What is a unit coal train?
The definition I am using is any coal train where the entire train is consigned to one utility and one destination. Unit coal trains originate at a coal mine and travel to their assigned power plant destination without interchanging railcars anywhere along the way. Question: Why don’t you include railroad-owned railcars in your table? Answer: Because they’re harder to trace to a certain utility and in general their car fleets are more complicated. This is especially true of the UP, who still routinely runs trains of 1970s-era steel hoppers from predecessor railroads like CNW, DRGW, and MP. Tracking all the railroad-owned cars would almost require a whole separate web site – and I just don’t have the time for that. If some other ambitious soul out there wants to take on that task, go right ahead! Question: How long are unit coal trains? Answer: This depends on the route and is generally limited by grades and siding lengths. On the Colorado Joint Line and BNSF’s Brush Subdivision, coal t
