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Kaiser Coal Trains

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Kaiser Unit Coal Trains

"In 1967, the Union Pacific and Denver & Rio Grande Western railroads began a new service involving a dedicated set of new equipment and motive power. The service was planned to bring high quality coal from the Carbondale Company mines at Sunnyside, Utah, to the Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, California. Before the operation of true unit trains, coal had been moved west in D&RGW and Carbon County Railway hoppers, with each railroad supplying its own locomotives and cabooses. During the first months of unit train operation, the train ran with leased red MKT 100-ton hoppers until Union Pacific received the first of two orders of ‘Coal Liners.’ In actual practice, the coal was moved in two separate trains, one originating in Colorado and the other in Utah. Both trains were handed over to Union Pacific at Provo, Utah. Motive power was run through all the way to the unloading point in California. In fact, during the 12 hour unloading period, the Santa Fe often made use of the locomotives foe a freight run to Barstow." (Mark Hills, "Coal Liner Modeling, Using The MDC Thrall Gondola", Mainline Modeler, Volume 15, Number 9, September 1994, p. 27)

During mid 1968, UP negotiated an agreement, along with D&RGW and AT&SF, with Kaiser Steel to operate what was to be one of the nation's first unit coal trains, a service involving a dedicated set of new equipment and motive power. The service was planned to bring metallurgical quality coal from mines at Sunnyside, Utah, and the Carbondale loadout to the Kaiser Steel mill in Fontana, Calif. Coal was first moved over this route to the Kaiser plant starting in 1942. The Fontana steel plant had been constructed to support the need for plate steel to build the nation's Liberty ships during World War II. Kaiser had purchased the Sunnyside mine at that time (and expanded its Utah operations even more in 1950 when it purchased Utah Fuel Co., the former Rio Grande coal subsidiary), and moving coal from Utah and Colorado to California was a major source of traffic over UP's historic Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. Before the operation of these first unit trains in 1968, coal for Kaiser's Fontana steel mill had been moved as regular westbound traffic in standard UP hoppers, and in UP and D&RGW GS gondolas.

During the first months of Kaiser unit train operation in 1968, the train ran with leased red MKT 100-ton hoppers until Union Pacific received the first of two orders of "Coal Liner" rotary-dump gondola cars. The initial 95 Coal Liner cars were delivered to UP as its G-125-1 class cars in March 1969. D&RGW received five very similar cars, which were placed in the same pool as its contribution to the service. In 1970, UP received 100 additional cars, classed in the G-125-2 class. This second series had a slightly lower capacity, and were four inches lower in height.

On June 17, 1969 a new high capacity loading facility at Sunnyside was dedicated by the presidents of Kaiser Steel Corporation, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, and AT&SF Railway, along with Utah Governor Calvin L. Rampton. The new facility, said to have cost Kaiser Steel $1.2 million, was used to load a 84-car, 8,400 ton Coal Liner unit train every four days, on a 96 hour roundtrip schedule. The entire 1,600 mile roundtrip takes place over the D&RGW from Sunnyside to Provo, over UP from Provo to Barstow, Calif., and over AT&SF from Barstow to the Fontana mill. The service began late in 1968 using leased cars. The dedication was held in June 1969 with the delivery of the new gondola Coal Liner cars. (Deseret News, June 13, 1969)

Coal Age magazine ran an article in its September 1969 issue (Volume 74, Number 9, page 62) about the new loader at Sunnyside. The article has drawings of the general arrangement of the loading tunnel and coal pile at the Sunnyside mine, including the actual loader itself. The cover photo of the Coal Age magazine showed the train with D&RGW and UP SD45s as motive power, with a large banner declaring "Utah Coal means Utah Jobs" on the side of the lead unit, D&RGW 5337. Immediately behind 5337 in the photo was D&RGW 5336, along with UP 3645 and another UP SD45.

According to the article, Kaiser's Sunnyside mine had the capacity of 5,500 tons per day, and the K train's 96-hour (four day) cycle took all of the mine's production. The loader (actually a tunnel under a man-made 10-foot deep fill) could load up to 11,943 tons per hour, but the average loading time to fill the 84-car, 8,507 ton train was 51 minutes. Above the tunnel loader was a 120 foot high, 400-foot diameter coal pile, holding an average of 35,000 to 40,000 tons of coal, with a maximum capacity of 70,000 tons. The coal pile was fed by a conveyor belt from the mine's preparation plant, about a quarter mile away. The empty train backed all the way through the 456 foot long tunnel, with the motive power disappearing completely inside the tunnel. With the train's first car directly under the tunnel mid point at the loader, the loading cycle started, with the train moving back out of the tunnel at 0.9 mph.

