Status Operating Operator(s) Blue Mountain Energy | Owner Blue Mountain Energy | |
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Type Freight railroad for coal Termini East terminal:
Deserado Mine coal loading facility
West terminal:
Bonanza Power Plant Opened 4 January 1984 (1984-01-04) Locale Rio Blanco County, Colorado, Moffat County, Colorado, Uintah County, Utah | ||
The Deseret Power Railroad (/dɛz.əˈrɛt./) (reporting mark DPRW) , formerly known as the Deseret-Western Railway, is an electrified private Class III railroad operating in northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado. It does not have any connection to the national rail network and does not have any signaling system.
Contents
History
The railroad was built 1983 by Railroad Builders of Englewood, Colorado. All rolling stock had to be trucked in 90 miles from Rifle, Colorado, the nearest point of the national rail network. The railroad began operation in January 1984 as Deseret Western Railway owned by Western Fuels Utah (WFU). This joint company was owned 90% by the Deseret Generation & Transmission Cooperative, which operates the Bonanza Power Plant, and 10% by Western Fuels Association. Its task was to operate the Deserado Mine and transport the produced coal to the power plant.
In December 2001 Deseret Generation & Transmission Cooperative bought the 10% share in WFU from Western Fuels Association and changed the name of WFU into Blue Mountain Energy. At the same time the railroad changed its name from to the current Deseret Power Railroad.
Route description
The Deseret Power Railroad exists only to transport coal from the co-operative's Deserado Coal Mine located northeast of Rangely, Colorado and south of Dinosaur, Colorado to their 400 MW Bonanza Power Plant located northwest of Bonanza, Utah. The mined coal is of high-volatile bituminous C quality. The length of the railway is about 35 miles, whereof 17 miles are located in Utah. At both ends is a loop and halfway between power plant and mine is a siding located. There are no grade crossings on the line. All roads use over or underpasses. The underpasses are typically built as culverts with corrugated steel structure.
The route climbs from the mine over the Holum Pass, the lowest spot in the Skyline Ridge, before going downhill hill and crossing the Colorado State Highway 64. Afterwards it climbs another ridge before reaching the power plant.
Operation & Rolling Stock
The railroad is electrified, using an overhead catenary system energized at 50 kV 60 Hz AC to supply power to its locomotives.
Motive power initially consisted of two General Electric built E60C with the road numbers WFU-1 and WFU-2. These two locomotives operated twice daily a 35 car train between the mine and the power plant. The trip between power plant and coal mine take less than an hour.
In September 2001 the locomotives received new road numbers DPR-1 and DPR-2 with the name change of the railroad. The locomotive side wall lettering changed from Deseret Western Railroad to Deseret Railroad by simply painting over the word Western.
At the same time the railroad purchased two more E60C locomotives second-hand from an abandoned Mexican electrification project. The Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México (NdeM) ordered a series of 39 locomotives for 25 kV catenary voltage to be used on the new built electrified line Mexico City–Irapuato. Only 28 locomotive of this series entered revenue service, the surplus locomotives were stored in Mercedes, Texas. Soon the electric operation ceased and the catenary was removed to create more clearance for container trains. The two locomotives purchased had the road numbers EA031 and EA035. They went first from the surplus store to Texas Utilities (TXU), which sold them to the DPR. They kept the original paint scheme including the side wall lettering. Only EA031 entered revenue service as DPR-3 after being converted to 50 kV catenary supply with the help of the railroad's spare transformer.
In February 2003 the railroad received 24 new bottom dump hoppers built by Johnstown America. These cars of the Autoflood III type with 5 bays received the road numbers DPR-56 till DPR-79. The cars were brought from the manufacturer to Craig, Colorado, where they got picked up by Blue Mountain Energy and trucked to the Deserado Mine Loadout.
In October 2004 the railroad purchased three more NdeM locomotives, with the road numbers EA012, EA017 and EA028. Also, from this batch only one locomotive entered revenue service as DPR-4. The locomotive had originally the road number EA012 and the conversion to 50 kV was done by rewinding the transformer.
In 2015 there was normally a 44 car train with three locomotives running twice a day. The two original locomotives and one of the converter ex-NdeM locomotives were in use.