Ya Aaron, I'm suppose to be a snow bird and not see snow, LOL. Your right about the heat being down, it looks like I80 to Salt Lake City will be on the cool side which is good. Going from Salt Lake City down I15 to Vegas it gradually warms up but nothing compared to what I've driven thru this summer. About the 61, to bad there isn't enough room in there for a PSD, hahaha. I've got to, got to finish my 65 FB Mustang first.

I have faith Mike or I would have done something about it in this last month. I hope I don't eat those words though. I did buy a bottle of Lucas additive as a little insurance, threw it into the tool box. Its suppose to quit snowing so Sunday we will try for Rawlins, Wy.

 

Nothing to do? Dont you have a cc project laying around somewhere? But that would suck to get laid off. Last year when we had our big slow down a couple of us including me got to work at another mine untill it picked back up here.

 

I used to haul coal trains out of the power river basin in Gillette, Wy. Maybe they are hiring, there are dozens of coal mines around that area. It WAS the largest coal reserves in the world but not long ago they found an even bigger coal deposit in Alaska. Hard to get at though.

 

Were you an engineer? I work at the washplant and i get to load our coal trains. I always like to here the rail road stories the conductor has. That would be neat to work in alaska. I often thought about working on the pipe line up there.

 

Kinda reminds me of a saying bout a fat chicks.

 

Retired engineer and our stories are alot better then conductors stories. They are asleep all the time so how can their stories be better? Feel free to tell them that for me!! What type of loading system do you work with? I drove the train under the silo's at about one mile an hour while coal was dumped into the cars.

 

I think your trans will make it. We have faith.

No one has said anything about lay offs yet. We build mine equipment for under ground coal mining which is 99% electric equipment, and I'm the only electrician there. Not only do I do all the electrical, but I also weld, mechanic, do hydraulics and what ever else needs done. I'm the only one there that can do a little of all of it. I've only been with this company for 4 1/2 years, but being the only electrician there, I'll probably be the last to go if something like that happens. We've only got one piece of equipment in the shop right now, and it's just a rebuild. Nothing else after that as far as I know so, I don't know what will happen.

Yeah, I got the cc to work on, but that will only go so far if I run out of money! LOL!! You might have to get me a job at a mine out there Gabe! I've been to Gibson County Coal mine in Indiana doing service calls for another company I used to work for.

 

We have a 20
0 ton hopper over the tracks and a 60in wide belt that runs 3200 ton per hour. 1 mile an hour thats pretty quick, i think they only run .3 mile an hour. And your right about the conductors falling asleep. They have the distributive power with one engine on front and the other on back, and i was at the end of the last car and i had to shake the conductor to wake up and stop the train befor the engine took the shut out!
Ya last year when we slowed down i had plenty of time to work on my truck but i was low on cash. And he
ck ya you could prob get on here they have hired a lot of people this year. There is a contractor electiction at the plant alot. You werent very far from me there at gibson county coal. We have a mine in somerville and also in lynnville which is where i work.

 

Ya Gabe, we ran distributive power also with usually two on the front and one on the rear. In the 'old' days when they were experimenting with distributive power we called them slave engines, LOL. One mile an hour was about the norm, it would vary from .3 to 1.2 depending on the mine you were at. Have you or the equipment ever screwed up and dump coal between the cars and derail the train? That was always fun, LOL.

 

Lynnville? Wow,yea,you are right my us..joseph and i are in evansville...gibson also right here! Small world! Wild bore mine? I know wb1 there...he is a good guy

 

I have dumped some between the cars cause i didnt get the door closed fast enough, but the conductor got it stop
ed and i had to shovel it out of the way. Another time one of the hopper doors on the car popped open on day shift and spilled a bunch of coal, but they got it shut down in time.
Ya thats right, it is the wild boar wash plant. I work for United Minerals though not Peabody. We wash both there coal and ours there.

 

Wow,too wild. U know any of the sandvick guys?

 

I havent heard of them. If they work for peabody i prob would not know them. I just know a couple truck drivers on nights that haul coal up here.

 

These guys build and service underground machinery.one of their service guys lives down the street from my work.figured it was worth asking.he is the coolest cat i ever met.dang smart! Some guys have it all and i got nothing...

 

O i got ya. We are a strip mine here. And i wouldnt say you got nothing. Your to hard on yourself!