Where The Coal Comes From; How Coal Is Mined, Processed, And Shipped. (A Documentary)

Рет қаралды 56,979

6 ай бұрын

In the deep dark hills of Eastern Kentucky, Bluegrass Natural Resources continues to keep coal alive. After over 60 hours of work, RailfanMicahTurner presents "Where The Coal Comes From; How Coal Is Mined, Processed, And Shipped. (A Documentary)"
Dive deep underground and see the hard labor of the mining man firsthand. Watch from the ground up as the coal is mined, transported and processed through the Cave Branch Prep Plant, and then shipped by train. This production has been a long time in the making, and I sincerely hope you enjoy.
Sound Track Code - WKZNVLGJDOSVHHHV

Пікірлер: 88

@glennyoder2983 2 ай бұрын

Very well done, young man. It takes a special kind of person to go in that hole every day. THANK YOU MINERS !!!

@user-ed1po7me3w 2 ай бұрын

The Best Documentary of Mining I have ever seen. Outstanding job Micah

@edmudd1600 5 ай бұрын

Bet every time a miner comes out they appreciate the light and beautiful colors your landscape. I know I did in your film.

@22rwex 5 ай бұрын

Thank you for this Micah, I retired from the Mines, I run a Buggy, Built Stoppings, worked Outby running a Motor, even worked outside running a D10 shoving Raw Coal, this is a really nice Video, I appericate your hard work you done and thank your Dad for his knowledge, thanks again.

@user-fs4wu6rs1c 3 ай бұрын

I’m a retired miner great job young man. People need to see what it’s like underground it’s a great job hard work an dangerous but most mines these days are pretty safe a lot more than they used to be. It’s great to see this it brings back a lot of good an bad memories but I would say I wouldn’t trade my time for anything else thanks

@sanddabz5635 2 ай бұрын

One word>>>>OUTSTANDING!!

@chrisroeben1085 6 ай бұрын

Great video. If you could keep the text up a little bit longer. Some was too fast to read without trying to pause or rewind and pause.

@bennetts-revenge_2 3 ай бұрын

Totally agree!!!

@artstep9661 2 ай бұрын

Its more than enough time to read

@michaelljiljak5926 2 ай бұрын

@@artstep9661 okay captain incredible

@artstep9661 2 ай бұрын

@@michaelljiljak5926 don't get jealous

@the1brod2 5 ай бұрын

Forgive me for my heartfelt comment. You need to increase the duration of your subtitles. I can only read 1/2 of them before they disappear off screen.

@joecassidayjr5478 5 ай бұрын

Could you leave your captions on screen for another 10 seconds? Can't read them quick enough

@joverby11 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for adding that request. I didn't want to repeat it but...

@1traintracker 5 ай бұрын

What a great video! Thanks to the men and women that are willing to do this vital work to help provide energy for America.

@jossmaxwell00 2 ай бұрын

What a great insight in to how coal is mined in the USA. As a former UK coal miner, our systems are vastly different. UK coal mines where predominately deep coal mines. Where I worked was called Brodsworth colliery located in the city of Doncaster in the county of South Yorkshire England. It had three shafts, working four seams. These where the "Bansley seam" 10 foot high coal seams, Acessed from 1900feet below ground,. This level contained the "Dunsel coal seam" at just over 5 foot thick. The other 2 shafts when down to 2800feet. There where also to seams worked at this depth. These where the "Parkgate seam" at 5foot thick, and the"Thorncliffe seams at 5 1/2foot thick. There coal faces where a long wall coal face of some 300 mtrs long on average. in total there 9 coal faces working at any given time, producing 1 millon tonnes of coal a year. employing over 2500 people including surface workers and office staff. the first Sod was cut in 1905 and closed in 1989 by the UK Thatcherite Goverment. Doncaster had 13 collieries and all shut causing mass unemployment and devastated all the communites of the city of Doncaster. The Uk still has massive reserves of coal in the mulit millon tonnes. There are now no UK deep coal mines. The coal mines went on strike for 12 months to fight the closure. Sadly we lost the battle with the UK Goverment. 1984 strike.

@djt8518 Ай бұрын

Same thing happened here in wv thanks to Reagan we never did recover

@edmudd1600 5 ай бұрын

Love your video maybe you could do a video of the cracking and popping with out music for us older deaf people thanks for your service. Tell everyone I appreciate their sacrifice for all of their hard work.