(On a model layout, this could easily be simulated by a tunnel into which an empty train is backed. Inside the model tunnel could actually be two tracks, one for the empty train and another for the loaded train. A classic empties in / loads out operation. Mark Hills' article in September 1994 Mainline Modeler about the Coal Liner cars from MDC mentions his train of 30 cars, which would be perfect to simulate this unit train.)

The production of Kaiser's Sunnyside mine, as much as 5,500 tons per day, was matched to the steel mill's capacity to accept two 11,000-ton unit trains. The mine loaded an 8,400-ton train every other day, and each train ran on a four-day cycle. Presumably, if Kaiser had wanted more Sunnyside coal, they could have increased production at the mine and added another trainset. The loader, actually a tunnel under a man-made 10-foot deep fill, could load up to 11,943 tons per hour, but the average loading time to fill the 80-car train was 51 minutes. Above the tunnel loader was a 120 foot high, 400-foot diameter coal pile, holding an average of 35,000 to 40,000 tons of coal, with a maximum capacity of 70,000 tons. The coal pile was fed by a conveyor belt from the mine's preparation plant, about a quarter mile away. Upon arrival at the mine, the empty train backed all the way through the 456 foot long tunnel, with the motive power disappearing completely inside the tunnel. With the train's first car directly under the loader, at the tunnel's mid point, the loading cycle started, moving back out of the tunnel at 0.9 mph. The new facility, said to have cost Kaiser Steel $1.2 million, was used to load an 80-car, 8,400 ton Coal Liner unit train every four days, on a 96 hour roundtrip schedule. The entire 1,600 mile roundtrip took place over D&RGW, UP, and AT&SF, to the Fontana mill. In actual practice, the coal was moved in two separate trains, one 65-car train originating in Colorado and the other 80-car train originating in Utah.

The Kaiser unit coal trains, known by railroaders simply as the "K-Trains," operated over D&RGW tracks from Carbondale and Sunnyside to an interchange with UP at Provo, Utah. From Provo, the trains operated over UP trackage to Barstow, Calif., where they were interchanged with Santa Fe for the final miles down Cajon Pass to Kaiser's steel mill at Fontana. Part of the route over UP included descent down two of the most difficult grades in the western states: the 2.2 percent descending grade on Cima Hill from Nevada into California, and the 3.0 percent descending grade on Cajon Pass into the Los Angeles Basin. The severe nature of these two grades required UP to set retainers to safely control these heavy Kaiser unit coal trains. To reduce the time normally required to manually set retainers manually at the top, and manually release retainers at the bottom of these two hills - an hour or more at each instance - UP and D&RGW equipped the locomotives and cars assigned to Kaiser service with remote controls. which allowed the engineer to set retainers from the cab.

At times, due to the 12 hour unloading period, Santa Fe often made use of the locomotives for a freight run to Barstow. While other cabooses were regularly used, UP assigned at least four cabooses that had been modified to operate over all three railroads to this dedicated service. These four cabooses were designated for this special service by a large green K on their cupolas.

In later years, in addition to the 84-car train on every fourth day from Sunnyside, there were also two other distinct coal train operations to Kaiser. The first train came from York Canyon, New Mexico on the Santa Fe. It operated with 84 cars, on every fourth day, using all AT&SF power including four remote-controlled units cut in 23 cars from rear end. This train was routed by way of AT&SF all the way. The other train was 64 cars and originated from the Helper, Utah, vicinity. It was also routed DRGW to Provo, then UP to Barstow, then AT&SF to Kaiser, with Santa Fe helpers from Barstow. At times, Kaiser received an extra coal train for a few trips that arrived on the open day. The power on all coal trains would deliver the train to Kaiser, and then return to Barstow, for use by Santa Fe until the empty train was released by the mill about 24 hours later. The empties would be hauled to Barstow by anything handy, and the correct power would be added at Barstow, for return to the UP or to York Canyon. (from Trainorders.com, June 27, 2008)

Some time back in 1970, I had the opportunity to ride this train. A friend, Floyd Jarvis, arranged a trip for himself and me on the train's motive power from Helper, out to the mine and back, then we rode the helpers from Helper on up the hill, and back to Helper. At the mine, the train pulled into Sunnyside, through a wye, then backed around a balloon track that extended from the tail of the wye and which lead into the loading tunnel. After being loaded, the train continued around the other leg of the wye and proceeded back out to the RG main at Mounds. Unfortunately, although I took photographs from the trip, none have survived my various moves, and changes of mood in and out of railroading. (Don Strack)

Locomotives

To serve as motive power for this new unit coal train for Kaiser Steel, UP regeared seven SD45s from their as-delivered 59:18 ratio to the lower speed 62:15 ratio, giving the units more lugging power and a lower maximum speed of 65 mph.

