C. V. Spur Loadout

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This page was last updated on January 28, 2025.

Overview

What today is known as C.V. Spur was constructed in 1974 by D&RGW for the benefit of the Utah Power & Light, and the American Coal company which was the contract operator of UP&L's coal mines in Emery County. The new loading site was named Acco, for the American Coal Company.

It was intended as a site to transload coal from trucks from UP&L's coal mines in the area, to rail cars for shipment to UP&L's own coal-fired power plants in other locations such as their Gadsby plant in Salt Lake City. UP&L's new Huntington power plant was not yet completed and in service.

In 1976 the two-mile C. V. Spur was to be the connection between the D&RGW mainline and a new company called the Castle Valley Railroad which proposed to build a rail line south along the Castle Valley to Utah Power & Light's Huntington power plant, 34 miles south of Price. UP&L was putting the second unit of the power plant into commission, as well as building its Hunter power plant 15 miles further south near Castle Dale, and needed the ability to receive coal by rail from locations throughout the region. The proposed Castle Valley Railroad was not completed, but another was proposed in 1982 to reach Consolidation Coal's Emery Deep Mine south of the town of Emery. This proposed rail line was also not completed.

When Intermountain Power Agency began construction of their Intermountain Power Project coal-fired electrical generation plant near Delta, Utah, they began arranging for a steady supply of coal that could be used by the plant, about 12,000 tons per day. Several contracts were signed with coal mining companies to ensure a continuing supply of coal, which was to be transported by unit coal trains from points on D&RGW and Utah Railway, over Soldier Summit to Provo, then south by Union Pacific to the IPP plant near Delta. (Read more about IPP)

Three large coal loadouts were constructed to serve these IPP unit coal trains. First was an expansion of the loading site at Acco on the existing C. V. Spur, south of Price. The second was a new flood loader on Utah Railway for the Star Point mine (formerly the Wattis mine), which went into service in January 1986. The third site was a new flood loader at Wildcat, also on Utah Railway.

(Read more about Wildcat)

(Read more about the Star Point mine)

Timeline

Acco

December 27, 1973
D&RGW began work on a new rail spur two miles east of Price, Utah, with the construction of the grade being done by Morrison-Knudsen. The spur's track was to be laid by D&RGW's own crews. The two-mile long spur, which was named "C. V. Spur" (named for Castle Valley), was to serve a loading site for coal being trucked from coal mines in Emery County, for loading into rail cars. The loading site at the south end of the new spur was named Acco, for the American Coal Company. The new spur was to be completed and the new loading site put into service in May 1974. (Sun Advocate, December 27, 1973)

After loading into rail cars at Acco, the coal was then moved in D&RGW trains to Utah Power & Light's Carbon power plant at Castle Gate, or to UP&L's Gadsby power plant in Salt Lake City. The new spur would replace truck loading ramps being operated by the Mine Service company south of Price that were adjacent to a residential area, with the change being ordered by the local Seventh District Court. The court decision was in answer to complaints of excessive coal truck traffic along Price's 4th South street. Other than coal from American Coal company mines in Emery County, about half of the coal truck traffic coming to the truck loading ramps in south Price was coming from mines operated by Peabody Coal, which moved its loading site to Mohrland on Utah Railway. The loading site in south Price would continue to be used by Browning Coal company for coal coming from its mine south of Emery in Emery County (later known as the Emery Deep Mine), and by the LDS church for coal coming from the Deseret mine west of Castle Dale, also in Emery County. (Sun Advocate, December 27, 1973)

Browning Coal later moved its loading site to Spearmint on D&RGW's Marysvale Branch. The LDS church later stopped shipping coal by rail.

C. V. Spur first appeared in D&RGW employee timetables with System Timetable No. 2, dated January 1, 1974.

June 20, 1974
The first unit train of coal loaded at the new Acco loading site was operated to Utah Power & Light's Carbon power plant at Castle Gate. The new service by D&RGW was to deliver 9000 tons of coal per week to the power plant, in the form of unit trains made up of 31 rail cars, three time per week. D&RGW upgraded 1500 feet of existing track, and added 330 more feet of track to accommodate the new service. (Helper Journal, June 27, 1974)

1975
Utah Power & Light was approved by the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining to use the original site. The permit was transferred to Swisher Coal Company in October 1977, expanded in April 1978, and transferred to Arco Coal Company in 1980 when Arco bought Swisher Coal. (Documents on file at Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining; Permit C0070022)

