So who here knows how a small town coal yard works?

[wcfn100]

There is one area of Waterloo, IA that have been having problems getting any information about and low and behold, I found one picture that shows Young Coal.  So with a small bit of info, I'm hoping someone can help fill in the big picture.

Here's the area from sanborn maps.




Rignt now I'm focusing on the parts labeled which are coal based.  Young's also had had fuel oil and a lumber yard.

Here's what I can tell you.

A.  The picture I have only shows a small part of this area but it is made up of large mounds of coal.

B.  This is a fairly standard looking coal shed just much longer than most I've seen.

C:  This is sort of an interesting one.  It' a fairly large coal hopper that I would guess is about 2 stories tall.  I can't see the track side so I don't know what's there. I assume there is some sort of pit.

Does anyone know the general operation of a yard like this?  I know some of it's storage, and there should be some sort of separation between different grades of coal unless coal for heating was all the same.  I'm mostly curious about the coal hopper and it's function.


Jason

[3rdrail]

Many retail coal dealers sold both anthracite and bituminous coal. Bituminous was cheaper for home heating but smoked and left more ash and clinkers. Some dealers sold a premium "smokeless" coal. Houses and apartment buildings using coal for heating had a basement coal bin, with a cellar window at or below street level to provide access. The dealer had a fleet of trucks to deliver the coal. This was a small dump truck that carried a coal chute to get the coal from the back of the truck to the cellar coal bin.

No doubt the hopper was used to load these trucks. I was about seven when we moved from the apartment building with a coal furnace to a new garden apartment with gas heating.

[up1950s]

I remember those Mack trucks with the scissor lifts . One of the last users of coal was the Public schools .

[FrankCampagna]

Those coal trucks could unload from the side, also. It would tilt sideways as the location of the coal bin dictated. The hopper in the coal yard would be loaded by conveyor and have separate chutes for the coal to be loaded into trucks by type and grade. With some, the truck drove under the hopper, some had a side or front chute. Pictures might tell you more.

Frank

[DKS]

Houses and apartment buildings using coal for heating had a basement coal bin, with a cellar window at or below street level to provide access.

This reminds me of a cartoon by Bill Baron appearing in an old Model Railroader magazine. A modeler is seen in his cellar operating a handsome-looking layout. Directly above his layout is a small cellar window, which has been popped open by a coal chute that's begun to dump coal--directly onto the layout. The distraught modeler has his hands up and is yelling, "No! No! The next window!"

I can't imagine too many younger modelers today understanding the joke...

[Wlal13again]

There was a coal dealer in the small Pennsylvania town I grew up in and it was a few blocks from my house. There was a short wooden trestle type structure that the hopper was parked on. It would unload the coal through the timbers into bins below it by grade, Anthracite, Bituminous etc, then a portable conveyor would load the delivery trucks. They stopped getting coal by hopper in 1961, after that it was brought in by dump truck.

[up1950s]

I had relatives in Ozone Park Queens whose house was coal fired . The coal bin and boiler in the basement looked evil & dangerous to me as a kid , however the Public School's coal bins and boilers , and entire room they were in did not . They were spic and span , everything freshly painted and shinny . In my 8th grade I had many occasions to visit it , but I can't remember what my task was to attain that permission . :-[ In the early 50's I remember many times seeing those hard rubbered tired ( I think they were ) , chain driven Mack coal trucks .

[FrankCampagna]

We had a coal dealer in my town. The coal hopper was positioned over a chute, and the coal moved by conveyor to the coal shed at the end of the siding. One day the NYC local overshot the siding and the 70 ton hopper went crashing through the coal shed roof. The coal dealer closed up shop. Oh, well, the NYC was trying to get rid of the branch anyway. One less customer only helped.

Frank

[inkaneer]

There was a coal dealer here situated in a valley who had a series of 4-5 concrete silos.  The P&WV RR which was known as the "High and Dry" had its mainline hugging the slope of the hillside.  A simple switch and a small siding would bring a hopper car ontop of the silos and the coal would empty by gravity into the silos.  I doubt if the locomotive ever ventured onto the top of the silos.  They probably used idler cars. The different silos were for different sizes of coal.  Trucks would load at the bottom of the silos by what appearred to be a simple chute.  Most of the silos the truck would be parallel to the line of silos but one silo [the one closest to the hillside] had a passage way thru it much like a flood loader. Those silos lasted until a year ago and I passed them for 40 years and I never got a photo of them. 

[asciibaron]

There was a coal dealer here situated in a valley who had a series of 4-5 concrete silos.

where in PA?

-Steve

[inkaneer]

There was a coal dealer here situated in a valley who had a series of 4-5 concrete silos.

where in PA?

-Steve

Along PA Rte 51 in the South Hills of the 'Burgh.

[Chris333]

I followed Rt51 on live search and couldn't find it. Did find a cool short tunnel running under it though.

I stole this from the net and can't find it now, but it shows coal trestle on both sides of the train:

[inkaneer]

I followed Rt51 on live search and couldn't find it. Did find a cool short tunnel running under it though.

That was probably the tunnel on the old B&O mainline to Wheeling, WV.  It crossed the Moongahela River and followed Streets Run  Road crossing under PA Rte 51 in Pleasant Hills/Baldwin area.   If so, you are too far South on PA Rte 51.  The area where the coal silos were is across Rte 51 from Goff Street.  On Google maps there is a large vacant area but on Mapquest you can still see the silos although Mapquest does not have the magnification that Google maps does.  You can see the P&WV mainline next to the PAT busway.  On Google maps if you drop down to stree level and look due West of goff Street youcan still make out the remnants of the concrete abutment in the hillside that anchored the where the track siding.

[Chris333]

Ahh I thought it was still there, no wonder I couldn't find

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qqzxhm8b005y&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=23881793&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

[Chris333]

There are at least 3 coal trestle remains in Youngstown, OH.
This one along the old B&O:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qvgv8c88bqyk&style=b&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=24530278&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

This one along the old Lake Erie & Eastern complete with a 1965 T-bird on top:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qvj3bw889vs0&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=24530216&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1

And this one along the Erie:
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCP&cp=qvhv7b88bmnj&style=b&lvl=2&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=24530219&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&encType=1
Here are the Erie plans:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/el/dwg/6330a21s2.gif

All 3 of these trestles are just a few blocks away from each other.