Re: Why were gondolas more popular in the west for hauling minerals than hoppers?
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I can't speak for the west but the L&N moved a lot of coal in gondolas. When coal was a common home heating fuel, there were many local retail coal yards. Many smaller yards were not equipped to dump hoppers, so those yards ordered coal in gondolas for unloading out the top. Chuck Peck On Tue, Dec 6, 2022 at 9:47 AM Paul Catapano <pc66ot@...> wrote: I’m not sure that’s exactly true. If we consider mineral traffic only, I have numerous photos of gondolas on the “Major” coal hauling roads loaded with coal. So called “Battleship Gons” on the Virginian or C&O come directly to mind. Admittedly this, in and of itself, is not proof, but I suspect that if you picked an “Eastern” road out of a hat you might find that they rostered substantial numbers of gondolas. |
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