February 10, 1976
William Teel of Denver has incorporated the Castle Valley Railroad company to build a 65-mile rail line linking Emery with the Price-Wellington area. The expected cost was reported as $70 million. If the federal Bureau of Land Management approves the environmental impact statement, the new line could be in operation by November 1, 1979, with the primary purpose being to serve the coal mine of the Consolidation Coal company. (Salt Lake Tribune, February 10, 1976)

July 2, 1977
Utah Power & Light lost its right to use Acco as a loadout for its trucks after an out-of-court settlement of a law suit from an adjacent farm owner, who sued because of coal dust drifting across his fields. Utah Public Utilities Commission gave UP&L an authorization for single-car shipments of coal from Mohrland, on Utah Railway. The destination was UP&L's Gadsby plant in Salt Lake City. The newspaper account reported that UP&L was loading trucks at Acco for the highway trip to Gadsby. Three railroads, Union Pacific, Utah Railway, and Salt Lake Garfield & Western, were granted authority to establish single-car rates. (Salt Lake Tribune, July 2, 1977; Provo Daily Herald, July 4, 1977)

1977
In addition to loading coal at Acco on the C.V. Spur south of Price, D&RGW was also loading coal at Salina, on its Marysvale Branch.

D&RGW at Salina

August 30, 1970
Browning Coal Company shipped a 75-car train of coal (5,600 tons) to a steel mill in Japan. The coal was trucked from the company's coal mine to a loading area adjacent to the D&RGW tracks in Salina. The loaded railroad cars were then shipped by D&RGW to Provo, where they were interchanged with Union Pacific for the trip to the port in southern California. It was test shipment to see if Utah coal was suitable for the steel mill's needs. (Salt Lake Tribune, August 30, 1970)

During 1977, Southern Utah Fuel was trucking coal from its mine in Salina canyon, to a coal terminal on the D&RGW railroad at Salina. The Salina coal terminal was loading 3,750 tons daily, into fifty 75-ton hopper cars. (Coal Age magazine December 1977, page 72)

December 14, 1977
U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration documents show that the Acco site became active on December 14, 1977.

1981
Acco, Utah, was the terminal for a pair of trains operated by D&RGW in the fall of 1981. This pair of unit coal trains, known as trains 766/767, operated by way of D&RGW between Island Creek's loadout at Acco to Provo, then by Union Pacific to Nevada Power's coal-fired power plant at Moapa, Nevada.

September 7, 1982
"Rio Grande Industries said it had agreed in principle to a $70 million venture with the DuPont Company's Consolidation Coal Company to build and operate a 62-mile railroad between Acco and Emery, Utah. Construction is to start early next year, and the intention is to complete the line by the end of 1984 to help Consolidation and others to develop coal reserves." (New York Times, September 8, 1982)

September 1984
D&RGW and Consolidation Coal Co. (Consol) announced that the plan to build a 62 mile line from Acco, Utah, to Consol's coal holdings at Emery, Utah, had been suspended due to low coal prices. No grading or construction was completed. (Pacific Rail News, Issue 252, published in October 1984, page 32)

Swisher

Swisher Coal Company's coal preparation and unit train loadout was located immediately south of, and adjacent to the Acco loadout originally built by Utah Power & Light in 1974. The Acco site was inactive at the time.

The second site at C. V. Spur was first developed in September 1979 by Swisher Coal Company as a coal preparation plant and unit train loading facility for coal shipped by truck from its various mines in Carbon and Emery counties. The facility was designed and built by McNally Pittsburg Manufacturing Company with the reported capacity of 400 tons per hour, with a planned capacity of loading one million tons per year (500,000 tons were planned during 1979).

September 3, 1975
Swisher Coal company was sold to General Exploration company of Dallas, Texas. The Swisher coal mine was producing about 250,000 tons per year. The General Exploration company also had mines in Huntington canyon in Utah, and other mines in Ohio and Kentucky. (Helper Journal, September 3, 1975)

April 1977
Swisher Coal company announced its plans for $65 million expansion of its coal washing facilities and construction of a unit train loading operation. The expansion was needed as part of a new contract to supply of 13 million tons over a 15-year period to a new coal-fired power plant in Mississippi. (Coal Age magazine, April 1977, page 53)

July 1978
General Exploration Company announced that its subsidiary, Swisher Coal Company, would build a new preparation plant and a unit-train loading facility, and will add a third mine (two are already operating) in order to produce 1.5 million tons per year of coal. The plans called for the new 400 tons per hour preparation plant to be completed by early 1979. The existing preparation plant at Wildcat would remain in operation to serve Swisher's local and spot market customers. (Coal Age magazine, July 1978, page 152)

(The coal preparation plant of Swisher Coal company at C. V. Spur was the subject of a six-page article in Coal Age magazine, July 1978. The article included several photos of the plant operations, and a flow diagram of the coal preparation process.)

