My dad claimed that anthracite was harder on the stoker’s screw. Whether the case or not, it was less work than hand firing. I recall a galvanized can outside to dump the clinker which was still hot.
He would be correct: anthracite is very hard, with a vitreous fracture, and the little particles or slack are abrasive. (Pennsylvania anthracite is very similar if not essentially identical to the semiprecious mineral ‘jet’ (as in ‘jet black’) Culm of course has quite a bit of slate and other rock in it.
I am woefully un-knowledgeable about stoker arrangements (or maintenance) for engines burning various ‘cost-effective’ anthracite, culm, or the sort of mix with bituminous that Reading was said to use in its later locomotives.
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Anthracite is a low grade metamorphic rock. Its been cooked and put under high pressure.
Starting with bituminous coal.
I just learned that pre-Civil War locomotive mileage was between 25 and 30 miles per cord of wood. With 325 locomotives averaging about 15,000 miles per year, the PRR, for an example, used about 300,000 to 400,000 cords in a year.
“What’s interesting is that even 300,000 cords per year would represent roughly 7–8 million cubic feet of wood , or on the order of 40,000 mature forest trees annually . That helps explain why railroads, iron furnaces, and other industries contributed so heavily to the clearing of Pennsylvania’s original forests during the 19th century.”
---------from ChatGPT
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I believe the region’s coal was largely transloaded in New York Harbor and moved by collier to New England. There was a heating crisis in Boston in 1918 when the Hudson froze over.
Looks like fast freight and more fast freight. Merchandise traffic, L.C.L, perishables. Fish, milk and beef for the New York market are specifically called out in the older time tables.
Once that traffic went truck or air freight, that bridge line was not of much value.
The Speed Witch is my new favorite train name.
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I referred to the “Anthracite Roads” earlier. They got their name since they all had a large presence in that coal mining region of NE Pennsylvania, but many expanded well beyond that area, and carried considerable merchandise. By the mid 1950s while Anthracite had been much replaced by oil/gas heat, there was still a concentration of lines thru the Scranton area. The New Haven considered buying the failing NYO&W for its Scranton connections. I also mentioned the “Alphabet Route” which primarily fed merchandise to the Poughkeepsie Bridge.