Severe traffic jam at work yesterday. Maintenance in the Way had two tracks tied up so 4 mains worth of traffic only had 2. Meaning we sat a lot. I happened to be in a spot to get a few pics of coal mining in progress.
This is the pit at S Antelope. Seen is the big dragline - the bucket holds 2 or 300 tons o' dirt. Also seen is the coal seam. Around 70' in most places. Smaller seams are present but would be too costly to process so they are covered back up when the big seam has been removed.
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Green means go! Sat here for a while & the disp lit us up to move to another parking spot. Can't see it too well, but the light is green over red = straight ahead.
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Another shot of the dragline and seams at S Antelope.
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On the other side of the rail was N Antelope. Here is a big-a$$ shovel filling the big-a$$ Cat haul trucks. The one seen is medium size & holds like 150 tons or coal or dirt.
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Different angle - same scene. Cond was able to hang out the window so you don't have to look through my very dirty windshield.
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Dragline #3 at N Antelope. Barely visible is one of the lesser seams that will be covered up in a few days.
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Different day - different train. Sitting at Reno Jct waiting to get into Jacobs Ranch mine - which was stuffed at the time. Visible ahead is West Thunder Mine.
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The undercutter. This lifts the rail, scoops out the ballast ( rock chunks) tumbles the coal dust & dirt out & replaces it. They just finished for the day, and mechanics are servicing it for tomorrow's work.
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New crude oil transloading facility under construction. Many new oil wells are being plumbed into this. We will be pulling 100 car trains of crude by the end of the year. Which will export through Galveston. Story goes that it will be pumped onto Chinese refinery ships which will process the crude into gas & diesel on the way to Panama where it will pumped into Chinese tankers enroute through the canal & back to Asia.
Big biz.
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I have a few more, but my iPod takes such crappy pics, I'm embarrassed to post them. I'm not bringing my Canon on the train, either! SW