COMME-N-TARY: Coal at Cresson
Adding coal operation to the PRR Horseshoe Curve About our N-scale columnist
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Conducting local coal operations using a marshalling yard ...
O John Drye is our N scale editor and columnist.
ne of the objectives for the design of my Horseshoe Curve layout was to include some local trains in addition to the parade of mainline trains making their way up and down the mountain. While there wasn’t room to model coal mines on the layout, there was space for the coal marshalling yard at
Cresson. This article describes design, construction, and planning for the local coal operations.
History Coal has been mined in this part of Pennsylvania since the late 1700s. Early settlers dug coal for use by village forges and blacksmiths. By the mid1800s coal and coke was being used by iron foundries in the city of Johnstown and elsewhere. The Pennsylvania Canal and Allegheny Portage Railroad, completed in 1834, was used to transport this coal from the mines to consumers. A few years later, the Pennsylvania Railroad replaced canal boats with railcars, and the first coal made its way around Horseshoe Curve.
But the PRR wasn’t the only railroad hauling coal from the mines. The Berwind-White Coal Mining Company began in 1886 with a single mine south of Johnstown and quickly expanded to operate a fleet of cars serving mines across the state. The Cambria Iron and Steel Company also operated mines and a small fleet of hopper cars and there were others, too. Many of these companies interchanged cars with the PRR. By 1901 there were more
Figure 1: Operations from Cresson Yard involve hauling hoppers such as these PRR and Berwind two-bay cars from the yard downhill to staging.
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Figure 1 Page 40 • Feb 2012 MRH Comme-N-tary, page 1
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