(The Associated Press circulated the following on July 1.)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — BNSF Railway officials say they are working on keeping coal dust off tracks in Wyoming.
Coal dust was pinpointed as the cause of 2 derailments in 2005 that threatened to disrupt the supply of coal to power plants.
The coal dust comes from coal trains, and causes problems by building up in the track bed and accumulating moisture. That moisture reduces the stability of the track bed, leaving tracks vulnerable to buckling.
Greg Fox is head of the transportation department at BNSF. He says that several possible solutions to the coal dust problem have been proposed and tested.
Fox says the most promising solution would be to apply a chemical to the coal so that dust adheres to it. Tests show that can reduce track dust by up to 95%.
Fox says it’s still unknown whether those chemicals would meet power plants’ requirements.