ATSF and Southern is there any connection?

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
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Thanks very much Stix for your reply

regards

stefano

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One other thing to keep in mind is not all coal is the same. Some industries needed different types of coal for special reasons. Coal for steel mills would be different than that for generating electricity. Large amounts of coal were shipped to other countries so it would not be far fetched to have eastern coal moving to the west for some special purpose. One might also see open hoppers loaded with coke instead of coal on the way to a steel producer although making coke at the plant also allowed the mill to use the gasses produced in its blast furnaces for fuel.

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There have been several discussions about shipping coal from the West Coast to other countries in the Trains forum. Western coal being shipped out of country is not as common as most people think. Eastern coal shipping from the West Coast would be extremely rare, if it ever happened. A search for LAXT (Los Angeles Export Terminal) will bring up at least one of those discussions.

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Having seen solid trains of N&W hoppers in Salt Lake City headed for the steel mill at Provo, UT and having seen Reading, Blue Mountain & Northern hoppers of anthracite coal headed towards Idaho, yes there are instances when eastern road hoppers will end up in the west. So it is possible.

The caveat being that for every RBMN hopper, I will see several hundred, if not a thousand western road (UP, BNSF) hoppers.

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J.Rob Eric and Dave

thanks very much for your reply and comments I have been serching on Trains magazines for some pics now that i found a number of older editions i am also waiting for a book on the coal industry written by T. Koestner so i will try to get more informations

Thanks very much again for all the very interesting prospectives added to my options

regards

stefano

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stefano,I will add this.Real railroading is based on customer needs and if a customer on the Santa Fe needed appalachian coal then the Santa Fe would line haul that coal to that customer.There is no great mystery why a Appalachian railroad hopper cars could and would end up on any Western or Eastern railroad.

I recall seeing Santa Fe 40’ hoppers loaded with stone on the PRR heading east through Columbus,Oh.I don’t recall seeing these hoppers after 1962.

I have no idea where this cars went or who the receiver was.