Photo ID: 114223 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Antelope Mine Converse County, WY 18 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF Two coal empties are waiting to be taken into the Antelope Mine to be loaded. As you can see, Antelope has five tracks here off the mains at Converse Junction. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114224 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Antelope Mine Converse County, WY 15 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF Figured I'd nab a shot of this ET44AC, bringing up the rear of a coal empty that is waiting to be taken into Antelope Mine for loading. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114225 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Converse Junction Converse County, WY 17 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific I don't think I've ever seen a UP shield quite this large on the nose of a unit before! UP 8518, with its large shield, are headed east on Main 1 on a coal load. Two BNSF empties are waiting to go into the Antelope Mine for loading. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114226 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Antelope Mine Converse County, WY 18 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF You can see the mine loadout for Antelope Mine in the distance. This BNSF coal train is creeping along at about 2 MPH, still in the process of loading. Contractors operate the train for loading rather than crews from BNSF (or Union Pacific). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114227 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed South Black Thunder Mine Campbell County, WY 16 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF Thunder Basin Coal Company, a subsidiary of Arch Coal, operates the four Black Thunder mines in the Powder River Basin. South Black Thunder Mine is probably the mine that loads the fewest train (out of the four). There is only one long track that runs 9.8 miles around the load out balloon track. Here, UP 9578 has completed loading and is waiting for a crew. An inbound BNSF empty waits to head to the load out in the distance. South Black Thunder loads a little slower than other mines, taking roughly 3.5 hours to fully load a train. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114228 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 45.3 Campbell County, WY 17 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF Three light units head east on Main 3 at Crossover 45.3 east of Reno Junction. BNSF does run manned helpers up Logan Hill for some underpowered trains, but those helper sets are usually two units. Not sure if this is a three-unit helper set, or something else. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114229 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 45.3 Campbell County, WY 16 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Montana Rail Link, BNSF Nice to come across an MRL SD70ACe working in the Powder River Basin. MRL 4309 was in between two BNSF units. The three units might be serving as manned helpers on Logan Hill. Since the MRL units do have PTC installed, that might explain why it is in the middle of two BNSF units. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114230 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 43.5 Campbell County, WY 17 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF One of the interesting things about BNSF coal trains on the Orin Sub is that trains enter and exit from both the north end and south end of the sub. This means that coal loads meet each other and coal empties meet each other. Here, an empty heads east (geographically south) on Main 2 through Reno Junction, headed for a mine further south. The load out, with an impressive conveyor belt reaching it, is the Black Thunder West load out. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114231 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 43.5 Campbell County, WY 15 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF An eastbound empty coal train on Main 2 runs by the Black Thunder mine. It is impressive seeing the mining operations throughout the Powder River Basin. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114232 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Black Thunder Mine Campbell County, WY 14 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF A loaded BNSF coal train is on one of the tracks that lead to Black Thunder Mine. The train was positioned here by coal mine contractors that operate the trains through the load out. Note the orange cones indicating where the train should be spotted. A BNSF crew will show up to take the train back out onto the main. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114233 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 59.7 Campbell County, WY 16 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific Here at MP 59.7, where Main 4 ends on the north side of Logan Hill, the rain has started as a UP coal empty heads west on Main 2. On the intermediate on the signal bridge, you can see a green signal on Main 1 for an eastbound train a few miles out. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114234 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 43.5 Campbell County, WY 18 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF A pair of SD70ACes is headed toward Logan Hill on Main 3. In the era of Precision Scheduled Railroading, more and more coal trains run with 2x1 power. A single DPU is not always sufficient to get a loaded train over Logan Hill, so manned helpers come down from Gillette to help. Way off in the distance, a coal train crests the hill on Main 1. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114235 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Crossover 45.7 to Crossover 43.5 Campbell County, WY 14 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF The Black Thunder Mine has expanded further west, and the pit is now a few hundred feet east of the triple track mainline south of Reno Junction. A pair of SD70ACes head to Logan Hill to help a train over that is having issues on the wet rails. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114236 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed MP 39.9 Campbell County, WY 16 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) BNSF An eastbound BNSF coal empty is slowing toward a red signal ahead on Main 1. Interestingly, the first two hoppers directly behind the lead units are loaded, even though the rest of the train is empty. I have no explanation as to why! Anyway, the train will continue south (timetable east) to the North Antelope mine. A second eastbound empty on Main 1 can be seen behind this train in the distance. That train will go in to Black Thunder for loading. Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture. Photo ID: 114237 Date Shot Photo By Saturday, August 15, 2026 Kevin Morgan Location Times Viewed Reno Junction Campbell County, WY 15 (Add a Comment) Subdivision Railroad Orin (BNSF) Union Pacific After some afternoon storms have passed through, a westbound UP coal empty passes under the Black Thunder West Conveyer Belt at Reno Junction, headed toward a mine further north (timetable west). Email Questions or Comments to the Webmaster or add a comment to the picture.

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