Very nice article. The only

Very nice article. The only thing that would improve it for me would have been a paragraph or two regarding the history of the fast loaders, such as earliest date they were known to be used.

Fast Loaders

Interesting question! The information I've seen shows a move toward unit trains starting in the mid sixties. Loading trains from storage bins, etc. would have begun before then, I would think. There are photos showing storage facilities from the forties. But honestly, I do not know when the first 'flood' loading operation started or where it was. I'll ask around for sure!      John  

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I really enjoyed this how-to, very well done.

I would like to see more articles like this.

John

Some history for JW

Hi all,

the history of the transportation of coal on rails is perhaps worthy of an article all on its own. The interlinkages between changes in industrial demand, geology, mining technology, rail transport capability, labour costs and relations, regulation and politics is probably the stuff that will get you a Doctorate in History. The US experience is significantly different in terms of mining and transport history and development than the UK, Europe, or Australia. I suspect that there would be significant differences between the US and anywhere else in the world that digs coal and moves it on rails. 

In general terns historically, coal was sold by the carload and by size prior to WW2. The larger lump coal was worth more to industry than the smaller sized coal and pricing was based on this.

Perhaps the best reference I have seen online is to "Coal Trains: The History of Railroading and Coal in the United States" by Brian Solomon and Patrick Yough  at  http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Coal_Trains.html?id=oAIiJCH4Kw8C&redir_esc=y available through Google books

On Page 12, there are two significant dates, 1958 coal was still be billed by the carload in the US and by 1964 New York Central advertising was claiming that unit train operations had reduced costs by 30%. So that sets the timeline for the introduction of unit trains to within 6 years or so.

Page 14 credits the birth of the unit train to the Southern Railway for the transport of coal between southern Alabama mines and a new powerplant at Wilsonville Alabama that needed 10,000 tons of coal /day and has the story to back up that claim. The development of higher capacity wagons that could be rapidly loaded and unloaded. The claim that keeping the wagons together as a unit train improved equipment utilisation "six or seven times the normal rate" would have been a huge financial win for the company in that it needed a lot fewer wagons to move the same tonnage of cargo. 

I hope that this helps clear some of the fog of history, 

Fast / Flood Loaders

Robby Vaughn responded from a post I made on the 'appalachiancoalhaulers' Yahoo group that the first documented fast load operation was 1959 or 1960 in Alabama. As far as the use of over the rails surge bins go, the first operation like this on the L&N was located at Merna, Ky. in 1965 or 1966. John Garaty's information is also sited by Robby. You might consider joining the Yahoo group for very good information!!

I thought that might be the

I thought that might be the case. I had a particular coal mine in mind when asking this question. 

This is a promotional photo regarding a coal mine operation with a rapid loader just South of the city of Wheeling. It is adjacent to the remains of one of Wheeling Steel's plants. There have been several mines at this location but the previous operations had experienced disasters and closed. After doing some research I found that the current operation did not begin till 1966 which is past my modeling date of 1959. Of interest this was one of the top producing mines being ranked in the top 30. The coal instead of traveling by train went by barge about 200 miles down the Ohio river to a power plant.

I will use modelers license to build something that will load rail cars at this location and use a loads in empties out between the mine and the coke works in the adjacent steel mill.

A link to info on the mine

http://www.benwoodwv.com/consolcoal.htm

Fast / Flood loaders

I have found similar information often. It's interesting how many different operations and structures can be found on the same locations over time.

For Rob

I can't comment for the US but out here locally on the Illawarra coalfields in New South Wales, the 1950's marked a significant change in the market and the mining technology. The introduction of continuous miners as a way of winning coal underground rather than drilling and blasting the coalface produced a lot less of the large lump coal and more of the "middlings" sizes, Advances in conveyor belt technology was also leading to the the phasing out of locomotive-hauled coal trains from underground and the installation of higher capacity conveyor belts to deliver coal from underground to the surface. Large coal lumps could cause problems on belts at transfer points.  

Changes in industry with larger powerhouse boilers and coke ovens also meant that less large sized coal was required by industry so large "run of mine" or unsized coal bins were being constructed out here and were already in service by the late 1950's. These bins would hold perhaps 1000 tons to 2000 tons when full. Locally the set up was for one large bin and a smaller overflow bin. Trains ran at a frequency to match the mine output so that the large bin was emptied before it could become full. The important thing was not to stop the main conveyor bringing coal out of the mine because that would stop the mine. 

I hope that this might help justify a sufficiently large over-track bin at your model mine in 1959.

Actually John that covers the

Actually John that covers the operation of this particular area quite well. There used to be a mine haul railroad, and there were at least two documented disasters previous to the present mine and it seems that each one wiped out the company that was operating that particular mine. It seems that the coal seam was extremely thick over 6 feet and very wide. After 100 years worth of mining the coal has been removed under one small county. And there seems to be a great deal yet to mine. Thanks for your thoughts on the matter and sharing them with me.

I often wonder what happened to the goal gasification plans from the 70s. The story at the time was that once gasoline got to 1.00 a gallon it would be economical to turn coal into fuel for automobiles. This process would remove the majority of the pollutants just like turning coal into coke and end our dependence on foreign oil. Seems there is still hundreds of years worth of coal in the ground, yet foreign oil seems to be doing just fine. There was a testing and research facility constructed South of Wheeling on the East bank of the Ohio River near Fish Creek. There was also a plant that made a product called carbon black near by, I think it was called the black beauty plant or something similar.

I also think the large lumps were not conducive to use in stokers or other mechanical feeding devices that were replacing laborers for stoking furnaces.

For Rob2

More similarities John

Although lots of things were private industry, back then they were moving along similar lines in the States as well. Seems kind of amazing how similar things were between the the two countries.