Texas Dealer for KOEHRING Hydraulic Excavators, Cranes and Draglines as well as multiple other lines of Construction and Road Building Equipment.Within a short time after this photo was taken, the J. W. BARTHOLOW MACHINERY COMPANY gave up the KOEHRING account in order to take on the AMERICAN Crane account. The KOEHRING accout was then immediately picked up by Waukesha-Pearce Industries (WPI).--Steve Kole Photos-1976------------------NOTICE----------------------I have 34-Facebook Albums of Historical Photos totaling over 3,000 photos.Majority are in color; many have interesting written descriptions.To view my 34-FB Albums, follow these 2-Steps.--MOBILE DEVICES:Toggle down Facebook Page, select the following:Step 1.) Photos (Gray oval tab under the word Post)Step 2.) Photos------Uploads------Albums------Videos(Select Albums and my 34-FB Albums will appear)--PC DESKTOP COMPUTERS: Click LINK below:https://www.facebook.com/steve.kole.988/photos_albums--FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD THE PHOTOS, please acknowledge photos were taken by either Skeet or Steve Kole as indicated.--Steve KoleE-mail: awssixwheeler@gmail.com
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| 2 Steve Kole shared Danny Anderson: Very neat and well maintained pit. Peabody Northern mine looked like that (most of the time). |
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| Nick Koba Jr. commented on Danny's comment 1974 |
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