This seems to explain the surprisingly large Rutland hopper car fleet,
doesn't it? It always seemed a bit unusual for a Vermont carrier to have so
many hoppers.

Regards,
William Bryk

On 7/11/07, Armand Premo <armprem@...> wrote:

Gasification plants were still continued burning cheaper soft
coal.RutlandTrain #10 brought much coal to Vermont via the NYCinterchange
at
Norwood,NY.TheD&H brought coal to Center Rutland and Rouses Point,NY.The
Central Vermont may have picked up some coal at New London.Does anyone
have
evidence?Armand Premo
----- Original Message -----
From: "Malcolm Laughlin" <mlaughlinnyc@...<mlaughlinnyc%40yahoo.com>

To: <STMFC@... <STMFC%40yahoogroups.com>>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 12:22 PM
Subject: [STMFC] Re: HOME HEATING COAL

Rather than make responses to all of the posts on this, I'll just
summarize my reactions to them.

I believe most of the home heating coal in New England was anthracite,
which was preferred because it made less smoke. The closest coal mines

to

New England were the anthracite mines in the Scranton area. To get
bituminous to New England would have been a much longer haul, the

nearest

being the Clearfield district.

As for marks, originating roads were Erie, DL&W, LV, CNJ, PRR, NYO&W,

D&H

and RDG, but not B&O. However, since B&O shared it's route to New York
with RDG and CNJ, it would not be surprising that their cars would be
coming into NE with anthracite. The other highly likely foreign mark

from

those mines would be NYC.

As for routes and destinations:

- The furthest east junctions of the anthracite roads were Rutland, VT,
Mechanicville, NY and Maybrook, NY. That means that all of it had to

move

on NH, NYC, B&M or RUT, but destinations could be anywhere on CV, MEC,
BAR, GT and the short lines.

- Every town in New england would have received anthracite loads as

there

was a coal dealer in every town of any size - like fuel oil dealers

today.

As for that barge coal, it was mostly from bituminous areas, and I
believe it went mainly to power plants. It's interesting to note that
most of the large power plants in CT and RI and around NYC are on
navigable waterways.

One notable exception. When I was a small boy, I would look out of my
father's office on the 55th floor of 60 Wall and watch the cars rolling
through the CNJ car dumper. Pretty strong evidence of barging of
anthracite also.


Malcolm Laughlin, Editor 617-489-4383
New England Rail Shipper Directories
19 Holden Road, Belmont, MA 02478





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