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cranes!!

OK, I know this is OT, but I was carrying my SIG P232 under the authority of my CHL, driving northbound to Dallas on IH-45 when I saw the two biggest cranes I have ever seen in my life about 6 miles north of Buffalo.

Does anybody know what in the world they are excavating????

I saw that myself a couple of weeks ago. I think they are strip mining for coal, but this is only a guess.

They are pretty impressive pieces of machinery!

No4Mk1 wrote:cranes!!

OK, I know this is OT, but I was carrying my SIG P232 under the authority of my CHL, driving northbound to Dallas on IH-45 when I saw the two biggest cranes I have ever seen in my life about 6 miles north of Buffalo.

Does anybody know what in the world they are excavating????

Until I saw the word excavating, I thought you were talking about birds.

Houston1944 wrote:I saw that myself a couple of weeks ago. I think they are strip mining for coal, but this is only a guess.

That is correct..they are draglines used in the strip mine that provides coal for the nearby power plant.

They are even bigger up close and personal! You have to stand right next to one to really appreciate how big they really are.

Well I figured if anything somebody here would know the answer! Thanks fellas!

I have to confess I had no idea there were even significant coal deposits in Texas.

No4Mk1 wrote:Well I figured if anything somebody here would know the answer! Thanks fellas!

I have to confess I had no idea there were even significant coal deposits in Texas.

They're not huge, but they're useable. Texas mostly has Wyoming to thank for a continued supply of electricity. Railfans along the Kansas City Southern enjoy a certain boredom: "Southbound coal train. Northbound MT. Southbound coal train. Northbound MT." Repeat, ad infinitum.

Kevin

There is another large coal mining operation in Mt. Pleasant in east Texas. The draglines work alongside I-30. The coal is used at a nearby TXU powerplant.

I travel i-45 a lot to see family on the coast and those have been there for a while now. They are ALWAYS going. No matter when you drive by someone is always operating them.

And yeah...they're freakin HUGE. It's a pretty impressive sight.

My first in-laws lost their home (100 acre farm) in Mt Pleasant about 20 years ago to strip mining. I remember when they bought it worrying about not having the mineral rights, but thinking the mining wouldn't get there in their lifetime, but they were wrong. Now they live in AZ- just celebrated their 64th anniversary (we only made 7)

I have two uncles in Mt. Pleasant. I've seen the giant cranes, along with the giant dump trucks that go with. I was an adolescent last time I saw the trucks, but they looked like, with the dump beds in the up position, that they were 3-4 stories tall.

There's another huge strip mining operation outside of Henderson off 322. Those enormus cranes look a bit odd all lit up at night out in the middle of nowhere oooowweeeeoooo

Many years ago, I remember when they moved a crane at Mt Pleasant from one side of I-30 to the other. I-30 was closed down in the middle of night and one side of the highway at a time was buried under 10 feet of dirt. The crane crossed to the median, and the dirt was moved to the other side so it could finish its journey. Took most of the night.

KBCraig wrote:

No4Mk1 wrote:Well I figured if anything somebody here would know the answer! Thanks fellas!

I have to confess I had no idea there were even significant coal deposits in Texas.

They're not huge, but they're useable. Texas mostly has Wyoming to thank for a continued supply of electricity. Railfans along the Kansas City Southern enjoy a certain boredom: "Southbound coal train. Northbound MT. Southbound coal train. Northbound MT." Repeat, ad infinitum.

Kevin

First, let me say that it makes me giddy to hear the word "railfan" on a gun forum.

Secondly, the east/west Meridian Speedway (the Greenville sub runs through here) isn't too bad with boredom. We see quite a bit of intermodals, locals, work trains, BNSF runthrough coal, etc. The coal trains are sort of interesting because when they're coming westbound, the lead units are in full dynamics. You can hear them wayyyyy off. But by the time the DPUs arrive in the middle, he's back on the throttle and those suckers are *humming*. Same with the pusher(s) at the end.

Kevin, did you catch the 844 a couple months back?

BlakeTyner wrote:Kevin, did you catch the 844 a couple months back?

I don't speak railfan; I just recognize it, and can fake a few bars.

I subscribe to a KCS mailing list, because my father and grandfather were career operators/agents on the KCS, and I spent two summers working on the Mena section gang.

That was when the KCS was a quaint regional line, single-track from KC to Port Arthur. These days, they're everywhere. I don't even try to keep up with the mergers and acquisitions and Mexican operations.

Kevin