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Retail coal dealers, brand names and railroads
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Mark Heiden
Hello everyone,
I've been doing some research on retail coal dealers that were located on the Unadilla Valley Railway in south central New York., In the process I have come up with a number of general questions concerning coal dealers, brand names and what railroad's hoppers would serve those dealers. Ian Wilson's articles on retail dealers provided some answers, but also generated question. These articles can be found at: http://www.canadianbranchline.com/retailcoal.htm http://www.canadianbranchline.com/twocoal.htm So, my questions are: 1. Did dealers tend to carry a single brand, or was it common to carry more than one? 2. Were there independent coal dealers, who would simply carry whatever brand gave them the best deal at the time? 3. What railroads were connected, through ownership, mines located on-line, etc, with the following brands: Blue Coal (Glen Alden Coal Company) Cavalier Stoker Coal Consol Cavalier Red Jacket Lump Famous Harlan Seam Stoker Coal Famous Reading Anthracite Sterling Coal Lackawanna Coal Jeddo-Highland Coal Lehigh Valley Anthracite Morgan Anthracite Old Company's Lehigh Olga Pocahontas Patsy Home Stoker Coal Susquehanna Anthracite (some of these may be Canadian brands) 4. Did railroads offer incentives to dealers to buy coal from on- line sources? 5. Was there any appreciable brand loyalty amongst consumers or dealers? 6. Were there any spatial patterns evident in specific brand dealer distribution (eg - eastern Pennsylvania was mostly Brand A, while southern New York was Brand B)? Whew! That's a lot to ask in one go, but any insights would be appreciated. Thanks, Mark Heiden |
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raildata@...
The anthracite coal companies (and railroads) constantly worked on the
problem of the seasonal fluctuations in the market for coal. The main incentive was price, it being much cheaper to buy coal during the summer months. I can recal my Dad building a coal bin under the front proch in Scranton that would hold 20 tons of anthracite, so he could buy it in the summer at low prices and have enough for the whole winter. During the summer months the miners were laid off as well as railroad crews. Every siding and yard was crammed with empty hopper cars (which I thought was great since us kids got to climb all over and explore them). The railroad compnies invested large sums into coal storage facilities where the material could be stored until demand picked up but this was expensive and really never worked out. Not could industrial customers be convinced to invest in coal storage facilities. Truly amazing the amount of capital invested by today's standards. The real book on the coal industry has yet to be written; whether for the anthracite or bituminous industry. It was every bit as complex as the perishible fruit indutry although in a different way. The popular concept of you dig (dug) the stuff out of the ground and dump it into hopper cars is way off the mark! Chuck Y Boulder CO |
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Ian Wilson
--- In STMFC@..., "Mark Heiden" <mark_heiden@h...> wrote:
Hello everyone,dealers provided some answers, but also generated question. These articlesMark, I'm going to use Barrie, Ontario circa 1947 as a case study for your questions. There were six coal dealers at the time. These are only the brands listed in the yellow pages; there may have been more: Allandale Lumber & Fuel Co.--"Old Company's Lehigh" and "Olga Pocahontas" Barrie Fuel & Supply--local supplier of "Blue Coal" (DL&W Anthracite), also Cavalier stoker coal Cameron & Ellis--local distributor for "Lehigh Valley Anthracite" Lewis & Robertson--Cavalier stoker coal Sarjeant Co.--"Famous Reading Anthracite" and Cavalier stoker coal J. G. Scott--"Famous Reading Anthracite" The coal dealers cited above were all independent local businessmen (as the majority of the yards were). However, they could act as a local agent (some exclusively, it would appear) for one or more brands. DL&W Cavalier Stoker Coalunknown, off the top of my head Famous Reading AnthraciteRDG Sterling CoalD&H Lackawanna Coalunknown Lehigh Valley AnthraciteLV Morgan Anthraciteunknown Old Company's LehighL&NE Olga Pocahontasunknown Don't know; likely a "non-applicable" here in Southern Ontario The coal companies did their best to foster this with gimmickry (e.g. dyed coal and disc-like tags inserted into the coal). dealer distribution (eg - eastern Pennsylvania was mostly Brand A, whileNot evident here in Southern Ontario. Keep in mind that virtually all our anthracite came from the same small geographical area-- Eastern Pennsylvania.
