Interesting that you should say that, Mike, since late-'40s photos have recently turned up which show UP ballast hoppers en route to/from the Kaiser steel plant in Fontana, CA. Granted, they came almost all the way from Utah on the LA&SL, but were handed off to the Santa Fe for delivery to Kaiser.
When I made the statement I thought...hmmm...wonder if UP was handing any coal off to C&S at Cheyenne? UP, at that time, was moving coal from Rock Springs and Hanna...west of Mecca...Cheyenne...and some coal might have been moved north on C&S in Wyoming and even south into Colorado in areas not served by UP. UP had a relatively small number of interchanges on its lines west of central Nebraska. True, some coal may have been handed off to both SP at Ogden or D&RGW at SLC but that's about it until California. Yes, some might have even gone on the Butte line to handoff to NP but I doubt that it amounted to much. NP was using lignite from its lignite mines at the time. Didn't consider coal from Utah. That's a long haul to Califormia for that time.
