Beesley Point Secondary

[ReadingAve]

Anyone else notice the unusual trains of empty coal cars passing through Barrington yesterday and Monday around 5:30pm? Yesterday, the consist was pulled by (5) locomotives. I don't see that too often on those tracks. I wonder if the power plant is going back on-line??

[Ken W2KB]

Anyone else notice the unusual trains of empty coal cars passing through Barrington yesterday and Monday around 5:30pm? Yesterday, the consist was pulled by (5) locomotives. I don't see that too often on those tracks. I wonder if the power plant is going back on-line??

That would be consistent with the upcoming peak demand season. I believe that the B. L. England Generating Station remains in PJM Interconnection capacity planning model for the next several years. I don't know how often the station is dispatched. That said, given the very low cost of natural gas, oil and coal units run far fewer hours than they used so. So there may not be need for as many coal deliveries for considerable amount of time.

[glennk419]

Anyone else notice the unusual trains of empty coal cars passing through Barrington yesterday and Monday around 5:30pm? Yesterday, the consist was pulled by (5) locomotives. I don't see that too often on those tracks. I wonder if the power plant is going back on-line??

That would be consistent with the upcoming peak demand season. I believe that the B. L. England Generating Station remains in PJM Interconnection capacity planning model for the next several years. I don't know how often the station is dispatched. That said, given the very low cost of natural gas, oil and coal units run far fewer hours than they used so. So there may not be need for as many coal deliveries for considerable amount of time.

I've read that they normally keep a 90 day supply of coal on hand. Given the very mild winter, there were probably only a handful of times that the plant would have been brought online in the last several months which means that they still have a good stockpile. That being said, if the empties are being pulled (from presumably FREE storage), they just might be making some room down there for a couple inbounds to stock up for the summer. Keep your ears open for a CSX V-779 or a NS 502 in the future.

[Ken W2KB]

Anyone else notice the unusual trains of empty coal cars passing through Barrington yesterday and Monday around 5:30pm? Yesterday, the consist was pulled by (5) locomotives. I don't see that too often on those tracks. I wonder if the power plant is going back on-line??

That would be consistent with the upcoming peak demand season. I believe that the B. L. England Generating Station remains in PJM Interconnection capacity planning model for the next several years. I don't know how often the station is dispatched. That said, given the very low cost of natural gas, oil and coal units run far fewer hours than they used so. So there may not be need for as many coal deliveries for considerable amount of time.

I've read that they normally keep a 90 day supply of coal on hand. Given the very mild winter, there were probably only a handful of times that the plant would have been brought online in the last several months which means that they still have a good stockpile. That being said, if the empties are being pulled (from presumably FREE storage), they just might be making some room down there for a couple inbounds to stock up for the summer. Keep your ears open for a CSX V-779 or a NS 502 in the future.

90 days seems like a lot. Most stations keep a 40 or 50 day supply in the pile. 90 days is twice as costly. Maybe the economics work out for 90 based on shipping scale for this relatively small station? Given that electric generation is highly competitive, costs are a jealously guarded proprietary secret.

[bluedash2]

Ok time for clarification. Those were NOT coal cars you saw in Barrington, they were stone cars coming back from SRNJ in Winslow. It was WPCA-51 bringing back the stone cars and the 3 road units. plus their 2 regular GP's. Not all that unusual at all to have that many units when 51 brings the 67k power/empties on it's train back to Camden , though most loaded/empty stone trains operate separately. Actually the 7533 went down on the sb 51 for some odd reason and picked up the 2 Dash 9's. As far as the power plant goes, they haven't had a coal/oil train since August. That plant is a stand by plant and only gets shipments when needed. The economy has taken a toll on that plant along with newer enviromental regs. Stone trains are very frequent on the Beesley's- mainly a nighttime operation although the loaded 66k ran this morning in daylight.

[bluedash2]

...and FWIW, most of the coal trains last year were handled by NS, either 502 or 82T. CSX symbols vary depending on which mine the coal comes from. The last used CSX symbol was V-778. They also have run V-777 in past years too.

[bluedash2]

The stone cars carry the reporting marks of HKGX -Haines and Kibblehouse. They come from the operation in Birdsboro, PA (Bucks Co.).

[ReadingAve]

Thanks for the clarification. From my perspective of the train (a block away on the White Horse Pike) it looked like coal train. Be it a coal or stone train, a long one on those tracks at rush hour sure makes a mess of vehicle traffic for a few minutes!