Southern Railway takes pride in transloader

Coal mined in Kentucky and Illinois moves via barge, conveyor belts and Southern Railway unit trains to reach Georgia Power Company plants that provide electricity for homes and industry in Georgia. Key to this unique transportation system is the rail-barge transloader at Pride, Ala., the first facility of its kind in the country. Southern conceived the idea of this transloading facility and engaged the Harbert Construction Corporation to build it on a 390-acre tract between Southern's main line and the Tennessee River.

Coal laden barges are nudged into position for unloading at the transloader.

Before construction was completed, the power company exercised an option to buy the facility. Southern's role in the operation now is to provide unit trains that move the coal from the transloader to the power company's plants. The operation works like magic, but there were years of planning and technological development behind it. The idea of the riverfront transloader came up in the 1960s. Southern intended to transfer coal barged in from the Midwest to unit trains for movement to power plants in Georgia. This did not prove economically feasible: Other coal sources were closer.

In 1975, however, concerns for environmental protection changed the picture. Georgia's new air quality regulations began to be felt, and low sulphur coals from Kentucky and the Midwest became very attractive. So Southern and Georgia Power decided to go ahead with the transloading venture, with Southern to build the transloader and the power company to lease or buy the facility.

The transloader, which began operation in September 1977, includes a barge-mooring area at the river bank, a high-speed bucket elevator that unloads the barges, belt conveyors and a traveling stacker to move coal into six massive storage piles. Beneath the six mounds of coal runs a belt feeder system that transfers coal on demand to a blending device and from there to a loading tower beside a mile-long loop of track that surrounds the storage area.

Here's how the coal moves: Coal mined in Kentucky and Illinois moves by barge along the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee rivers to the transloader. The barges, each filled with 1,500 tons, travel in tows of two to 15 units. At the transloader mooring, the bucket elevator unloads each barge in about 45 minutes. A covered belt conveys the coal dumped by the elevator uphill to the storage area.

A bucket conveyor system removes coal from the barges. The huge buckets can unload 25 tons of coal a minute, emptying a 1,500-ton-capacity barge in about one hour.

A movable stacker distributes coal to the six storage piles according to sulphur content and other factors. When coal is loaded on a unit train for a particular power plant, the blend is a specific one that meets the plant's air quality and other requirements. This calls for specific amounts of coal from various piles. Coal drops onto an underground conveyor and moves to a loader that pours the coal into the cars of the 97-car unit trains passing beneath it and slowly moving around the loop. Loading takes about three and one-half hours.

When the unit train arrives at a power plant, it passes slowly over a trestle above the storage area. Each car in turn

Pride transloader continued dumps its coal through bottom doors, emptying an entire train in 30 minutes. Three unit trains operate between the transloader and the power plants, and others are in the planning stages. Six to seven million tons of coal are expected to move through the transloader this year, and seven to eight million tons next year.

A covered conveyor belt takes the coal from the unloading area uphill to the transloader's storage area.

This stacker takes the coal from the covered conveyor and distributes it to giant coal piles on either side of the track. The piles are differentiated by sulphur content and other factors. Present storage capacity is 300,000 tons, with room to expand.

In response to blending instructions from this operator, coal is taken from various storage piles in different quantities by underground conveyor and loaded into a unit train destined for a particular power plant.

Moving slowly beneath the loader, the unit train has each hopper car loaded, taking about two minutes to load a car.

Before all the cars are loaded the 97 - car unit train nearly meets itself coming the other way. Twenty years ago, Southern introduced the unit train, a train shuttling back and forth and dedicated t the movement of only coal.