Doing a tiny bit of research on coal dispersal, I find this from Louisville
& Nashville Railroad The Old Reliable by Castner, Flanary and Dorin. I've
met Castner before and he's quite creditable.

Referencing a photo of CV Division local #64 in Big Stone Gap, VA, in '54 on
pg 159, "The south end of the CV handled coal routed via the N&W/Norton as
well as coal for markets in the Carolinas via the Clinchfield and ACL/SAL
connections at CRR's south end."

Referring to Corbin, KY, "After washing, coal was reloaded into the same
hoppers and shipped north each night ....to the Cincinnati gateway. From
Cincy, either the NYC or Pennsy forwarded the trains on to US Steel's Gary,
Indiana mills."

"For most of the L&N's history, 'King Coal' moved predominantly northward
from yards at Corbin, Hazard, Loyall and Ravenna to Cincinnati and
Louisville gateways. There, connecting roads...B&O, NYC, Monon, and
Pennsy...handled the coal on to midwestern or northeastern consignees. A
fair amount of coal also went north to the Great Lakes on the C&O via its
Northern Division through Columbus,OH." Apparently, significant demands for
coal in the South developed after our time period. BTW, L&N moved 38 million
tons of coal in '48 making it a major force in coal traffic.

There is an interesting photo in Chesapeake & Ohio in the Coal Fields by
Tomas Dixon, Jr. on pg 50. It shows C&O engine 2759 "with an eastbound of
empty Virginian hoppers at Catlettsburg, KY in '53. The train is headed for
West Gilbert, at the extreme end of the Logan branch, where connection was
made with the Virginian Railway."

Referring again to the same book, pg 13, "The area around Beckley was
honeycombed with railroads and coal mines and the C&O and Virginian
overlapped in many areas. Several mines were served by both RRs." "The next
RR facility to the west was at Gauley Bridge which assembled coal from C&O's
Gauley Subdivision as well as coal delivered by the NYC off its K&M lines
for transportation east."

There is a rather amusing photo on pg 218 in The Last of Steam by Collias.
It shows Santa Fe lettered 2-10-4 5012 leading 101 N&W hoppers through Siam,
OH, on the Pennsy. And, proving that the Santa Fe engines believed in
fairness, the page also shows Santa Fe 5034 pulling what appears to be C&O
empty hoppers through the same locale. These examples, of course, are among
those ATSF 2-10-4s leased by the Pennsy during 1956.

It is clear from just a little bit of looking, that the RRs north of the
coal hauling gateways of Cincinnati and Columbus would see many hoppers of
various coal hauling RRs including N&W, C&O and L&N. I believe that much of
this coal went to the steel industry in the upper midwest. It is also clear
that in the '40s and '50s individual homes depended on coal for heating. So,
I would suggest that anyone modeling RRs in the midwest...particularly those
in a north/south direction... should expect to see hopper drags from the
coal hauling RRs and, in our time period, smaller numbers of cars in
trains.

As far as the coal haulers go, I think we'll find that it depends on the
location. I'm reasonably certain that I've seen evidence of L&N hoppers
rolling on other coal hauler tracks somewhere.

Mike Brock

Mike, an interesting sidelight on L&N coal-hauling operations. Owing to
chronic car shortages during WW II, the International Harvester Co. was
having great difficulty getting a steady supply of coal from a
company-owned coal mine at Benham, KY on the L&N to a company-owned steel
mill near Chicago. They therefore purchased a slew of second-hand L&N
USRA-design twin hoppers (the 7/43 ORER shows 447 cars) which were numbered
in the IHCX 201-700 series and operated in captive service - the ORER entry
specifies that these cars were to be loaded only at the Wisconsin Steel
Coal Mines at Benham, KY. and the cars were stenciled "return to Benham, KY
via L&N RR." After the war, IHC continued to own and operate these cars
through the 1950s and into the early '60s (I have a photo of one still in
service at Chicago in '63, though they're gone from my '65 ORER). I also
have a photo of two IHCX hoppers at Columbus, OH in 6/59, coupled to an L&N
hopper which also was stenciled "return to Benham...." (I wonder what they
were doing in Columbus? I'd expect them to be routed via PRR or Monon from
Louisville to Chicago. Maybe IHC was routing them to another destination
by the late '50s.)

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Dave and friends,

All coal is not the same. It has different thermal values, different
chemical components, different amounts of ash, etc. Metallurgical coal
(for smelting) is not the same as steamer coal (for power plants).

