--- In STMFC@..., "George" <gsc3@...> wrote:

I remember running upon a NKP hopper in southwest Virginia on a N&W
branch back in the nineteen seventies. This was following the merger
of the two roads.

There are a lot of photos including an NKP composite hopper on the CNJ
in a CNJ steam - color photo book.

Captions in a NKP publicity photo book said that most coal on the NKP
was moved in C&O hoppers. My assumption was that the NKPs own hoppers
were used to ship company coal. (The book's captions have been
criticized in this forum before).

Maybe the NKP leased or sold some of their hoppers when diesels took
over.

Ed Mines

Ed and friends,

It is beyond our time period, but when I first moved to Virginia in 1982, NKP triple hoppers were very common in N&W trains. I photographed several, and saw many more. They were in generally deplorable condition, often with "straw doors" blocking large holes in the sheathing. Often they had very little lettering left, and it sometimes looked like what was there had been applied by a drunk using a large paint brush. By contrast, there were still a lot of Virginia cars around, and they seemed to be in excellent condition. The N&W cars were all in good shape too.

In deference to Mike Brock, let me point out that all these NKP and VGN cars, plus many of the N&W ones I saw, were steam-era survivors.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

ed_mines wrote:

Posted by: "ed_mines" Captions in a NKP publicity photo book said that most coal on the NKP
was moved in C&O hoppers. My assumption was that the NKPs own hoppers
were used to ship company coal. (The book's captions have been
criticized in this forum before).

=========

There is no reason to think the railroads own cars were used for company coal unless it was from mines on the NKP, which were not many, and they were far from the closest mines to major MKP terminals like Buffalo, Chicago and St. Louis.


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

Malcolm Laughlin wrote:

There is no reason to think the railroads own cars were used for company coal unless it was from mines on the NKP, which were not many, and they were far from the closest mines to major MKP terminals like Buffalo, Chicago and St. Louis.

Right. And the NKP's on-line mines may not have produced good steam coal anyway. It's well known that C&O territory DID include good sources of such coal.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history