(The following article by Dustin Bleizeffer was posted on the Casper Star-Tribune website on November 15.)
GILLETTE, Wyo. — Because efficiency is key to being fast, a NASCAR driver is in continuous communication with his pit crew. The crew already knows engine temperature/pressure and has a general diagnosis before the car rolls in for maintenance.
A lumbering, mile-long coal train isn’t exactly the model of NASCAR speed, but some of the same strategies are being used to increase the flow of coal traffic serving Wyoming’s Powder River Basin mining industry.
This week, Union Pacific Railway unveiled a new “run-through” locomotive maintenance shop at its Bailey Yard in North Platte, Neb., which was designed in collaboration with General Electric. GE’s “Expert on Alert” remote monitoring system is in constant communication with locomotives as they return with an empty train of coal cars, providing a diagnosis of needed maintenance 24 hours before the train reaches Bailey Yard.
In recent years Wyoming coal producers bid and paid for more than 2 billion tons of federal coal in the Powder River Basin that they are now obligated to mine for years to come. Four major producers in the southern portion of the basin are working with the region’s two railroads to coordinate systemwide expansions to accommodate an annual statewide production level of up to 600 million tons by 2012.
A good deal of that coal must flow through Union Pacific’s Nebraska Bailey Yard, which is experiencing increased traffic from other commodities as well.
“Coal is king at North Plate,” said Cameron Scott, UP superintendent of train services at Bailey Yard.
Along with a new shop on the westbound side of Bailey Yard, Union Pacific expects to reduce the average maintenance “dwell” time for coal locomotives from 66 hours to 30 hours. It’s the latest in several investments aimed at increasing the flow of Powder River Basin coal, which makes up for 70 percent of the “run-through” traffic at the Bailey Yard.
Both Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway have initiated major capacity expansions after failing to meet demand in recent years. Rail delivery fell 20 million tons short of commitments between Powder River Basin coal producers and the utilities they served in some 35 states in 2005. And although coal production and rail delivery are expected to reach record levels this year, rail delivery is expected to again fall short by 20 million tons.
Despite those shortfalls, the railroads are increasing traffic. Scott said the average number of Powder River Basin coal trains rolling through the Bailey Yard daily has increased from 32 to 35 in the past couple of years. Next year it will increase to 37 or 38, then increase to 40 trains per day the year after that.
“When you have that type of growth, you have to prepare your program here at North Platte. You have to. You’re a conveyor belt,” Scott said.
The new shop has a capacity to simultaneously service two locomotives every eight hours. It is strategically located on the westbound side of the Bailey Yard so incoming locomotives can be quickly diverted to the shop while the train is immediately fitted to a pair of fresh locomotives, maintaining a fluid flow of traffic to and from the Powder River Basin.
At the same time, Union Pacific is scouring the country for new employees to replace a retiring generation of railroad workers and to man expanded operations.
Scott said he’s hiring between 20 and 30 new employees at the Bailey Yard each month. Union Pacific is adding between 10 and 15 new employees each month for its operations between Bill and western Nebraska.
Scott said the hiring program “will continue through 2010, and it’s all driven by the coal program and the natural attrition of the existing, retiring work force.”