I’m just finishing up The Fallen Collosus, a book about the formation and failure of the PennCentral. Something I read about the railroads in the 1950’s made me stop and think.
One hundred years ago, coal was the railroads’ best friend. They burned it for fuel, and made a lot of money hauling it. Fifty years ago, the railroads on the east coast were in sad financial condition. The roads that were were OK, were making their money hauling coal. Here we are today, and one of the railroad’s most steady traffic is…coal. It makes you wonder what influence coal will have on the railroads 50 years from now.
( Or…maybe on The railroad, if we’re down to one by then[:-,], the CNBNSFCSXNSKCCPUP)
A key factor that arises here is not the commodity itself, but the nature of the commodity. We’ve discussed on the forum many times the trend toward unit trains and away from loose car railroading. I think that’s what has to be looked at here - coal has almost always moved in unit trains.
Even if coal ceases to be a commodity (say, it is somehow outmoded as a source of energy), there will be other bulk commodities, including containers. Containers may not all contain the same thing, but they are loaded in bulk and carried in unit trains between points.
So rather than looking at coal as the salvation of the railroads - consider the economies of scale of the unit train.
I’ll go out on a limb and speculate that in 50 years much of a railroad’s power will come from coal. Maybe directly – maybe indirectly. It is the cheapest form of energy available and the one with the largest long-term supply in the US. For sure, it is going to be an interesting 50 years.
Actually, Larry, coal hasn’t always moved in unit trains–at least not for domestic use.
I honestly don’t knw what most power plants did to get their coal before the 1960s. I do remember that coal was delivered to the power plant at West Olive, Michigan, by way freight before the unit trains began in about 1965, and that’s probably the way a lot of the plants got it (they could get fifty or more loads at a time, but they still were delivered by the local–which rated two units instead of one on coal-hauling days). This plant now receives at least one unit train per day, and that number is expected to rise.
In the years before 1950, coal and coke was shipped nearly everywhere, for use in home heating, production of gas, and possibly other uses.
Of course, these shipments and uses probably paled in comparison to the trainloads that went from the mines to the ports for overseas shipment or to barges. But these weren’t really unit trains, in that the coal was reclassified somewhere between mine and dumper, based on the grade of coal required for that particular load.
This thread brings to mind a story in today’s NY Times.
If you have idea that China’s economy is some kind of hyper-efficient monolith, the real truth is just the opposite. China uses energy with “epic inefficiency,” hauling much of it around in small truckloads, and doing it despite widespread corruption. Truckers Hauling Coal in China
…In the photograph of truckers lined up with their coal trucks in China…Wonder why some are headed 180 degrees in direction to others…Yet they seem to all be in the same line…??
Certainly. I’m 63 pages from being done. It is a book I know you would like. My good friend the library lady just got me a copy of Leaders Count, and Mr. Mailman brought my copy of Locomotive, by Trains Magazine (ordered last March). So, I have quite a bit of reading to do. One of the reasons I joined this forum, was so I could find more good stuff to read.[:D]
Carl-your post made me think about something. I work in a 100+ year old lumberyard. Two sides of the property were on rail lines, Milwaukee Road and Rock Island. Coal bins were built right along the tracks, as coal and lumber had a long history of being friends as well. A late owner of the company, used to tell us about the good old days, when they sold 29 varieties of coal. Why that much variety, I never quite fully comprehended. How did railroads ship coal for domestic use 50 or 100 years ago? Did some poor soul have to unload it with a scoop shovel? (You load 16 tons, what do you get?..)
Twenty-nine varieties of coal would speak very well to Carl’s point about the coal moving in carload lots vs unit trains. My grandmother ran a coal yard in Detroit. Wish there was still someone around who could answer some questions about that. I’m not sure if there were any lines near the coalyard, as I’m not even sure exactly where it was.
There was an article in one of the magazines (might have been MR) about a small coalyard - obviously suitable for modelling. A lot of the coal that they handled arrived by hopper, but was delivered bagged…
Carl - thanks for the history reminder. I was probably thinking mostly of “tidewater coal.” That said, it still speaks volumes that those roads that did handle coal in unit trains were the ones who were in the best shape.
It does look odd. Maybe some of them can only make it up the grade in reverse gear?
What caught my attention was the driver saying that to get to his destination, 260 miles away, would take about 5 days, including 2 at the trollbooth! They’re trucks, yet they run like an American Class I railroad. [;)]
Coal realy is the railroads best freind (so far) and I mean not just in the US, but for the world of railroads. Coal is the largest single commodity shipped by rail the world over and was also the main reason to invent the railroad.
I don’t know about 29 varieties, but there were a lot of different types, depending on what a homeowner could use in his furnace. Some furnaces had stokers, too, so I remember “stoker coal” being sold–beyond that, there were probably different sizes, and grades.
Fifty to 100 years ago (I might be able to address the low end of that, thank you!), they had hopper cars. You’d spot them above a chute, open the hoppers, and let the coal fall into the chute, from which it would go to a conveyor belt and be loaded into a dump truck. One local coal company had two such unloading areas–C&O and N&W hoppers would usually be spotted at one of them; the other always consistently received L&N hoppers. The company would load its trucks and take the coal to its on facility a short distance away (inaccessible directly by rail).
When our old house had a coal furnace, the delivery trucks (from Spring Lake Ice and Coal Company) would drive around to the back of the house, and dump the coal, via a chute they set up, into our coal bin in the basement. The operator would have to help it along, unless the truck was equipped with a portable conveyor. I’d watch from the window above (same window through which I used to watch trains).
Re: 29 varieties of coal… Today, as in 1869, the 119 at Golden Spike is a coal burner. However, the coal we get is mine run lump coal. A typical truck load includes everything from dust to watermelon sized lumps (and a few large rocks thrown in for good measure.) We load the tender with a front end load but after that the work starts. Each morning the fireman will take a coal pick and break up the watermelons into fist sized lumps, suitable for firing. After you get a good fire going, you can work in some fines and dust - just to get them out of the way. Since the rocks don’t break up - they are easy to separate from the coal. We have a fine pile of black rocks.
50 years ago you could order screened coal of different sizes, from slack (stoker) to lump. The coal was washed and generally rock free. Stoker coal could be ordered ‘oiled’, where a light oil wet the coal to minimize dust (made the housewives happy) and to lubricate the auger and tube. I also remember ‘nut’ or ‘egg’ coal. This was larger than slack, but smaller than lump and was mostly used in potbelly stove and kitchen ranges. We had a Heatrola and burned either lump coal or sawmill waste – depending on what was available.
In addition to the soft coal commonly available, the blacksmith would order metallergical or hard coal for his forge. IIRC it came in burlap sacks, delivered from the East by REA! The local bakery fired their ovens with soft charcoal, which was delivered in box cars. Each afternoon, the high school kid that worked at the bakery would haul a couple of wheelbarrow loads from the box car on the siding a few blocks to the bakery to be ready for the next mornings baking. Since charcoal is light, the sides of the sheelbarrow were built up and you could carry a lot of charcoal in a load.
Looking at it again, I guess you’re right. The cab following the third load (red trailer) isn’t with the third load but is actually the front of the fourth load. It’s hard to tell.
…I was going to check out the green trucks and red “trailers” but for some reason I can’t pull the picture up today…Just the web site of registering, etc…