Rush Island Unit Coal Train - Union Electric, Later Ameren Power Plant - Festus, MO - Inquiry

There is a coal burning power plant along the Mississippi River at Rush Island, MO.

The Frisco and Missouri Pacific (MP) operated a join unit coal train to the plant.

Does anyone know what hoppers they used?

 

Patrick

The coal hoppers for the joint Union Pacific (UP)-SLSF train to Rush Island were almost exclusively UP in the 39000 series built in 1976 and others.

They are a red-oxide color.

Nick Molo

 

In an earlier time during 1962-1963, the Missouri Pacific (MP) operated a unit coal train along the Mississippi River.

I never knew where the coal went, but was told the train was loaded going north out of Memphis, TN and went to or through St. Louis. I was working summers on the bridge gang and saw only MoPac power.

An interesting tale as told to me by one of the MoPac crew members was that the unit train cars had a design flaw that made most trips interesting. It seems the truck centers were the same length as the rail sections, 39 feet as I remember.

Under certain load conditions, this caused the cars to start oscillating and every once in a while, they would jump right up and off the track. Needless to say, this was not one of his favorite assignments. I never saw one leave the rail, but I did see many trains through the summer.

They really really were a sign of those times, just rocking and rolling, and this was through a "slow order" work area.

 

The Missouri Pacific (MP)/BN movement of coal started in 1976 when the Rush Island Power Plant, owned by Union Electric, now Ameren UE, opened for business.

Rush Island is located between Rush Tower and Brickeys on the St. Louis Subdivision. Coal was sourced from Burning Star 4 mine in Illinois, which was served by MP. The train used rapid discharge open-top hoppers with UELX reporting marks. Motive power was MP units, usually 4-5 Screaming Eagle U30Cs.

The train was interchanged to the Frisco at Cape Girardeau, MO and the Frisco crews took the entire train to the power plant. The plant has a balloon track that can be accessed from the North or South.

Toward the end of the 1970s, coal was sourced from the Powder River Basin (PRB) as it burned cleaner and more cheaply than Illinois coal. The trains were interchanged by the Union Pacific (UP) to Frisco at Kansas City. UP 4-bay open top hoppers were the equipment on these trains, series UP 37000 - 41000.

I saw a mix of UP/Frisco, MP/Frisco trains in the late 1970s up to the UP merger while living in Crystal City, MO.

Coal is now sourced exclusively from the PRB and moved BNSF direct to Rush Island. The plant takes around 1 train per day. All private equipment, rapid discharge type open top hoppers are now used to move coal to the plant.

MDC rapid discharge hoppers would be a perfect fit for 1970s to present. The private cars were painted yellow, UP yellow would be close, or red, caboose red was be close here as well.

Heavy weathering is appropriate and the cars soon faded with use in the coal industry.

Good luck!

 

I remember when the Missouri pacific (MP) upgraded the line from Capedeau Junction on the MP-St. Louis Southwestern (SLSW) main east of Illmo to Cape Girardeau.

A new interchange track was built north of the crossing. The train was sometimes parked on the north yard lead to wait for the Frisco crew I guess. This is south of where the new river bridge is being built. The track has now been pulled up from Cape Girardeau to the Diversion Channel bridge.

The cement plant used this track part of the time to reach some gumbo pits. It was used in the manufacture of cement. The cement plant used a former Frisco General Electric (GE) 44-ton locomotive with four wheel cars with link and pin couplers. This was in the late 1950s to early 1960s. Equipment is now gondolas.

The MP-SLSF crossing was protected with a swing gate normally set against the MP. It was bent along the bottom so track speeders could cross without having to stop, open and close the gate.

 

For the Jim Cowles message:

The "rock and roll" was not a design flaw peculiar to this set of vehicles.

It is a problem with any car whose truck centers are near the length of rail sections.

The history of the problem, and the solution is as follows:

For many years the standard freight car was 40 foot long, 50 to 70 ton capacity. Rail lengths were, as you say, mostly in 39 foot lengths when new.

Then it was decided in the 1960s to build longer and heavier cars, generally 100 ton capacity, these were generally about 50 feet long with truck centers at 38 to 40 feet, in other words almost the same as the rail length.

The problem occurred when these things were running on jointed rail at a speed in the range of 13 to 18 miles per hour. Somewhere in this range the time taken to go 39 feet matched the natural frequency of the springs on the car.

Just like giving a swing a series of small pushes, the cars would rock more and more until the wheels would be lifting off the rails. At that point, any lateral force at the wrong moment would cause the wheel flange to come down outside the rail or on top of the rail head and then go off the outside. Bingo! a derailment.

When this first began happening it baffled everybody, because nothing unusual was happening in either the engine or the caboose. At the time, a very common speed restriction into and out of sidings and through slow zones was 15 mph. Sometimes there would be no problem in the siding itself if it was laid with cropped rails in 33', 36', or other length old short rails.

Many things were tried, but ultimately the only solution was to avoid steady speeds between 10 mph and 20 mph on jointed track. It took some time for the resonance to build up, so in normal acceleration and braking the train would be out of the dangerous speed range before the rocking built up large enough to make a derailment likely.

Today most main lines and lots of other tracks have longer length continuous welded rails (CWR) reducing, if not eliminating the harmonic frequency resonance rocking issue.

 

I do not believe that the Marquette Cement Company's GE 44-ton locomotive was a former Frisco unit.

It was only painted in the same color scheme.

I would be happy to see evidence of its origin.

Ken McElreath

 

I know this a reply to an old post, but the GE 45ton at the Marquette Cement Co., now Lone Star, was purchased new from GE and they still use it.

I have a friend who works there and he got me a copy of the original sales information sheet.

When I get time I will scan and post it if anyone is interested.

Tim

GE 45 Tonner pix

GE 45 Tonner Order

 

From reading this thread it seems like the coal was delivered to Rush Island from Cape Girardeau, MO.

I wonder if it was always this way or if sometimes it was sent south from St. Louis, MO.

I only wonder this because I think there are pictures in the Frisco/Katy In Color guide book to equipment that shows coal trains in St. Louis.