Does anyone know where C&O coal was destined back in the 1960s and early 1970s that was shipped on the C&O of Indiana toward Chicago? I know that some unit trains were interchanged with the EJ&E in Griffith. I think this coal went to the State Line Generating plant on the lakefront in Hammond. Otherwise, I may remember that a lot of it went to the Wisconsin Electric power plants, or their parent company. As a boy, I remember seeing many C&O unit hopper trains passing thru the Region.
If anyone can tell me where the coal trains were interchanged in Chicago. I saw some old satellite photos of hoppers lined up at Rockwell St. Was this an interchange point, or did the C&O deliver them directly to the SOO Line or Milwaukee Road, for instance. Did BRC get involved with this interchanging of coal and empties?
Should be, maybe, but isn’t. That’s why I took a pass when it came up the first time.
What information I have on C&O of Indiana comes from a slightly later time period, when a couple of manifests each way were all that could be counted on. I did get a few trips down the line when Amtrak was using it, though.
If there were any large movements of coal, I suspect that it wasn’t to Wisconsin power plants, or even the Com Ed plant at State Line. Most of the plants in Wisconsin were served by C&NW, and the coal came from out west. The exception was the plant in Sheboygan, whose coal came in regular freight service in large cuts of NYC hoppers. Com Ed used its own cars, and got most of its coal from Illinois mines.
I’d say that U.S. Steel in Gary is probably a good guess. The other possibility is the transfer dock (“Rail-to-Water” in Chicago. Coal for many of the power plants in port cities along Lake Michigan (Holland, Grand Haven, Muskegon) would be loaded into boats at Chicago for the trip up the lake. The facility had a couple of Hulett coal loaders (for unloading barges from Illinois mines), but I think it also has a rotary dumper for rail service. That facility is served by BRC, which may explain the hoppers you saw there.
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Thanks Carl, that answered one of my questions. I was pretty sure all those coal trains over the Limeville bridge didn’t just terminate in either Columbus or Toledo.
If they went over the Limeville Bridge, they probably did go to Toledo, or Fostoria (NKP/B&O connections). They didn’t, however, go to the C&O of Indiana. Those would have gone down to Cincinnati before crossing.
Thanks for this discussion, guys. The westbound loaded C&O trains I saw were usually in Hammond, so they already passed Griffith, which would be their interchange with the EJ&E. Now some coal was interchanged with the J in Griffith, but that which went to Chicago puzzles me. The idea that they were unloaded in Chicago for transport to Michigan utilities via Lake Michigan boats is intriguing. I hadn’t thought of that possibility.
My recolection is that at least a unit train or two passed thru Hammond, IN most days.
If my memory is correct, Rail-to-Water used car shakers instead of rotary dumpers. The facility predates GT-type gondolas with rotary couplers so car shakers allowed a cut to be unloaded without having to be broken up.