@railfanmicahturner 5 ай бұрын

That’s actually an editing error on my end, I had meant for their to be no music so you could hear and I forgot. I may end up uploading a separate video with nothing but the sound of the mines. Thanks for your support and glad you enjoyed!

@1STGeneral 2 ай бұрын

@@railfanmicahturnerPossibly slow the captions down also

@WVT0587 2 ай бұрын

Great video, with lots of detail of how a mine underground actually works!

@IgnitedCoyote 6 ай бұрын

You are a talented young man! This looks like the History channel did it. Great job!

@Richardofdanbury 5 ай бұрын

Having spent 26 yrs in the coal industry this video brought back many memories. The first mine I ever entered was Consol's Itmann mine back in 1973. it started like a railroad entrance and wound up that we had to roll out of the man-trip conveyor. The height was less then a kitchen table. We were told that the mine sloped back and we were 2 miles in and about a mile under the mountain. Yikes! Great video!

@djt8518 Ай бұрын

I started at coalwood in 75 went down on the cage to the bottom then road for 45 min to the face

@rogerhuber3133 2 ай бұрын

Amazing all the equipment, technology and men it takes to provide the coal for power generation. This is the best documentary I've ever seen on anything! Well done and thank you for making it available. God bless the miners underground for what they do.

@rhondacreech7452 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing Micah! You have a gift evident in this presentation of coal miners and coal mining which has a way that brings tears to our eyes and appreciation of them in our hearts. What an educational video!! You have wowed the viewers who thought coal mining was simply pick and shovel! Thanks to all who made this possible!!

@calvinloudermilk4404 2 ай бұрын

Awesome video... Miners definitely have a Thankless job. GO MINERS !!!

@davidkimmel4216 2 ай бұрын

Amazing video thanks

@everydaylifewiththebensons285 5 ай бұрын

Super documentary - very well done. I stumbled upon you through the November 2023 train derailment near Harlan and watched the "Ignited Coyote" KZbin video where he used your railfan knowledge in his video. My wife and I live in central Ohio on the east side of Columbus. But, my father's family are from the Maysville/ Brooksville, Kentucky area. I grew up in southern Ohio and my parents ran a second hand store & auction there, We used coal in a Warm Morning stove to heat the auction house with, and many a day I has to carry the coal buckets into the store to fire the stoves. I am now 69 years old and am trying to take up the hobby of rail fanning (along with MANY other interests !! ) I'll check out more of your videos and hopefully I'll get some of my own published here soon. Charlie & Louise in Central Ohio

@WV5513 2 ай бұрын

You done a great job explaining the process. I was able to show my daughter what I do at work with this video. Thank you

@glenndavis2096 Ай бұрын

Outstanding video! More lighting, please!!

@brddukaty7460 2 ай бұрын

Amazing Hard work- unappreciated by many 😢

@jorettafawbush6891 4 ай бұрын

I work for a large global company rebuilding continuous miners, I work on the disassembly and rebuilding of the gearcases and cutter heads , really enjoy my job

@charlierumsfeld6626 6 ай бұрын

THANK YOU!! THANK YOUR FATHER!

@cathyoldham7596 5 ай бұрын

Excellent work - very informative!! I certainly learned a lot, and I'm sure that anyone who watches this can say the same thing! Thank you and your dad for all your hard work in producing this.

@curtis-thebicentennialist1776 2 ай бұрын

Nice job!

@scotabot7826 5 ай бұрын

WOW, I can't believe the underground equipment doesn't have more lights on it. You can't see what's going on, but these guys senses are on 150 all the time!!

@1946luke 5 ай бұрын

Yeah really, you'd think there'd be lites here there and everywhere.

@crustytrainguy6503 6 ай бұрын

Great stuff. It’s extra cool for me cause I get to see Lynch trains just like the one featured in this video at the very end of their journey in the United States. I’m about 30 miles from the export piers where that train you filmed was headed.

@justme4040 5 ай бұрын

What a great job

@lnrailroad3215 4 ай бұрын

Excellent video Micah!!

@pcarpy7 2 ай бұрын

Great informational video. Please leave the text up for more time. Most people do not read that fast.

@freespeechforever 2 ай бұрын

An exceptional video, great work. The going underground sequence was worthy of a blockbuster sci-fi movie.