When I toured the N&W export yards in Norfolk about 17 years ago, I was
surprised to learn all this. Coal from many different sources was being
"warehoused" in their yard. This was blended as it was loaded onto ships
to the buyers' specifications. The properties of every car of coal
received were held in their computers, and specific cuts of cars were
pulled for blending as needed.

This might well explain why the N&W would be receiving coal from other
sources. Perhaps a customer needed a blend that included some
Pennsylvania anthracite, for example, or a particular coal with some
other special property that was not mined on the N&W.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff

Dave Nelson wrote:

This might well explain why the N&W would be receiving coal from other
sources. Perhaps a customer needed a blend that included some
Pennsylvania anthracite, for example, or a particular coal with some
other special property that was not mined on the N&W.

That may be (tho I have some doubts about the RR's being all that helpful in
1950) and is just one more item to consider WRT foreign road cars in coal
service.

Bottom line is roads did receive coal that was mined offline. I havn't
heard anybody suggest there was a pool of hoppers (like what one might have
seen with auto cars) so I think there is a case for including foreign road
hoppers, maybe lots of them, in specific cases.

Dave Nelson

Dave Nelson writes:

For example, in 1950, tons of coal received from other roads:

D&RGW: 2200k tons
UP: 3300k tons

These two are rather interesting. Perhaps D&RGW figures are due to the Utah
Coal Route, but UP's is intriguing.

SP: 300k tons
MP: 1100k tons
NKP: 10900k tons (suggests why the NKP was bought by the NW, doesn't it?)
NW: 4900k tons
CBQ: 2400k tons

I certainly can understand the Q, given the diversity in Southern Illinois.

Yeah, mostly GS gons, not hoppers, but the point here is about coal

routings

and most of the data I have is western, but it does address the point.
Anyway, coal carloads averaged a bit more than 50 tons/car if one wants to
calculate carloadings. By this measure, the puny tonnage on the SP still
amounted to ~6000 cars in the year.

And the large tonnage received by the N&W is a curiosity....

I'll dig that out in time.

Mike Brock

Mike Brock writes, in response to Dave Nelson:

For example, in 1950, tons of coal received from other roads:

D&RGW: 2200k tons
UP: 3300k tons

These two are rather interesting. Perhaps D&RGW figures are due to the Utah
Coal Route, but UP's is intriguing.

Much of the coal received by the D&RGW from UCR was handed off to the UP
for shipment to Kaiser's Fontana steel mill, so that doubtless accounts for
a sizeable part of the UP's tonnage.

And the large tonnage received by the N&W is a curiosity....

I'll dig that out in time.

Is that a pun? if not, how large a shovel do you have? That's a lot of
coal, even in 1/87 scale.

Richard H. Hendrickson
Ashland, Oregon 97520

Ed,

By the time (1950) of the statistics in question, Bethlehem Steel was no
longer using coal at their Downey plant, which I assume is the one you
mean. I don't have my materials at hand, but IIRC the furnaces were
converted to gas and electric during WWII.

Kind regards,


Garth G. Groff


Ed Workman wrote:

Both home road and foreign road hoppers were in use for the coal traffic on
the Western Maryland in 1952. The following data is based on an article in
the May 1952 issue of Modern Railroads and the H.H. Copeland Reports. The
numbers in the tables are cars/day.

The photos I have suggest that most or all of the coal originated on the WM
moved in company hoppers. However, the Coal Origins table below shows that
about 2/3 of that coal came from 2 isolated WM coal branches south of
Fairmont, WV and traveled over 70 miles of B&O trackage rights before it
reached WM rails at Bowest Junction near Connellsville, PA. The table also
shows that 70% of the coal moving on the WM was received from other roads,
primarily the B&O at Cherry Run WV. The B&O coal shippers used the
WM-RDG-CNJ-L&NE routing to New York and New England in preference to its own
longer route via Baltimore and Philadelphia.

The Coal Destinations table shows that the destinations for the coal
traveling over the WM were mostly off-line. With typical routings, loaded
WM and B&O hoppers would have been seen on the Reading (Reading,
Philadelphia and New York City), the CNJ (New York City) and the L&NE and
connections (New England & Canada).

Origins for coal shipped on the WM
Fairmont, WV area coal branches 160 19%
Via Elkins, WV line 93 11%
Off-Line 593 70%

Destinations for coal shipped on the WM
Misc, Including westbound 113 13%
Reading PA area 133 16%
Baltimore 91 11%
Philadelphia 193 23%
New York City area 233 28%
New England & Canada 67 8%
Other 16 2%

If you have off-line photos of WM hoppers, please let me and the list know.

Larry Kline