Did any of the railroads own the coal mines that supplied the coal their engines used? Any idea how many tons of coal the larger railroads used in a year?
Thanks
Absolutely - although I regret that I can’t cite which ones did, aside from possibly Lackawanna, “the road of anthracite.”
Can’t speak to how much coal the “larger railroads” used. I’m sure the numbers are available, or can be calculated. Remember, though, that many Class 1’s in the days of coal were the size of some of today’s regionals.
I believe the Reading Company owned it’s own mines, but they’re the only one I know of.
NP at Roslyn WA and Coalstrip MT, and probably some others. UP in Wyoming.
NP at Red Lodge, MT. Colstrip was opened as production in Red Lodge started to get expensive.
C&NW did, at least way back. They had mines in Iowa and Illinois.
Jeff
In Southeastern Kansas, The Coal Seams in Cherokee and Crawford Counties were used by the MKT RR (Missouri,Kansas and Texas Coal Co) and the Santa Fe RR (Santa Fe Coal Co) to supply coal for locomotives.
The Santa Fe mine near Frontenac Kansas was the scene in 1888 of an explosion that killed 150 miners (Still the State’s largest mining disaster).
The Katy had mines in the area of Scammon, and Weir to provide coal for their use. In the early 1900’s Chicopee Kansas (Cherokee County Ks) was a large community served by the Santa Fe RR and Missouri Pacific RR to move the mined coal for their locomotives,and commerce.
The Kansas City Southern also sourced locomotive coal from the mines of the Pittsburg, Ks. area as well.
This Coal field, The Pittsburg-Weir Coal Field was, over its lifetime in the late 1800’s to its’ last mine shut down in late 1960’s of between 200 and 250 million tons of coal.
I suspect there will be a number of situations where coal mines were not owned directly by the railroad, but the railroad had substantial ownership interest in the mining companies. The railroad might be the mine’s best customer, but it was free to serve others too, such as domestic heating.
Wouldn’t the Hepburn Act prohibit that after 1906?
Good question with large subject area!
Lignite coal had the least energy content and in some cases was almost unburnable. It produced low heat value a lot of slag and ash. For this reason it was “cheap”. Now “cheap” was a great attraction for cost conscious railroad accountants and profit margin analysists - sooOOOO!
Several railroad engineering departments went to work on the problem of “how to burn the ‘cheap’ stuff.”
Northern Pacific Railroad developed a unique articulated 2-8-8-4 locomotive called the “Yellowstone” Type with absolutely gigantic 128 sq ft firebox for this purpose - to burn on line Lignite coal - called Rosebud coal - cheaply! They did this by creating the worlds largest locomotive firebox - actually too large - which could burn large amounts of the low grade Rosebud coal to get the necessary heat to make steam.
The firebox on these 3000 series engines was so large the railroad as an introductory stunt had the inside painted white - installed a dining room table and chairs - and served a formal candle light dinner for 12 people inside the locomotive firebox!
Yah! thats what I call a historic publicity stunt!
The firebox was too large on the NP 3000 class and the engines produced less than 5000 horsepower so the railroad ended up blocking off the front two feet of the firebox to effectively use the engines. The 3000 class was built in the 1920s and lasted in use until the late 1950’s so I guess it was a successful design. None were saved.
Doc
I assume that would have had a mechanical stoker?
One of the understatements of the year.
Note that the subbituminous burned in the UP 4-8-8-4s was not much ‘better’ than the NP’s lignite. It was in fact so friable that much of the actual combustion was carried out much as in pulverized coal firing, entirely above the ‘grates’ in the radiant combustion gas spaces. As you might imagine, this led to considerable ‘wasted fuel’ in a number of respects, control over the firing and load being relatively random and slowly controlled compared to what’s possible in a good modern PC-fired powerplant boiler.
There have been some interesting experiments with multiple-pass boilers and staged preheat of lignite for steam generation which might – “might” – be applicable to locomotives. If we exempted them from EPA and some other requirements and ran them under very carefully controlled conditions. Somewhat highly unlikely conditions, in my opinion.
TRAINS had an intriguing article some years back about T&P’s less-than-successful experiment with lignite. The price of oil had risen and T&P looked at the lignite being mined in East Texas as an alternative. A oil-fired 2-10-2 was converted to burn the stuff and it didn’t really work out.
Was this “The Snuff Dipper and the Yellow Dog Blues” (October '72?)
The Fuller-Lehigh equipment was tested on a Lehigh Valley locomotive previously (1360), and there was an Italian attempt to use it.
IGN might have some interesting comments about ‘snuff dipper’ locomotives, since the International Great Northern appears to have had a few.
That’s the article. The cover of that issue also featured a Gil Reid painting of the “Snuff Dipper”.
At least for a while, here it is:
I think you’re right about the coal the UP used being very friable. I remember reading an article about the Big Boys while they were in operation and there was a statement made by UP operating men that something like 75% of the coal going into the firebox of a Big Boy never touched the grates. The late UP coal-burning power (FEF’s, Challengers, Big Boys) also had significant issues with cinder cutting in the front ends on things like exhaust nozzles. They eventually developed special shields to protect the exhaust nozzle from cinder cutting. In the firebox, small ‘eyebrows’ were welded to the side sheets and crown sheet near each stay bolt head to protect them from being worn away by cinder cutting action. The UP owned its own coal mines at Hanna and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and although the data I have seen on heat content for such coal suggests it was around 11,800 BTU/lb, the stuff burned more like it wa
Well, this is a “small potatoes” situation, and I’m not sure of the exact corporate lineages, but the East Broad Top Coal and Iron Company evidently owned the mines from which the company exported coal via the connection that the 3-ft. narrow gauge East Broad Top RR had with the PRR in Mt. Union PA, where the EBT had a coal grading facility. Presumably, being a local resource, the same coal was used to fuel the narrow-gauge EBT locomotives. Historians in the Friends of the East Broad Top organization can provide more illumination of the situation than I can. You might wish to look up issues of their “Timber Transfer” magazine for interesting articles on such matters.
COMPARISON OF COAL MINED IN 1944 AND ITS QUALITY BY STATE
ALABAMA
Bituminous - Jefferson County - Warner Mine ------------ 13,628 BTU/lb
ARKANSAS
Bituminous - Sebastian County - Mine No. 12 ------------ 14,352 BTU/lb
COLORADO
Bituminous - Boulder County - Simpson Mine ------------- 12,577 BTU/lb
Lignite - Boulder County - Rex Mine ----------------------- 10,698 BTU/lb
ILLINOIS
Bituminous - Franklin County - Benton Mine -------------- 12,577 BTU/lb
Bituminous - St. Clair County - Maryville Mine ------------ 11,727 BTU/lb
INDIANA
Bituminous - Green County - Inland City Field ------------ 11,916 BTU/lb
IOWA
Bituminous - Polk County - Altoona No. 4 Mine ----------- 11,671 BTU/lb
KANSAS
Bituminous - Cherokee County - Cherokee Field ---------- 12,557 BTU/lb
KENTUCKEY
Bituminous - Hopkins County - Barnsley Mine ------------ 13,036 BTU/lb
MARYLAND
Semi Bituminous - Alleghany County - Big Vein Field ---- 14,692 BTU/lb
Semi Bituminous - Garrett County - Washington No. 3 – 14,033 BTU/lb
MISSOURI
Bituminous - Lafayette County - Higbee Mine ------------ 12,500 BTU/lb
NORTH DAKOTA
Lignite - Lehigh County - Lehigh Mine -------------------- 10,121 BTU/lb
It’s not a fair question, it’s a rhetorical question.