Coal Train - I

October 3, 2005 P. 72

October 3, 2005 P. 72

The New Yorker, October 3, 2005 P. 72

A REPORTER AT LARGE about coal trains. First part of a two-part article… CTSBT was the proper name of the train, seven thousand four hundred and eighty-five feet long, in Marysville, Kansas. There were a hundred and thirty-three aluminum gondolas and five diesel electric locomotives… Writer accompanies the two-man crew of Paul Fitzpatrick and Scott Davis as they drive the train from Kansas to Nebraska. Paul and Scott are from North Platte, Nebraska. They make the run at least ninety times a year… Describes the interior of a locomotive cab and the controls used for driving the train. Also briefly discusses the unions-the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen-that the men belong to. Tells about their upbringings and their earlier careers on the railroad. Paul's grandfathers were engineers… Writer explains how the Clean Air Act of 1970 created increased demand for the coal reserves in northeast Wyoming, also known as Powder River Basin coal, which contains as much as five times less sulfur than Appalachian coal. Tells about the constuction of the Orin Line to provide access to the Powder River mine… Writer discusses the culture of train watchers or train spotters. Tells about Dick Eisfeller who has made as many as two hundred videos of trains which he sells to train buffs. Writer accompanied Eisfeller in Pennsylvania as he recorded a coal train. Tells about run-ins with the police and with Union Pacific security officers… Writer interviews Ronald Rawalt, a special agent with the F.B.I. who has arrested freight-hopping felons. Tells about hoboes who ride in the automobiles contained in autorack cars… In some rail yards, you find working locomotives with no one in them. Rawalt predicts that trains will before long be crossing coast to coast under remote control with no crew on board… Writer visits Bailey Yard in North Platte, the largest railroad yard in the world. Annually about three hundred million gross tons of freight pass through Bailey Yard. Describes how the freight cars are sorted and hitched in the yard. Writer boards a train with Paul and Scott and tells about the long wait before they are given the green light to leave the yard.

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