Nearly 30 underground coal miners and electricians with the Harlan-Cumberland Coal Company have learned new skills using some of the industry’s most high-tech training equipment aboard the Success Xpress, a mobile training facility built into a 53-foot truck trailer.

The Success Xpress is owned and operated by the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), Inc., a nonprofit agency that administers workforce development programs in eastern Kentucky. The Success Xpress spent a week training miners at the company’s Closplint mine near Evarts in Harlan County.

Many of the Harlan-Cumberland Coal miners came directly out of the underground mine and into the Success Xpress to spend time mining “virtual coal” with the facility’s three-dimensional computerized simulator. Mine electricians and repairmen with the company also diagnosed and corrected simulated “faults” in training exercises using the facility’s electrical training panels, which are exactly like those on actual mining equipment.

Success Xpress is a particularly effective at helping coal companies address the training needs of new coal miners, according to Ray Alred, safety director and mine superintendent for Harlan-Cumberland Coal.

“This younger generation of coal miners is used to video games,” Alred said. “Their hand-eye coordination is good, and while these simulators aren’t games, they seem to tune in on the control panels faster and easier.”

Trainees operate the Success Xpress’ simulator with a hand-held control panel exactly like the version they will encounter on the machine’s real-life counterpart in an underground mine. The simulator also includes a virtual reality headset that trainees wear to experience the sights and sounds of operating a continuous mining machine. Others in the class watch the operator’s progress on a 40-inch flat-screen display.

“They get familiar with the controls of the machine . . . so this technology does work and it’s good for our training efforts,” Alred continued.

In addition to its continuous mining machine simulator, Success Xpress’ state-of-the-art classroom also features nine computer workstations with wireless internet connectivity. In the hands-on lab area, trainees can use the Joy, Inc. electrical training panels to see exactly what occurs when a real continuous mining machine is in operation.

Alred said having access to Success Xpress’ electrical panels has been useful to his lead trainers, who used them to simulate problems on the machinery for electricians and repairmen worked to “troubleshoot.”

Being able to train in those techniques in a controlled environment like the Success Xpress was very beneficial, Alred said.

“We don’t have a training facility, so the training we usually do here is on the job,” he said. “A lot of times you get to changing a bunch of parts on the machine to find out what’s wrong, but (on Success Xpress), it’s all laid out in front of them and things are easier to check out and train for.”

The Success Xpress can be driven to remote coal mines, colleges, high schools, or any other location where training is needed. This mobility allows working miners like those with Harlan-Cumberland Coal to train on the Success Xpress for certifications in essential high-skill positions (mine electricians, METs, equipment operators, foremen, etc.) at their work sites, reducing the impact of training on their companies’ productivity. It also allows high school students who are considering careers in coal to get a firsthand look at the high-tech nature of modern mining.

The Success Xpress makes the best possible training and instruction accessible to working miners and students at any location in the EKCEP service area, according to Crawford Blakeman, EKCEP Business Solutions manager.

“Wherever there’s a need at a coal mine for more skilled and better trained miners, Success Xpress will be ready to literally drive that training to their front door,” Blakeman said. “Being able to present this training in such a mobile way allows workers to train for advancement more efficiently with much less impact on company productivity.”

Since late December, the Success Xpress has also trained working miners and students in Clay, Harlan, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Lawrence, Letcher, Martin, Perry, and Pike counties. The Success Xpress has also recently visited Area Technology Centers in Clay, Knott, Martin, and Pike counties, and the Kentucky Junior Coal Academy at Lawrence County High School, allowing hundreds of high school students spent time at the controls of the facility's continuous mining machine simulator.

The Success Xpress plays a major role in EKCEP’s ongoing efforts to help the state's largest industry replenish its dwindling and aging workforce, according to EKCEP Executive Director Mable Duke.

“The coal industry has indicated time and again that it needs trained, skilled miners,” Duke said. “Success Xpress allows EKCEP to help address that need, and its mobility allows us to bring specialized training to the region’s miners and students in a way that has never been seen before.”

Distance-learning technology aboard the Success Xpress also allows mining courses to be taught by specially qualified instructors at remote locations and transmitted to trainees in the mobile classroom. Remote-controlled cameras in the mobile unit allow the class to interact with the remote instructor in real time.

Additionally, should the need arise, the communications equipment in the Success Xpress would allow it to function as a mobile command center in the case of a mine accident or emergency.

Alred complimented EKCEP for developing the Success Xpress and making it available to Harlan-Cumberland Coal.

“Being able to have this right at our front door really helps us,” Alred said. “If our guys had to drive 20 or 30 miles for something like this, a lot of them wouldn’t have the time to fool with it. But with (Success Xpress) here, they would come in right off their shifts.”

The Success Xpress was created with a portion of EKCEP’s share of a $3.1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The grant was awarded to EKCEP and the West Kentucky Workforce Investment Board (WKWIB) in December 2005 to train new miners and upgrade the skills of experienced miners in the state’s eastern and western coalfields. The grant was awarded under the President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative, as implemented by the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration.

Based in Hazard, EKCEP administers government employment and training programs and employer services in 23 rural mountain counties, including the entire eastern Kentucky coalfields. EKCEP also administers the JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to a dozen government workforce programs for job seekers and employers through a single location.

The Center for Rural Development is also a participating partner, designing and coordinating the Success Xpress’ distance-learning technology.

For additional information on booking the Success Xpress for a visit to a mining operation, high school, vocational and technical school, or any other location, contact Crawford Blakeman at 606-436-5751.