Just north of the UP yard at South Morrill is the small town of Morrill. Train TT109 is headed for the Black Thunder mine with engines 5052, 7881, 9004, and 9033 on May 18, 1992. After loading, it will go to the Kansas City Power and Light Hawthorne plant. An explosion at the plant at 12:30AM on Feb. 17, 1999 reduced the eleven story structure to a five story pile of rubble. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. The plant was down for routine maintenance at the time, so it did not cause a power outage. Damage was limited to the boiler area. There was little damage to the turbine generator area or the coal yard. The plant was rebuilt by Babcock & Wilcox as a 550 megawatt plant in a mere 22 months (the industry standard is 36 months). It is now equipped with an advanced selective catalytic reduction system making it one of the nation's cleanest coal-fired power plants.

PRB Coal

Coal train TT125 at Northport, NE