UP initially supplied six units to the pool, plus a spare, and D&RGW supplied three units. UP's units were 3643-3649 and D&RGW's units were 5336-5338. By January 1971, the number of trains was increased with added traffic from the loading point at Carbondale, Colo. (the mine itself was 17 miles away), and the number of units dedicated to this service rose to nine units, UP 3641-3649. In June 1971, with the expansion of service, and the delivery of 100 additional Coal Liner cars in 1970, three additional units, UP 3638-3640, were added to the Kaiser pool, as were three more D&RGW units, 5326-5328.

The ratio of twelve UP units (UP 3638-3649) to six D&RGW units (D&RGW 5326-5328 and 5336-5338) reflected the two to one ratio of operations between UP and D&RGW, based on mileage. UP also furnished a majority of the "Coal Liner" cars for the new, dedicated service. The trains operated every four days from late 1968 to early 1983, when the Kaiser steel plant quit making steel and became a rolling mill.

The Rio Grande locomotives were leased for actual operation to UP and to help them stand out among UP units, they were among the first D&RGW to incorporate the new large "Rio Grande" logo. The D&RGW units weighed 389,400 pounds in operating condition, while UP's units weighed 393,300 pounds. Although UP only used Coded Cab Signals on its Wyoming mainline, the D&RGW engines also had cab signal equipment installed so they could run in the lead position in UP territory.

D&RGW 5337 and 5338 were the first two Rio Grande units to receive the large Rio Grande billboard lettering. Both were assigned to the Kaiser coal trains and were repainted to make them stand out from the UP units. The remaining four units soon followed in getting the large lettering. (Robert Harmen, October 11, 1998, post to D&RGW e-mail mailing list)

UP and Rio Grande coordinated motive power purchases for the new Kaiser trains, and agreed to buy SD45s dedicated to the service. UP's units and D&RGW's units had the multi-channel radios. UP's units for this service had 62:15 gearing, whereas all the other UP SD45s were delivered with 59:18 gearing for high-speed merchandise and perishable service. (Rob Leachman, Trainorders.com, June 29, 2008)

Cars

"Union Pacific's first group of 95 ‘Coal Liner’ cars, series 31900-31994, were delivered from Thrall in 1969. They were classed G-125-1 by UP. The cars were designed to be high capacity (3850 cu. ft.) and were delivered equipped with a remote control retainer system and 38-inch wheels. The D&RGW also ordered a group of five cars in 1969, numbers 56995-56999. They were very similar in appearance to the UP cars except for small horizontal ribs running between the heavy vertical ribs. Union Pacific purchased an additional group of 100 cars for Kaiser Steel unit train service in 1970. Numbers 32000-32099 were classed G-125-2. These were also quite similar to the first group of cars, differing only in minor dimensions and lower capacity (3700 cu. ft.)." (Mark Hills, "Coal Liner Modeling, Using The MDC Thrall Gondola", Mainline Modeler, Volume 15, Number 9, September 1994, p. 27)

The G-125-1 cars had an inside height of 8 feet, 10 inches vs. the G-125-2 inside height of 8 feet, 6 inches. Four inches difference, explaining the lower capacity of 3700 cu. ft. for the G-125-2 vs. the larger 3850 cu. ft. on the G-125-1.

The cars were delivered in April 1969 by Thrall car of Chicago Heights, Illinois.

Cabooses

There were at least six cabooses assigned to dedicated service on unit coal trains for Kaiser Steel Co. between its coal mines at Sunnyside, Utah, and Somerset, Colo., and its steel mill in Fontana, Calif. These six cabooses were assigned to this service in 1968, along with SD45 motive power and gondolas from each road. Included in the group of cabooses was a single CA-8 (UP 25529) and three CA-9s (UP 25656, 25669, 25680). All six cabooses had the same features as standard pool service cabooses, and each caboose also had a large green K painted on each end of its cupola.

