Coal lost
Coal lost
It would appear to me that the SBS has lost the contract for the eastern coal as well as the western coal. For years the eastern coal has moved via csx from mines to essexville, but now we're recieving a series of laker boats... 2 in the past couple days loaded with coal from toledo. we have coal cars stored everywhere up here too.. both old and new cars.. so I'm thinking that a major contract has been lost.
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Nope
Consumers is not expecting trains for a little while they are repairing some storm damage.
Hopefully it's just the repairs and not a loss of traffic.
The coal for western is on HESR right now.
Consumers is not expecting trains for a little while they are repairing some storm damage.
Hopefully it's just the repairs and not a loss of traffic.
The coal for western is on HESR right now.
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HESR has delivered coal to the SBS in Saginaw for fowarding to Essexville a few times in the last month or so, including tonight when the 5921, 1179 and 1162 brought a western train up from Saginaw. this dosent make any sense to me as the HESR could bring it up directly themselves.
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/8195762@N03/
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Update....
Western Coal is back on SBS again as I saw a string of loaded coal hoppers in the siding along Blackmar Road near Birch Run when I caught the freight coming back from Flint.
Western Coal is back on SBS again as I saw a string of loaded coal hoppers in the siding along Blackmar Road near Birch Run when I caught the freight coming back from Flint.
Steve Davey
Check out some of my photos on other sites:
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=7669
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8195762@N03/
Check out some of my photos on other sites:
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos.php?userid=7669
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8195762@N03/
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In most cases railroads cannot compete with ships.
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i wonder if coal is back to SBS b/c it was on HESR as of sunday i believe is when they took up a train and i thought i seen another in Durand last night but it was 00:30 and i was tired.
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Care to elaborate, Don? The coal has to get to the ship by train, right? Offload, ship, unload...seems like it would be just more efficient to keep the train running on a more direct route to its destination rather than deal with the inconvenience of extra unloading and long shipping routes.Don Simon wrote:In most cases railroads cannot compete with ships.
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Raildude's Dad has looked into this subject and on several occasions and posted reasons why. You're right about the offloading, transporting, etc. but probably due to the ships ability to haul immense loads, even when trucks must be involved for a short haul, ships win out almost every time over rail service. There's some MI utility plants with rail access that have eastern and/or western coal hauled by rail to a water port (Chicago, Toledo, etc.) and then a ship take the coal the rest of the way. The DTE plants in St. Clair come to mind.
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...
Thanks, Don. I may have missed rdd's comments on this in the past (or perhaps my memory is slipping. I'm turning 40 next month and my memory sometimes feels like that of an 80 year old. haha)Don Simon wrote:Raildude's Dad has looked into this subject and on several occasions and posted reasons why. You're right about the offloading, transporting, etc. but probably due to the ships ability to haul immense loads, even when trucks must be involved for a short haul, ships win out almost every time over rail service. There's some MI utility plants with rail access that have eastern and/or western coal hauled by rail to a water port (Chicago, Toledo, etc.) and then a ship take the coal the rest of the way. The DTE plants in St. Clair come to mind.
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I know what you mean about forgetting stuff, JT. I just turned 44. I can recall bits and pieces of what RDD posted but not the whole thing. Perhaps he, or someone else, can enlighten both of us
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...
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Water rates are much cheaper than rail especially when two or more RR';s are involved. I'm really surprised that Consumers never put a dock in at Port Sheldon except the plant originally burned eastern coal and the rail rate the entire route was probably a wash back then compared to a transload in Toledo and also the lack of a deep water harbor in Pigeon Lake.