@charlesmullins3238 3 ай бұрын

Dads brothers shop is no longer workin on scoops,shuttle cars,drills n such but few pieces still there and I remeber bein so busy in 89s

@fanofbigmedia 3 ай бұрын

Outstanding documentary and incredible drone footage.

@charlesmullins3238 3 ай бұрын

From eastern Ky and dad put 30yr underground…papaw worked for inland steels price tipple and I used to steam clean equipment on strip jobs all over so coal has and will always keep me alive

@slider0915 2 ай бұрын

Really great video! only gripe is the captions go away too fast in the early part of the video, later on they are great...

@FrankMuchnok 3 ай бұрын

Micah, I really enjoyed the video but a couple of things; I believe that the mine waste is called "Refuse", not "Refuge". Some of the captions could have been kept up a little longer for us slow readers. Viewers should note that light-levels underground are somewhat different from what shows up on video. Your cap-lamp points wherever you look so it's a little easier to see. *** Everyone should forward this video to friends, family, etc. who've asked questions regarding coal mining. It's a good start at understanding the industry.

@railfanmicahturner 2 ай бұрын

I appreciate your feedback! This is how feedback should be structured and I love your consideration. As for captions, it is definitely something I’m working towards in future videos. I actually have another documentary in production now that I hope to have ready in the coming months, and captions are the primary focus outside of footage material. At first, lighting levels were a nitpick but after some thought, it really shows the audience what our miners deal with every day. And you are correct on refuse, it came to my attention post-upload that autocorrect was my enemy haha. Once again, thanks for the feedback! It’s much appreciated!

@FrankMuchnok 2 ай бұрын

Another victim of Auto-correct ! Thanks for your reply. @@railfanmicahturner

@charleswalsh9895 2 ай бұрын

Mechanism has changed things somewhat. But still hard work.

@music100vid 2 ай бұрын

Awesome, you covered it very well.

@25vrd48 2 ай бұрын

Very good video . Coalmining is a dangerous and hard job . Awesome video , very well done .

@smf2072 2 ай бұрын

Spring for a narrator & I'll watch the remaining 53 minutes.

@centeroftheearthmining4095 2 ай бұрын

Awesome!!!! MERICA!!!!

@BenjaminEsposti 2 ай бұрын

Excellent documentary! I like how it's rather descript, compared to a TV show that would just show basics and/or blasting for the "ooo ahh" factor. (Besides, blasting is a bad idea in a coal mine)

@davebrock6618 3 ай бұрын

Wow, what a video. Love it.

@jacklyons6640 Ай бұрын

I agree, please keep the text up longer. I went to school in KY and TN so I can’t read that fast.

@WVT0587 2 ай бұрын

One suggestion, leave the captions or words up longer on screen to read.

@TPW900GP35 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for your efforts! Probably the best documentary I’ve ever seen on the coal industry! I do wish the lighting could have been better, underground, so we could see the operation better. In the first half, the captions didn’t stay on screen long enough to read them. I stopped and rewound numerous times so I could read them! Overall, it was great work. I am a former railroader. The company I worked for served a power plant and received coal from eastern KY, the Powder River Basin, and some from Colorado; Colorado coal shipments stopped early on in my career. Then, they received coal mainly from the Powder River Basin, some by barge, I think. Some of my favorite hopper cars were the type that were from Bethlehem Steel Car. Four bays, the end sheets came right to the top of the car. L&N and CRR were heavy buyers of that type! Again, thanks for the insight into the process!

@TPW900GP35 2 ай бұрын

I couldn’t think of the loadouts that shipped to my aforementioned power plant when I posted my earlier comment! I thought of one of them. It was Leatherwood. Is anything still happening there? That was in the days of trains of 72 and 90 cars. One loadout loaded 72 cars and the other loaded 90 cars. When we were notified by the by the L&N or CSXT that a train was close, we could tell where it originated by the number of cars it had. I worked for TP&W. The interchange point was Watseka. The destination plant was Central Illinois Light Co. in the Peoria area (railroad location was Sommer). Coal was still moving via that route until the new TP&W lost the contract. I don’t remember the time frame, unfortunately, but it’s been quite a few years ago, now. I don’t remember who took the contract over. It may have been a barge company, since they are along the Illinois River. The last I heard, they still received a lot of western coal from the UP (former C&NW).

