Odd Sighting

[KMCCLA]

Have a some what or at least it seems to be, an odd sighing. Here in the Kansas City Area, there are two (one and a half in reality) routes from Kansas City to St. Louis. Because of the ruling grade, most of the loaded coal trains move east via the River Sub, and empties return westbound via the Sedalia Sub through Lee's Summit. However, today --from a distance -- I saw a westbound loaded coal train. I found this odd because most of the loaded coal drags are eastbound, not westbound. While it would unusual to see an eastbound coal on the Sedalia Sub, it is not unheard of as there are one or two perhaps a week to the Montrose Plant, and whenever the River Sub is down, they are routed that way as well. However -- to have a loaded coal going the "wrong way" is odd. Is it possible that a power plant "rejected" a load, or perhaps it is being "redirected" to another plant? The cars where too far away for me to see the markings, and I also was not able to see either end, so it could be plausible that it was simply "backing up" back into the siding. But I simply found it odd, to see a coal train, going the wrong way.

 

[KMCCLA]

A little bit of an update -- I hope. I think I saw what was perhaps the same train I saw above, today, this time it was running the correct way, and was empty. So the train very well may have been backing up, but there is no way to really tell.