Work Field Trip

Last week, I was able to go on a work field trip.

Our first stop was the Desperado Coal Mine. We weren't allowed to take our camera's with us, so I only have a picture of my mine outfit, hard hat and disposable coveralls.

 

When we first got there, I was pretty nervous. But once we headed down, I forgot all about that. It was really cool so I was bummed I couldn't take pictures. Its literally like a small city down there. We drove down in a truck. Then we would get out and walk around to see a few different things. 

We got to see where they were adding supports to a new section. Then we saw a huge machine that was remote controlled. (I don't remember what it was called.) The last stop, in the mine was the long wall. Its this HUGE machine that cuts the coal from the wall, which in turn falls onto a belt that runs it to the end of the tunnel. 

After that, we traded groups and went on the land tour part. We toured the building where they clean the coal. Then we followed the miles long belt to where it eventually ends up at the train depot, where it is then shipped to the power plant.

After our tour was finished, we headed to the Deseret Bonanza Power Plant. We happen to go on a day when the plant was offline. One of the ladies had been there on a day it was running and she said each time was pretty cool. When the plant is running, its neat to see everything in action. But when its offline, its cool to see the inside of everything and really connect how it all works. 

I think the coolest part was looking inside the boiler. (Its one of those things that you can't quite comprehend the size of when its running.) I felt like a tiny bug on a football field. We also got to see a ton of other stuff, but of course, I can't remember what any of it was called. 

One thing had thousands of tubes in it that are about 2 inches wide. When the plant is offline, they have to clean ALL of those. They use these plastic plug looking things. Someone has to start one in each of the holes and then another person uses a gun to fire them through to the end. It was pretty cool to watch, but I bet that would be a job that got boring very quickly. And they were wearing full body suits because its a job that gets you soaking wet.

By the time we got to the plant, my phone was dead, so I didn't get any pictures there either. But a coworker was nice enough to share this one of us on the roof with the smoke stack behind us. 

I love my job, but it was nice to get away from the office for a day and see how our power is generated.