@railfanmicahturner 2 ай бұрын

@@TPW900GP35 It’s funny that you should mention Leatherwood! The way I have videos on my channel, with me being in college, is I record and upload the video months in advance. I say all that to say that I just put together a video surrounding the EK and leatherwood that I’ll have up in the coming months. They ship one train a day on average these days. Thanks for your comment and feedback!

@TPW900GP35 2 ай бұрын

@@railfanmicahturner Is most of the coal out of eastern KY being exported, since quite a few power plants have either closed or switched over to natural gas?

@joverby11 2 ай бұрын

@@railfanmicahturner, was there a safety restriction against having better lighting? The story is great and needs to be told, and you have pretty exclusive connections to have access into the operation. I think in 10-years' time you will look back on this and be glad you did it while wishing certain aspects could have been a little more polished. I know what it's like to be a college student too, so hats off to you for undertaking all of this. One of the people at your school turned me onto your work. Not to be critical in a way that takes away from what you are doing; but this needs a few tweaks. The music phrasing is so repetitive that I just turn it off and ab hour later I'm still humming it without thinking about the content. Keep up the great story. One secret to success is to tell a little known story of generational and cultural significance. You're in a good vein here to keep mining away for a long time to come. Consider reaching out to Malcom J. Wilson of Blackey, KY, for some pro tips. He's a master.

@larryigreen5829 3 ай бұрын

The process is interesting; however the written captions were so fast that I could only read about half of what was printed. Sorry that I couldn't get more understanding of the process!

@wmbomb1079 2 ай бұрын

I loved watching this video Thank You for filming it and posting it here on KZbin, Micah Turner! Question if I may: You stated at the beginning "a 45 minute trip into the mine face where the mining is taking place, in that amount of time +/- how many miles does that equal? Many years ago my company hauled several dozen loads of Liquid CO2 Gas to several of the mines throughout Emery County Utah to many of the mines for fire control of parts of the mines there that have been continuously burning for decades, while was 'extremely sad' to be part of pumping our gas into the Wilburg Coal Mine outside of town there because of the Wilberg Mine fire, which tragically claimed the lives of twenty-seven miners on 19 December 1984 so it's been several decades ago but still hold my memories of going there with well over a dozen loads of gas along with many of the other drives, I've always wondered what it is like underground working in the mining industry and I pay tribute to all the brave men & women who go there to provide electricity and coal itself which provide warmth to so many throughout the world every day.

@railfanmicahturner 2 ай бұрын

I appreciate your comment! It was a really great read! If I recall correctly, it was around 7-8 miles from point to point. It definitely feels a lot longer than 45 minutes!

@FrogandFlangeVideo 3 ай бұрын

Great documentary for an important USA enterprise !!!!! Big thumbs up on your piloting, my friend. That is a very very challenging flying environment. May I ask what drone (s) you used for this video ? Stay safe. James.

@railfanmicahturner 3 ай бұрын

DJI Mini 2 and Mini 4 Pro 🙂

@FrogandFlangeVideo 3 ай бұрын

Thank you Micah. @@railfanmicahturner

@1STGeneral 2 ай бұрын

That's alot of effort to get the finished product sure doesn't seem very efficient but that's what we have

@WestVirginiasBigred271 2 ай бұрын

My first mine was like this one a drift mouth. I noticed people were able to stand up and that is worth a whole lot by its self plus it looked fairly dry under there. The last mine i worked in two weeks ago was a shaft mine we took an elevator 680 ft down to the coal seam the rode a rail car for 45 minutes back to section 3 which was only about 4 and half to 5 foot in most places and had about 6 inches of mud and water the conditions were horrible. I am 5 ft 9 inches it felt so good just to find a place that the top had fallen out of so i could stand up for a minute. Low coal dose not do the back any favors..

@djteako 3 ай бұрын

Great video, with a few imperfections. You could and should have used much better lighting for the underground filming. It pretty much showed up as black. As others have mentioned, the subtitles should have been left up for longer, especially knowing that youtube- when you pause a video, the tracker bar etc all comes up and blocks your subtitles. You need to know your coal !!!! This is "Met" coal, and has nothing to do with power generation. It's use is making steel, and it is now pretty much all exported. Now not your fault or doing, but holy man, are there ever a LOT of inefficiencies in this operation !!!!!!! No wonder US coal industry is dying off.