Chronology History

In 1943 Henry J. Kaiser leased Sunnyside No. 2 mine from Utah Fuel Company, to furnish coking coal for new steel mill at Fontana, California. The mine had been closed since 1921 because of a fire. After extinguishing the fire, the mine was closed due to low market demand for coal. (Gibson: Kaiser, p. 261)

At their peak of operation, there were over 800 beehive coke ovens at Sunnyside. Coal that makes good coke doesn't necessarily make good domestic fuel, the carbon content and moisture content being different. In 1948 there wasn't much demand for Sunnyside coking coal, with the output of the Sunnyside No. 1 mine mostly going to the D&RGW railroad for use in their locomotives, and being used as fuel for industrial purposes. The market for coking coal had been taken over by the steel companies which were making coke in by-product ovens, using coal from their own coal mines. (Gibson: Sunnyside, pp. 207,208)

In the early 1940s Kaiser began the operation of 297 beehive coke ovens at Sunnyside. The ovens were operated continuously until 1958, when Kaiser closed them down. In 1942 Kaiser leased a portion of the Sunnyside mine from Utah Fuel. In 1950 Kaiser bought Utah Fuel, and operated the properties at Sunnyside, Clear Creek and Castle Gate as the Utah Fuel Division of Kaiser Steel. Kaiser later sold the Castle Gate and Clear Creek operations to Independent Coal & Coke, which later sold both operations to North American Coal Company. North American later sold the Castle Gate property to McCulloch Oil Company, and the Clear Creek property to Valley Camp Coal Company. (Sun Advocate & Helper Journal, Special Edition, January 2, 1975, p. 5)

Utah Fuel Company, incorporated on April 17, 1901, became the Book Cliffs Coal Corporation on March 5, 1951. (Utah corporation, index number 3111)

Utah Fuel Company was merged with Book Cliffs Coal Corporation, a Kaiser subsidiary, on December 5, 1950. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 15-D, p. 4)

Book Cliffs Coal Corporation was merged with Kaiser Steel Corporation on February 23, 1951. (Carbon County Miscellaneous Records Book 15-D, p. 59)

On October 17, 1960 Book Cliffs Coal Company was sold to Mineral Development Company, a subsidiary of Heiner Coal Company, of Salt Lake City, Utah. Included in the sale was mine equipment, coal contracts, and 320 acres of coal lands in Emery County, along with half interest in 2,400 acres of non-coking coal lands in the so-called "East Carbon District", near Dragerton. At the same time, Minerals Development also announced the purchase of the other half interest in those same 2,400 acres, from Malcolm N. McKinnon. The sale and liquidation of the Book Cliffs property followed the death in May 1960 of E. S. O'Conner, former president and general manager of Book Cliffs. Book Cliffs' production was about 75,000 tons per year. (Salt Lake Tribune, October 18, 1960)  The sale was announced by R. G. Heers, Fontana, Calif., president of Book Cliffs (also manager of raw materials for Kaiser Steel at Fontana). Mineral Development estimated combined coal reserves on the lands at about 25 million tons. It was a non-coking, bituminous deposit. (Coal Age, Volume 65, number 11, November 1960, p. 50, "News Roundup")

To provide better roof control and to stabilize obsolete entries and worked out pillar areas against bounces, and to seal and fill isolated or possible fire areas, in December 1957 Kaiser began installing yieldable steel arches in motor roads, hoistways, manways, and aircources. The arches were backfilled with washery refuse (sand) that was hydraulically transported and placed. Originally, "coke breeze" was used for backfill material, until equipment to handle and reduce the washery refuse could be installed. By August 1961 over 18 miles of tunnels had been completed and over 350,000 tons of fill material had been placed. Where backfilling had been completed there had been no bounces. These same areas formerly had been subject to numerous and violent bounces. (Coal Age, Volume 66, number 8, August 1961, p. 93, "Yeilding Supports")

Controlling interest in Heiner Coal Company was sold to Island Creek Coal Company, of Huntington, West Virginia, on April 29, 1965. Island Creek was the nation's largest producer of coal. Its 1964 tonnage exceeded 21 million tons. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 30, 1965)

(More research is needed concerning the relationship between Kaiser Steel, Heiner Coal Company, Mineral Development Company, Book Cliffs Coal Company, and Book Cliffs Coal Corporation.)

