I am going to build a model of a coal dealer loosely based on a prototype dealer that was in Washington D.C. The dealer was on the east side of South Capital St near "Virginia" interlocking and an area known on the PRR as "Jersey Yard". I have not yet been able to get photos of the yard but found an aerial of it on Historicaerials.com and I count 3 coal trestles with no less than 60 divided troughs beneath them, many with roofs over them. My questions... how many grades of coal would have been common at a fuel dealer? Why would some of the troughs be covered? I imagine that Washington D.C. would have used a significant amount of coal, coal oil, and coal gas back then.

If I can figure out a legit way to show you guys this aerial photo I will, it is very interesting. Next to the dealer is also some team tracks, a warehouse, a scrap yard, a loop track, and several industries served by street trackage. Across the main from the dealer is Capital Power, the plant that serves all the Government buildings downtown. In the mean time if you go to historic aerials, search washington d.c., find the railroad tracks in the southern portion of the city, the area i'm talking about in right near the center of the city. In the northeast section you can see also see Washington Terminal, which features a great double turnable/roundhouse.

Well Depending on the year and location several different grades and sizes of coal could be offered by a coal dealer. I can list a few of the common types that have been available. First there are 3 main types of Coal; Soft coal or bituminous, Hard coal or Anthracite, and coke, A processed form of soft coal that gives it some of the qualities as Anthracite but much less dense. From those hard and soft coal are graded by size Starting with the largest, lump (> 4 3/8'') to grate, egg, stove, chestnut, buckwheat, rice and, fine #3 buckwheat ( 3/23 - 3/16 ") for anthracite. For bituminous there are three main grades lump (1 1/4 - 4 "), nut (1 1/4 - 3/4"), and slack ( anything under 3/4 "). Sometimes soft coal would be broken up into egg and pea sizes also, depending on the location. Coke is usually only offered in one grade similar to egg or stove size. As to what particular sizes that dealer offered I couldn't say, but keep in mind most coal dealers also sold fire wood and rock salt. I hope that this helped a little.

What year are you modelling? What year is the photo you are referencing? Coal as a home heating fuel was beginning to be replaced in the 1950s by oil. As this happened, the dealers got more and more into other bulk goods, like salt, gravel & sand, and so on (as noted above by e-paw).

With as large a facility as you describe, they had either many, many residential customers, or perhaps some industrial or commercial customers too. Many institutions would have had central heating plants, requiring perhaps daily deliveries of large amounts of coal. The largest may have been directly rail served, but this was not always practical.

This link (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.railways.incanada.net/map/GTRsidingsplan.html">http://www.railways.incanada.net/map/GT ... splan.html</a><!-- m -->) showing a map of Ottawa, Canada in 1918 (population approx 100,000) indicates that there were 7 coal sidings, and it is likely that some of the other unspecified sidings and team track may have handled coal as well. That's approximately 25% of all sidings in Ottawa at the time.

Andrew

I have memory of coal being delivered to the house I grew up in. I seem to recall the coal was "golf ball" to "Potato" size. it was dumped through a basement window via a chute, and then we had to move it to the other end of the basement, near the furnace. The Coal dealer in Lindenhurst, L.I. New York, was some time out of business by the mid to late fifties, when I paced off the dimensions of the storage building to build this:
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The building was in the condition I modeled it in.
When I was at the Naval Receiving Station, Anacostia, I remember seeing an 0-4-0 with a load of coal hoppers, possibly for St. Elizabeths Hospital ?

From what I can tell coal was a HUGE heating fuel in early D.C. I am sure St. E's did recieve coal, as well as the Navy Yard and Boling AFB. The photo I am referencing is circa 1951...

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Close up of the dealer

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This is way too much to model, i will have to significantly compress everything to represent it in model form. I do want to do the coal dealer as a 3 trestle dealer, with about 6 spots each. The team track will only be 2 or 3 tracks with 5-6 spots each. I fear I will have to leave out the loop track and might be able to get in 1 or 2 industries in the street trackage and the scrap yard. It is nice to know the coal dealer may have also gotten salt and other aggregates. Thanks for all the input so far. Please feel free to interpret the images and give me more input.

Dave

The info you've all given has been very helpful. Does anyone have any insight to the areas that have roofs? Would this simply have been a convenience for customers that may choose to get product on a rainy day? I imagine back in the day, you had to get your fuel when you needed it, you didn't necessarily wait for the rain to stop to do it.

Thanks

I would guess that the roofs are for the owners - having a huge pile of coal frozen solid in the middle of winter makes it difficult to deliver...! I don't think many residential customers stopped by to peruse the selection. They would have had it delivered. Perhaps the larger customers would have had their own truck pick it up, but it's a dirty business so I would think they would have asked for delivery too.

So my basic assumption is that pre-freeze-up stock is uncovered, and winter stock is covered.


Andrew

I am continuing my research and have identified no less than 12 grades of Anthracite, 6 Bituminous, Coke, salt, gravel, sand, and firewood as products stocked by coal dealers in the nation's capital. This dealer is going to meet my needs perfectly. One question, how would these dealers receive firewood in quantity? Would it have been hauled in by gondola or hopper? Hand loaded/unloaded and stacked or bottom dumped from hoppers into a pile like all the other aggregates being hauled in?

Thanks!
dave

Here is a photo of the dealer I am researching. This is the best photo I can find, and really does not help with the trestles though I believe that is the end of a trestle that the steps lead to in the right of the photo.
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Here are two photos of a different but equally interesting dealer in Washington.
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