January 1980
The Swisher site was changed to become the newly renamed Beaver Creek Coal Company, a subsidiary of Arco Coal Company. Arco Coal (formerly Anaconda Minerals, as a subsidiary of Atlantic Richfield Company) had purchased Swisher Coal Company in January 1980, managing Swisher under its new Beaver Creek subsidiary.

(The Beaver Creek name came from a creek in a canyon over the ridge north from the Swisher coal mine in Gordon Creek Canyon. From the point nearest the Swisher mine, Beaver Creek flows north and empties into the Price River near Kyune.)

(In 1985, Anaconda sold the last of its copper and molybdenum operations and became solely a coal mining company, as Arco Coal. Beaver Creek Coal Co,. was shown as its only operation in Utah. -- Coal Age magazine, June 1985, page 24)

(The Beaver Creek Coal Co. was changed to Mountain Coal Co. in 1991, with operations being at the C.V. Spur loadout. Beaver Creek's loadout at Wildcat had been retired in 1987.)

Savage

"One of our coal terminals, located in central Utah, receives and stockpiles coal from multiple mines and loads it into unit trains and trucks. Our teams manage our customers' inventories, provide blending and other services, and coordinate their rail logistics. This site handles more than 5 million tons of coal and ships more than 500 unit trains per year." (Savage Industries, Terminal Operations; accessed November 19, 2013)

September 9, 1994
Savage Industries purchased the Mountain Coal (Arco, former Beaver Creek, former Swisher) site on September 9, 1994. (Documents on file with the U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration)

(The sale had been agreed upon in March 1994, pending due diligence by both parties. Mountain Coal, as a subsidiary of Arco Coal, no longer had any coal operations in Utah, and had no need for the C.V. Spur loading site. -- Emery County Progress, March 13, 1994) (Mountain Coal had sold its Trail Mountain mine to PacifiCorp in October 1992.)

The permit from Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining was transferred on July 6, 1995.

1999-2000
A list of coal mines served by BNSF in July 2004 showed the following coal mines:

Andalex Aberdeen, Tower Division (2.0 million tons in 1999; 1.5 million tons in 2000; Wildcat only)
Andalex Genwal (3.6 million tons in 1999; 3.8 million tons in 2000; shared with Savage Coal Terminal)
Andalex West Ridge (0.5 million tons in 1999; 2.0 million tons in 2000; shared with Savage Coal Terminal)
Canyon Fuel Skyline (3.8 million tons in 1999; 3.0 million tons in 2000; Savage Coal Terminal only)
Canyon Fuel Dugout (0.2 million tons in 1999; 0.5 million tons in 2000; Savage Coal Terminal only)
Canyon Fuel Sufco (5.7 million tons in 1999; 5.9 million tons in 2000; Savage Coal Terminal only)

2006
Canyon Fuel Company, LLC, a subsidiary of Arch Western Bituminous Group, LLC, constructed a new coal preparation plant at the Savage Coal Terminal in Wellington, Utah. The new plant uses the same structure that once housed the old ARCO Coal plant. The plant uses a heavy media process and has a cleaning capacity of 2 million tons per year. Canyon Fuel plans to operate the plant to optimize coal quality specifications. The plant will enable Canyon Fuel, through its sales agent Arch Coal Sales Company, to offer a premium product with consistent ash and heating values. Processed coal tonnage numbers are unavailable for 2008. (Utah Geological Survey, 2008 Annual Review and Forecast of Utah Coal Production and Distribution, page 18)

August 2013
Savage was approved by state regulators to add the capability to transload crude oil from truck tankers into rail tank cars. In January 2014, the name of the facility was changed from "Savage Coal Terminal" to "Savage Energy Terminal." (Savage news release dated January 7, 2014)

More Information

More information is available at the web site of the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining. Search for Permit C0070022, Savage Coal Terminal.

(Unfortunately, the web address seems to change on a regular basis due to administrative changes, and varying budgetary issues.)

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