A couple more nuggets for you and anyone interested in anthracite coal traffic. A case study of the local coal dealers in Hespeler, Ontario shows that 77 carloads of anthracite were received among them over the year from July 1949 to June 1950. Of these, 41 loads, or more than half, were received in the warm weather months from May to September. While hard coal was still a primary residential heating fuel, the railroads, coal companies and coal dealers did their best to move the coal year round, as it would be impossible to move the anthracite during the heating season alone (there simply were not enough cars). Want a good origin for CNJ and/or CNP (Central Railroad of Pennsylvania--same company) hopper car loads of anthracite? Enter "Huber Colliery, Ashley, PA" on your waybills. Cheers, Ian Wilson ______________ Canadian Branchline Miniatures Box 2565, Orillia, ON L3V 7B1 http://www.canadianbranchline.com mailto:ian@... Publishers of books on CNR steam operations in Ontario during the 1950s |
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Mark Heiden
Hello Ian,
Thanks for the reply. I've done some more research since I posted this query, and I've come up with the following: 1. Did dealers tend to carry a single brand, or was it common to carry more than one? I haven't come across any definitive answer for this question. Most of the dealers I've been able to locate seemed to carry one brand only. Only one dealer carried two brands. 2. Were there independent coal dealers, who would simply carry whatever brand gave them the best deal at the time? businessmen (as the majority of the yards were). However, they could act as aI've come to the same conclusion, with the majority of dealers carrying only one brand. 3. What railroads were connected, through ownership, mines located on-line, etc, with the following brands: This one was rather interesting. Blue Coal (Glen Alden CoalBlue Coal (Glen Alden Coal Company)DL&WCavalier Stoker Coalunknown, off the top of my head Company) was affiliated with the DL&W, but the photos I've found of the Huber Colliery (home of Blue Coal; more about that later) show Reading and a stray N&W hoppers. Were there car-pooling agreements? Jeddo-Highland coal may have travelled in Lehigh Valley hoppers. Two Jeddo-Highland breakers were served by the LV in the late 1960s: Jeddo #5 was on the Freeland Branch, and Jeddo #7 was on the Tomhicken Branch. Were these branches always LV, or were they acquired from another railroad after the steam era? Lackawanna Coal was affiliated with the Delaware & Hudson through the Hudson Coal Company. Susquehanna Anthracite may have travelled in Pennsylvania hoppers. This company had an interesting history. It was originally owned by the PRR, but sold to the M.A. Hanna Company by 1917. The breaker was originally (around 1870) served by the PRR, by the Erie sometime before 1900, then the D&H after 1900, then by the PRR again. Having said all this, I'm not entirely sure that I've linked the brand name to the correct company. Morgan Anthracite might be an old brand name. This is pure speculation, but the Susquehanna Anthracite breaker was located in Glen Lyon, PA, originally named Morgantown. Morgan Anthracite may have been the name this coal was marketed under prior to the sale to the M.A. Hanna Company. As for the others, I've found little or nothing. Consol Cavalier appears to be a corporate name as well as a brand name. I discovered a picture of a bituminous breaker in Kentucky with the Consol Cavalier name emblazoned on it. More speculation, but Olga Pocahantas may have travelled in Southern hoppers. The name suggests the coal originated in the Virginia area, and there was a small deposit of anthracite or semi-anthracite in western Virginia. There's a photo in one of your books (might be the Palmerston book) of a couple of Southern hoppers in Mildmay, Ontario. The town had a coal dealer, but it also had some industries that may have received bituminous coal. 6. Were there any spatial patterns evident in specific brand dealer distribution (eg - eastern Pennsylvania was mostly Brand A,while southern New York was Brand B)? I haven't found any evident spatial patterns in the eastern United States. Want a good origin for CNJ and/or CNP (Central Railroad ofThe Huber Colliery, in Ashley, Pennsylvania, acted as a regional breaker for the Glen Alden Coal Company. Glen Alden purchased several mines and breakers in the Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, area in the 1920s and 1930s. The Huber breaker was built in the late 1930s, and allowed Glen Alden to close many smaller, older breakers. Subsequently, all mine-run coal was shipped to the Huber breaker for cleaning and sorting. It appears that all of the Glen Alden mines were located on CNJ branches, so all raw coal travelled in CNJ hoppers. Mark Heiden |
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PBowers <waiting@...>
As this is a bit OT for this list, I've forwarded this info on to the Ry-ops-industrialSIG@yahoogroups group where the discussion better fits and will likely have more response.
subscribe: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Ry-ops-industrialSIG/ or <mailto:Ry-ops-industrialSIG-subscribe@...> -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.2/53 - Release Date: 7/20/05 |
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