Marty,I think this thread is worth pursuing.The Rutland stopped sending
their hoppers off line in 1923 Company coal arrived on line and was off
loaded at Alburgh where it was transferred to company cars to save on per
diem charges.Coal for dealers and other companies remained in the cars of
foreign roads.I must add, that there are always exceptions to the rule in
almost every case.I have also seen photos of B&O ,NKP,Pennsy,and NYC hoppers
spotted at Rutland coaling towers.Still a mystery,at least to me,were the
number of Berwind cars that were interchanged with the CV at Alburgh.They
were generally returned as empties in approximately three days later.I have
learned early on not to say,"never".especially discussing such things as car
distribution.Armand Premo
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Marty McGuirk" <mac@...>
To: <STMFC@...>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 11:24 AM
Subject: [STMFC] Coal into New England
After looking at thousands of photos of CV freight trains taken between
the years 1939 and 1957, I have to say I've never seen a C&O hopper on
the CV. NYC ones are fairly rare (ie., one or two have shown up). The
most common, by far, are B&O hoppers, followed closely by PRR cars
(H21s, and some of the smaller PRR twins as well). EVERY picture I've
seen that shows a hopper spotted at a CV coaling tower is a either a CV
company service car (CV 2000-20199) OR a B&O car --normally a offset
twin of one type or another.
From what I've been able to fathom extremely large coal shipments (like
trains of the stuff, enough to run a power plant) were fairly rare into
New England. The region is rich in natural resources, lots of water,
timber (at least early on), and excellent, and a world championship
football team <g>, but NO coal. None, notta, nothing.
So you would think there would have been lots of coal shipped into the
region (in the '40s and '50s a noticeable percentage of New England
power was hydro -- no surprise considering the water and rivers in the
area) but there were a lot of coal fired power plants. One, in
Montville, Conn., was served by the CV -- but the railroad didn't
deliver coal, only machinery and other items on as-needed basis. The
coal itself came up the coast in barges from the Va Capes.
One other CV on line customer, near the present site of the USCG
Academy, was the Thames River Shipyard, which was also known as the
Thames River Towboat Co. Their main business for many years was towing
coastal barges of coal (and oil) in the various waterfront towns in New
England.
Although it was never finished, I've always found it interesting that
the best maps showing the routes to be used by the defunct Southern New
England into Providence, RI, were all prepared by the Chesapeake & Ohio
Railroad -- and there are clear indications on the map of an intent to
provide a rail-marine coal transfer facility in Providence. Of course,
all of this could have been part of the whole deal between the various
super egos involved in this particular project on both sides.
Marty
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