I am building a freelanced version of a section of the Chesapeake and Ohio in the late 1950s in West Virginia.I am looking at adding some freight service to break up the never ending mine runs. I was wondering, what are some other large industries coal railroads served in the middle of coal country? Any suggestions? Thank-you in advance!
Colin
you may be interested in this thread - non-coal traffic on a coal road
Unless you are modeling one end of the railroad, the answer is that mixed-freight manifests (and latter-day stacks and racks) run from somewhere to the east to somewhere to the west (or vice-versa,) possibly stopping to change crews (and, in steam, locomotives,) and possibly not. Unless you are modeling the pre-war era, when trucks were restriicted to short hauls by inadequate roads, there won’t be much in the way of loose-car traffic to small end users. While there might be one large traffic generator, more likely there won’t be. Most of the population of the coal regions is either working in the mines or supporting those who are.
I model a place/time where the roads sort of paralleling the rails to the colliery are two ruts in the mud. Even so, for every carload of things other than coal that moves upgrade or down, a whole trainload of loaded gons and/or hoppers drops down the 4%. And some of those non-coal loads are scrap metal outbound from an almost defunct mine being stripped.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
There was and still is a lot of industries in the larger cities that the C&O served-even in the coal fields you would find none coal related industry to include chemical plants,brick yards,pulpwood,lumber companies,paper mills,steel mills,coke plants etc.
I seem to recall Clinchfield served a pretty large cement plant as well as a large chemical plant on the northern end of the railroad, then some others such as feldspar/kaolin in North Carolina. Add in pulpwood and, considering you’re talking the late 50s, local oil dealers, lumber yards, general warehouses, and there’s a lot to add in besides coal.
Hi,
Remember, the freight went “both ways”.
In example, the Illinois Central was primarily a coal hauler from the fields of southern Illinois and western Kentucky and a fruit hauler (bananas & strawberrys) from the far south.
But, it also brought manufactured goods from Chicago and points north down to the southern states.
Said another way, you don’t have to have a manufacturing industry on your pike to legitimately run boxcars.
ENJOY!
If you are going to include a part of the main line from Huntington to the east or west you could have nearly anything traveling on it. There was a great deal of industry along the Ohio river that included oil refineries, chemical plants, steel mills, foundries, railroad car manufacturing plants, tool manufacturing plants, tobacco factories plus interchange with other railroads N&W, Virginian, B&O, Clinchfield, Southern and probably lots of shortlines depending on your era. C&O also hauled a lot of automobile traffic as well.
On a line that crossed the coal fields and served east coast ports and the industrial midwest anything you could imagine depending on the era could be traveling through the area. Keep in mind the industrial base was still fairly robust till the late 60s and the area didn’t start becoming the rust belt till the late 70s.
Hi,
Thank-you very much for all your replies, they have been very helpful! I am now planning to run some freights that just pass through and change crews and motive power as i am (freelance) modelling a portion of the mainline near Huntington. I think i will also include the brick yard a few of you mentioned. It looks like a great loads in/out industry.
Thank-you,
Colin
I kow I’m late to the party, but I didn’t see mention of glass/china. In fact, that Fiesta china that’s big in all the department stores now is from there.
http://www.wvcommerce.org/travel/thingstodo/history/glass.aspx
I suggest looking at real RR’s that were coal haulers. D&RGW was a coal hauling RR in the 50’s but they were primarily a bridge route RR, taking freight from RR’s on the east, and passing it to RR’ on the west. Esp when the energy crisis hit, Rio Grande’s coal business boomed and they probably hauled more coal than freight. Check them out but look at others too.
On the same subject the C&O hauled coal and general freight off the Clinchfield to the lake ports,steel mills and coke plants.Coal and general freight off the Southern and L&N would be line hauled by the B&O,PRR,C&O and later by the N&W to lake ports,steel mills and other industries.
The C&O also handled a great deal of Florida perishable traffic off the Clinchfield. Mostly destined for Detroit, this traffic would join the main line at Cattletsburg KY just west of Huntington, and head west to Russel for re-icing, classification, and forwarding.
At Leach KY, just south of Cattletsburg, was (is) a large refinery operated by Ashland Oil. The train that served this refinery originated at Ashland KY, but being freelanced, yours could easily be operated as a turn from Huntington.