Moving Coal from Train to River Barge

Nice job

Good show learned lots 🙋

Hi Dave. I’ve been a subscriber for a long time. Thank you for the content! I have a question for you that maybe you could address in a future video? What would it actually take to connect the mine directly with the railroads? How far? I know it would be super expensive and probably too late into the life of the mine at this point, but could it feasibly be done?

First off, 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏Great job Dave 👏!!!
You had Great weather to make this video 📹.
Baby bobcat 👶 even liked it 😮😅.
Have fun and stay safe my friend.
Have wooden D&H caboose to move ,check cellphone 📱 for pictures 📷.

Very cool stuff

Thanks for sharing Dave very interesting operation. It would be neat to see how they unload the barges. Have a Great Day

Hey Dave... love the latest series! The RR based videos are always great... but I really enjoy seeing how the rest of the mine operations work! Industrial plants are fascinating. This is the stuff that literally makes America run!

One question.... is the Engineer who drives the train the same guy who gets out and runs the remote to dump it at the end?

Very cool tour from Google earth. Glad you got to show us the loading of barges. Nice they let you make a video of their operation. Thank you.

You have the coolest job ever

I love this a guy!

Great video Dave. Enjoyed the offload and the barges. Awhile back you asked about the barges down here. We have alot of fuel refineries so most of the barges haul chemicals for them. We have a rock and sand quarry nearby. Those barges get really long. They have bow thruster tugs. Being on the Intercostal waterway witch is really narrow they are only allowed two wide. Thank you for the video be safe and have a great day.

Many thanks Dave!

Thanks for the tour! Enjoyed watching! Happy rails Dave! 😀👍❤️🚂💨💨💨💨💨🚙

Dave you had another really interesting video this evening I really enjoyed it . Dave I am wearing my hard hat and my reflective vest for this video this evening.

Great video, Dave, Thank you. James.

Google Earth is way cool! There's also a VR version of it. I've spent MANY, MANY hours wandering the planet in Google Earth VR! The UI and control scheme seems to have been created by an intern and abandoned in about 2016 but it's still one of my favorite things.

Thanks for sharing Dave. Enjoyed the tour.

Cool.

Thanks Dave!!
I checked it out on Google maps. On Google Earth, some versions on PC's have an area in the upper left corner where you can view later photos.
Cool video!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Every coal haul model railroader will love this video. A lot model the mine, some a power plant, but this gets it into a river barge. Thanks!!

Wonderful, thank you for your constant efforts! Very educational. Keep well.and I look forward to more!

Must admit that it's bizarre to see those cooling towers on Google Earth after seeing them blown up. The other "bizarre" is, "Where'd the time go? Been THAT long ago already?? SHEESH!!"

Hello , happy Sunday 😊 it is right now. You always put out such great videos. I'm just wondering when the coal is going to run out. 😮😮

Looks like you need to update Google Earth. Mine doesn't display like that.

Imagine modeling this railroad. Dave would provide you with plenty of photo and video assistance. Excellent as always Dave!!

Later, it will end up in the belly of a Tesla. The more you know!

Great video, thanks for sharing this…. Stay safe and hydrated 😊😊😊

Thank you Dave! It was very interesting seeing how things are laid out around your railroad and the barge loading docks, thank you for another interesting video!

What a great little history lesson Dave ... Much appreciated... Thx

Thank you for the excellent video I like how you give it in perfect detail I've seen barges at work but not that big I work fore newyork state canals and found the videos interesting once again thank you love your show

Much faster than a rotary dump .. thanks for the great info, Dave, and another great vid.

Hi Dave. Great video! My step daughter works at the Lock and Dam at Maxwell. I’ve seen your harbor from across the river.
Hopefully the river will get back to its necessary level.
A lot of American rivers are below levels.
Have a great day!

Curious to know if there are track “wipers” that clear the coal ahead of the wheels? Doesn’t the coal pack onto the tracks sometimes?

Keep that electric car fuel moving!

Dave, Very interesting video. Always enjoy seeing the coal discharged from the hoppers and the Google map segment was excellent...

Thanks to your company for letting you show these videos. The coal looks all uniform in size. Does it get crushed or something at the mine?

Thanks for sharing this really awesome video with us Dave. This is so much fun seeing how all of this works. You have a really awesome job. They sure are lucky to have you.

The EV fuel crack had me rollin' Dave. 😂

I checked your tracks and river area on google a long time ago.. I mean, wait.. I sent spies in and had the whole operation scoped out see....... I checked out every foot of track from loading to unloading and checked all the curves and mile posts. Google is something, I mean, spies are something...... 👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣👣

Dave what happen to the Miss Yankeetown boat?

Thanks, Mr. Dave, quite interesting operation, thanks for posting.

The efficient "mine-mouth" coal power plants are a thing of the past. The "Greta" effect is killing this country.

Trump 2024.

Great video and channel! A google Earth tour of your railroad and mine would be cool if you haven't uploaded one already. Thanks from northern AZ!

Thanks for a very interesting video! There used to be a railroad called the Monongahela, but I think it eventually became part of Conrail (via Penn Central) and then part of Norfolk Southern (the split-up of Conrail). Anyway, I''ve never really been convince of the economics of barge transport. Take, for instance, your coal going from your mine to some eastern power station via La Belle. You mine the coal, load it onto a train, move it to the Monongahela River and transload it to barges. Tugs push or tow the loaded barges downriver (a very winding river) to La Belle (thankfully no locks), where the coal is unloaded and then loaded on to another train (NS or CSX) for delivery to the end user. That is quite a number of handling operations, together with very slow rail-to-barge, river travel and barge -to-rail operations. This must add considerably to the ex-mine cost of the coal and to the delivery time from mine to customer?

38 cars X 115 short tons =4370 short tons. Every barge 1500 short tons.
One train is 2,91 barges!👍👍

Great video Dave. I have looked on Google a few times to see your setup but not seen the spot the barges go to, as others said how are they unloaded. A grab will take a lot longer than it does to load them at your end so I guess they have something quicker than that

Cool video, Dave. It looks like natural gas has replaced a lot of that coal for generating electricity. Here on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana they are building massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to ship the stuff all over the world. One company signed a contract to sell it to China for 20 years! So there must be a LOT of gas in that rock. That shows what the new technology of horizontal drilling, combined with fracking can do to get oil & gas out of shale. I can remember when the plan was to have the USA import massive amounts of natural gas and oil, as ours was running out. But that fracking, combined with sand injection, have made the USA the world's largest oil and gas producer. That technology changed the world and saved millions of people from starvation caused by an energy shortage, combined with sky high energy prices. We can thank Texan, George P. Mitchell, known as, 'the father of fracking', who spent decades perfecting the process. He, and another American, Norman Borlaug, who began the 'green revolution' by developing high yield crops, saved tens of millions of lives, and eliminated large scale famines in India & China.
They should both have statues in front of the UN Building in New York City, since they changed the world for the better, more than any politician or diplomat.

Hey Dave !!! Great & Thanks again !!👍👍👍👍👍