Large Scale Central

EBT Hopper Coal Loads

Modeling Rolling stock
#1

I thought I would build some EBT 3 bay hopper coal loads and am looking for some good photos of loaded EBT prototype hoppers. Unfortunately I have discarded most of my Timber Transfer magazines and I could not find many historical photos on line.

So if you have any photos please send them my way or post them here.

Thanks

Stan

#2

there was a person at the show with coal loads 20 plus every one different. If i was going to make some I’d go to petco and look at the different charcoal for fish filters. cheers richard

(http://www.buffalocreekandgauley.com/OTHERLAYOUTS/PHILBONZON/Bower_Coal_SalesOPT.jpg)

#3

The EBT hoppers carried what’s called “run-o-mine” coal; that is, coal fresh from the mines that hasn’t been cleaned or graded yet. It’s going to range in size from dust all the way up to volley-ball-sized lumps of coal (or larger). The hoppers dumped the coal into the Chance cleaning plant at Mt. Union, where it was cleaned and graded, then dumped directly into awaiting hoppers from the Pennsy.

Here’s a detail from Frank Kyper’s “Twilight and Dawn on the East Broad Top Railroad” which shows a loaded hopper.

Here’s my take on “run-o-mine” coal, as dumped into a tender. (Photos of EBT locos show run-o-mine coal in the tenders.)

The nice thing about run-o-mine coal is that it’s ridiculously simple to model:

  1. Go out and get yourself a big lump of coal from your friendly neighborhood tourist railroad. Put it in a cloth bag/burlap sack kind of thing.

  2. Watch your favorite sports team play really poorly. (An alternative would be to read political posts on facebook for an hour)

  3. Grab a hammer.

  4. Whack the living daylights out of the bag with the coal in it.

Now, making the actual hopper loads will be a few more steps. I haven’t gotten around to making mine yet. (Gotta get more coal from my friendly neighborhood tourist railroad.) Build an insert of some material or another (styrene, corrugated plastic, etc.), put the insert into the hopper, dump the coal, and glue. If you want it removeable, line the hopper with plastic wrap first, then place the insert, then glue. (That’s how I do my removable tender loads.)

And, Stan, shame on you for getting rid of your Timber Transfers… I hope, at least, they went to a worthy new home. :wink:

Later,

K

#4

Interesting . . . . . . .

#5

Kevin Strong said:

And, Stan, shame on you for getting rid of your Timber Transfers… I hope, at least, they went to a worthy new home. :wink:

Stan probably just needed room for an extra staging yard or some more boulder storage.

Thanks for the great reply Kevin, I wanted to post, but knew it was pointless without pictures. It’s no fun living 2 hours away from all your resources.

#6

Kevin

Thanks so much. Using this information I am constructing a load which I will likely cast to gain the multiples I need.

Shipping “run-o-mine” coal leads to another question. Normally “run-o-mine” is not the best for firing locomotives and over time fills the tender up with wet dust. Did the EBT ship locomotive grade coal back from the cleaning facility to the various locomotive coal facilities or did the fireman have to deal with “run-o-mine” coal.

Thanks

Stan

PS: Love the Timber Transfers, it is a great publication but alas not enough space to save all the various publications we recieve

#7

Who’d’a’thunk. I always thought that the cleaners and sizers (stamp mill) were at the mine site. Is this specific to EBT, or are there other examples?

#8

Not entirely sure if it was specific to the EBT or not, but it made sense with respect to their operations. The EBT needed to transfer the coal from narrow gauge to standard gauge, so it made sense just to clean it in the process of transferring it. Originally, they had just a long transfer trestle at Mt. Union. They’d push long strings of narrow gauge cars up on top, then unload into standard gauge cars waiting below. There was no sorting or grading in this process. In 1915, the railroad built its first sorting facility at Mt. Union. The railroad could get more money for graded coal, so it was worth the money to build the plant. In 1925, the facility was expanded to the Chance process cleaning plant that served the railroad up until its closure in 1956.

http://www.spikesys.com/EBT/Tour/cplant.html

With regard to the coal in the locos, they certainly had the facility to ship cleaned, graded coal to the coal dock in Rockhill Furnace, but whenever I’ve seen a photo of an EBT tender that shows the coal with any clarity, it’s definitely not graded. The coal mined by the EBT was known for being “smokeless,” so it was very clean burning, and also known to be very hot burning. That advantage could likely have made it not worth the effort to ship cleaned coal south. If I recall correctly, the standard gauge switchers filled their tenders from the coal plant, so they may have burned cleaned coal.

Later,

K

#9

All very interesting. Thanks for posts … . . . . (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)

#10

Kevin, was the coal mined on the EBT anthracite? That it was smokeless, clean and hot burning would suggest that.

#11

Semi-bituminous, described as halfway between bituminous (soft) coal and anthracite.

Later,

K