Yup,and the NS dock at Sandusky still loads Appalachian coal into the lakers bound for various lake ports and steel mills.
And we shouldn’t overlook the rail to barge coal operation on the Ohio and other major rivers.
And the beginning of the unit coal train boom started in the late 1960’s, which includes the time frame specified by the OP. Coal from the Sunny Side branch on the D&RGW in Utah began in the late 1960’s and used Thrall Hi-side gondolas lettered for D&RGW and UP “Coal Liner” and shuttled between Utah and the Geneva coal plant in southern California.
The D&RGW shipped coal all over the place including Northern Power and Light (NORX) in Indiana, Coleto Creek Texas and of course many local power stations in Colorado and Utah.
Modeling the D&RGW in the during the caboose era can be a bit expensive because of all the coal trains. Many hauled coal in Rio Grande lettered coal cars but many also ran in private marked cars.
On the D&RGW, unit coal trains were common in the 1970’s. Many of those unit trains did us coal cars from Rio Grandes very large “great steel fleet” of Bethlehem 100 ton quad hoppers (made in HO by Walthers and ExactRail). There were others as well such as the Ortner rapid discharge 5-bay hoppers CSDPU (Colorado Springs District Public Utilities - later changed to CSDU). Of the top of my head, D&RGW had a number of private lettered coal train sets they hauled during the 1970’s (NORX, CSDU
Here is a link to a page showing D&RGW coal train symbols starting in 1981, but many of those trains were running in the 1970’s mind you.
Coal was shipped from Illinois to Spain and from Utah to Australia and China so pretty far, but that was more modern eras.
The coal market changed dramatically in the 1970’s and 1980’s with the emissions requirements. Low sulphur Wyoming coal became more popular than eastern coal because of those requirements. As the density map shows, the Wyoming coal fields supplied coal primarily to the central/southern texas area, the Tennessee river valley, Chicago and as far east as Atlanta (Plant Scherer was one of the biggest single customers for Wyoming coal, with W Labadie outside St Louis a close second).
Prior to that coal was more local, less than a thousand miles, because there was a lot of it spread around the country and the biggest demand was east of the Mississippi where the most coal was. Certain specific coals were shipped longer distances. Anthracite coal, due to its high purity, is still shipped from eastern Pennsylvania to chemical plants on the west coast.
You are exactly correct. Power plants would “mix” coal to burn a specific BTU or emissions content. For example plants in the midwest would mix Powder River, Colorado and Illinois coal to get the blend they wanted. It was not uncomoon to have to hold up one coal train to let another go first so they could blend the coal on the piles.
Looks like mis-quoted info to me here, Utah as a Company, ‘mines coal in Australia’.
I don’t believe American coal was ever exported to Australia, unless we had a few small shipments during national coal miners strikes e.g. 1949? That created headaches for Ozzie States that did not have their own state’s coal mines. The Victorian and South Australian Railways converted many steam loco’s to burn oil during that crisis that went on for months.
While the Appalachian mines are well known, there were many coal mining areas around the country. Depending on what the coal is used for and types and quality of local coal, many of these areas would’ve provided for local needs.
Coal Reserves of the US, 1960 https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1136/report.pdf
Has home heating and industrial steam plants changed to other sources of fuel (gas/oil), and add in environmental regulations, much of the mining outside of what most think of ‘coal country’ wound down. In my home state of Iowa, the Iowa DNR says the last coal mine closed in 1994.
Metalurgical coal for steel making would probably be the biggest candidate for the 1950s/60s era for travelling longer distances. Today I still see Reading and Blue Mountain hoppers going to a mini-mill in Nebraska on a regular basis.
Jeff
Very true: when industries found coal from a specific company that they liked, they would specify coal from that company. The same was true of railroads, a fact that both surprised me yet didn’t surprise me. I belonged to several RR historical societies–MILW, C&NW, and Burlington if you’re interested–since the area of my Dream Railroad connected with all three of them. (I highly recommend this practice, as it’s a good way to gain knowledge not only if you’re modeling a specific prototype, but if you’re freelancing in a particular locale.) All three organizations send interesting and very professional magazines and books on specific areas, such as industries served by their roads. The “Q” group sent a wonderful book on the Southern Illinois coal fields, detailing the equipment used and the mines themselves. The book said the “Q’s” management had found the coal of one particular mine to have the exact qualities–and price–to fill their needs for locomotive fuel (and possibly their own facilities). This made me wonder if that was true of the MILW and C&NW, but I decided my Mineral Point & Northern liked the same coal and imported it via the CB&Q.
I’d be interested to know if any of you guys knew a similar source for other railroads’ loco fuel.
Deano
The CNW historical society devoted an issue to the southern Iowa coal fields and the branch line out of Belle Plaine IA that served it. Much of that was coal for locomotive fuel for the CNW. The CNW owned a mining company to supply the coal.
The Iowa fields started playing out in the 1920s and early 30s. The branch lines had to be extended to reach new deposits. Illinois coal from around the Monmouth area was being developed, again by a company owned mining company. It started taking over supplying coal in the early 20th century and gradually replaced the Iowa mines.
Jeff