? About Coal and Hopper Cars.

[Nuttman]

RR Pards,

I am modeling HO Southern Ry Steam era, 1920-1950. I have been taking up so much time on the internet researching railroads, that my wife is about to start limiting my time. I have a new question about coal. I have not been able to find any info about where SOU. got their coal from. Seems East of the Mississippi that most coal came from the states of PA, WV, VA. or that general area. I want to put together a drag of coal hoppers. Would a particular Ry. use their own hoppers, taking them there to the mines and having them filled, or would they have a mix of various coal cars with different company names on them. Period hoppers out there, but so many different rail and coal company names to choose from. I would like to stay historically correct. Any advice or comments on how the railroads bought and transported their coal would be much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[UP2CSX]

Nuttman, most of the coal the Southern Railroad carried came from mines on-line in Alabama and Tennessee. Much of it went to the steel mills in Birmingham although a significant amount was also used for coal fired power plants. The SOU also transported coal from Kentucky to places like Memphis for power plant and industrial use. Almost all coal was transported in company owned cars since the railroad didn't want to pay demurrage to another railroad for unloading time and delivering the cars back to the home roads. Unless you're modeling specifically during WWII, when coal got transported in anything available, I would guess 95% of all coal carried by the SOU was in company owned hoppers. I'm no expert on the SOU but there are several guys here that are and I'm sure they'll jump in and correct any errors I've made.