On June 17, 1969 the new high capacity loading facility at Sunnyside was dedicated by the presidents of Kaiser Steel Corporation, Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad, and AT&SF Railway, along with Utah Governor Calvin L. Rampton. The new facility, said to have cost Kaiser Steel $1.2 million, was used to load a 8,400 ton Coal Liner unit train every four days. The service began late in 1968 using leased cars. The dedication was held in June 1969 with the delivery of the new gondola Coal Liner cars. (Deseret News, June 13, 1969)

On April 21, 1988, Kaiser Coal Corporation closed its Sunnyside No. 1 and No. 2 mines at Sunnyside, Utah, idling 189 miners and 33 salaried workers. Twelve salaried workers were retained. Kaiser Coal was bankrupt at the time, and asked the bankruptcy court for permission to lease the mines to Sunnyside Reclamation and Salvage to allow that company to mine the remaining one million tons of coal reserves still in the mines. Mellon Bank owned the longwall mining machine in the No. 1 mine, which had been leased to Kaiser Coal, and the bank been trying to repossess the machine since July 1988 and sell it to another coal company. Mellon had been paying the maintenance costs of the mine, about $150,000 per month ($1,500.00 per month seems to be a more accurate figure), which was necessary to keep water pumped out of the mine, which would damage the mining machine. Most of the costs were electricity for the pumps. On November 25, 1988, Mellon "walked away from the situation", after Utah Power & Light agreed to keep the pumps running, at least until a buyer could be found for the mine, on or about December 7, 1988. (Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1988, p.C1)

The last train operated between Columbia Junction and the Kaiser loadout at Sunnyside in 1991. (email from James Belmont, May 27, 2003)

Kaiser Coal History

Kaiser Coal Corporation was a subsidiary of the larger Kaiser Steel Corporation, having been separated from the interests of Kaiser Steel Corporation in (??). In September 1985 when the federal Mine Health and Safety Administration changed its requirements for ventilation of mines using long wall mining methods, Kaiser Coal was mining from Sunnyside No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3.

Kaiser Coal still existed at the time of a settlement between Kaiser Coal and the United Mine Workers retirement fund in December 1994.

The Sunnyside mine consisted of approximately 14,385 acres, of which 2,022 were leased federal coal lands. The mine operated the first longwall in the United States. The mine closed in 1994 due to filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Kaiser Coal Corporation and Kaiser's reclamation bond was forfeited by the U. S. Bankruptcy Court to the Utah Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining. Reclamtion was completed in 1999. (source)

On November 11, 1984, Kaiser Steel Corporation purchased the nearby Horse Canyon mine from U.S. Steel, and indicated that it would maintain the operations in a temporary suspension status pending further corporate decisions as to the future use of the facilities. Following Kaiser Coal's bankruptcy in February 1987, on April 5, 1990 Kaiser Coal sold the Horse Canyon mine to Intermountain Power Agency (IPA). During 1990 and 1991, IPA reclaimed the majority of the surface disturbance leaving only a main facilities pad with buildings essential for future mine operations.  In September 2000, UtahAmerican Energy, Inc. acquired the Horse Canyon Mine from IPA. (source)

At some time after 1988 and before 1992, Kaiser Coal Corporation was reorganized as Sunnyside Coal Company (possibly a different name for Sunnyside Reclamation and Salvage, which took over ownership of the Sunnyside mine property in March 1989 as a result of the Kaiser bankruptcy).

Sunnyside Coal Company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 25, 1994 to reorganize its company. In 1995, the Chapter 11 bankruptcy was converted to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy to terminate Sunnyside Coal's existance, settle all claims, and liquidate all assets. The March 1994 bankruptcy came as a result of Sunnyside's coal supply contract with Geneva Steel that was not renewed by Geneva Steel. Part of the bankruptcy settlement included transfer of funds for the reclamation of the Sunnyside mine property at the mouth of Whitmore Canyon. The funds transfer took place in January 1997 and reclamtion work began in July 1997, with final completion in October 2000, at a final cost of $2 million. (source)

In 1993 the Sunnyside Power Company, located in the town of East Carbon, was constructed to make use of the waste coal that had accumulated over the years of operation of the Sunnyside mine, and the Hiawatha and Wattis mines, as they were being reclaimed after mining operations were closed. The plant burns about 500,000 tons of waste coal each year and has a capacity of 58 megawatts. (source1) (source2) (source3)

Kaiser Steel History

Kaiser Steel Corp.'s former plant occupies about 2,000 acres in Fontana, San Bernardino County, California. The plant operated from 1942 through late 1983. The plant consisted of three main units: a primary production unit, a rolling mill, and two slag disposal areas covering approximately one square mile.

California Steel Industries, Inc., purchased the rolling mill from Kaiser in August 1984. Cuyahoga Wrecking Corp. purchased the coke plant and blast furnaces in the primary production unit for salvage and began dismantling them in 1985.

In February 1987, Kaiser filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Federal bankruptcy code. Kaiser emerged from bankruptcy in September 1988, retaining the Kaiser Steel Corporation name.

Reorganized as Kaiser Steel Resources, Inc. in October 1990; name changed to Kaiser Resources, Inc. in June 1993; name changed to Kaiser Ventures LLC in June 1995.

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