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A Look Back at Pooled Power in the Early 80s The rapid increase in demand for Wyoming's Powder River Basin (PRB), low-sulfur coal in the late 1970s and early ' 80s posed a critical motive power problem for railroads. The need to haul large volumes of PRB coal over far greater distances, and with greater logistical complexity, materialized practically overnight. At the time, it was virtually impossible for one or even two railroads to meet the motive power requirements and manage the logistics of hauling the volume of coal needed to satisfy demand. A workable solution was needed quickly. That solution was the pooling or sharing of motive power. It simply did not make economic or logistical sense for a southern railroad, for example, to haul a long string of empty hoppers from Missouri to Wyoming with three or four locomotives when two would do the job. On the return trip with a full load, however, more horsepower would be needed. With power pooling, the railroad could pick up the additional horsepower along the way as required. The power pool agreements made more locomotives available and helped match and balance horsepower availability with requirements for more efficient use of power. 
BN Unit Coal Train in the Powder River Basin 1984 View a larger image 
In the 1980s, there were still a lot of independent railroads operating around the country. Many of
them, with customers demanding PRB coal, were running coal trains that linked-up with the BN at Kansas City and Omaha. This meant a
lot of pooled power operating into and out of the Powder River Basin. As empties entered and loads left, motive power was added or
subtracted as needed, usually at the BN's facility in Alliance, NE.
Back then, the typical horsepower complement for coal trains was 15,000hp west of Alliance, with helper
service for loaded trains on the tougher grades, and 9,000hp east of Alliance. The standard locomotive for coal service at the time
was the 3000hp six-axle variety, i.e., EMD SD40s, SD40-2s, SD40-2 'Snoots' and a few SDP-40s along with GE U30Cs and C30-7s. With
hundreds of locomotives from different railroads rotating through Alliance, it was a busy place. And, in fact, it still is. Although
there are far fewer roads operating in the PRB today, the coal volume has steadily increased over the years.
* The UP/C&NW created Western Railroad Properties, Inc. |
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