The Long Island's coal freight operations terminated more cars than they originated (68.0% of the loaded car miles were eastbound from the mainland vs. 32.0% westbound).

Commodities terminated included coal, lumber, cement and iron & steel, the LIRR's four largest in 1947. The number of originated carloads could easily be accommodated in lumber boxcars after unloading and cleaning. Having to haul empty boxcars to Eastern Long Island caused the percent loaded of total car miles to hover around 50%.

LIRR Coal Operations by Jim Guthrie

Essentially, each silo was filled with different sizes and types of coal.  Most domestic users preferred anthracite, because it made far less smoke. But some found Coke very useful, and some bituminous. The latter had other storage problems, including the penchant for spontaneous combustion in certain circumstances. The switch to concrete was in part because of this -- there are some interesting accounts of coal pockets burning over the years -- especially older types like the facility pictured.

Sheepshead Bay 1908 Heffner & Pillion

Many coal retailers were also in the ice business (and some had started out in wood and lumber). Obviously, coal was bigger in the fall and winter, ice was bigger in spring and summer -- but both had some year 'round business to keep delivery wagons and employees busy all year.

Ice was also a very important LIRR freight commodity, and deserves a page on its own, I think. Knickerbocker Ice had several storage plants, for example. I vaguely remember an ice house in Smithown when I was a kid -- at the end of the stub siding off the freight siding on the south side of the east end of the station platform.

I'm not sure which was more interesting [and in either case, we'll never see again] but a burning coal dealer, where the coal glowed for weeks no matter the efforts of the fire department, or the burning [full] ice house, which went quickly because straw was used as insulation, leaving a 3-4 story block of ice that took weeks to melt.

Further, the anthracite (and coke and bituminous wholesalers and distributors) tried product differentiation/branding -- so in the early days, anthracite might be sold as "Free Burning White Ash" or "Lehigh Red Ash" or some such; some had catch phrases like Lehigh Valley 's "Makes Warm Friends" or even coloring the anthracite: many of us know "Blue Coal" which the DL&W colored with a tint for product differentiation (most of it was actually Free Burning White Ash), but the Philadelphia and Reading added red spots (red=Reading), Old Company Lehigh added red disks, while Payne added Orange disks -- all sold by various retailers served by the LIRR.

[The D&H's Hudson Coal Company colored their anthracite silver in the 1950s, although the D&H had pretty much pulled out of the entire NYC area before WWI. But when DL&W and Hudson merged around 1960, they sold both "Blue" and "Silver" anthracite for awhile, and it appears that a few dealers on Long Island may have sold both for awhile maybe 1960-62.]

In any case, there were a variety of sizes for home use -- Egg, Chestnut (or nut), Pea and Buckwheat were especially popular -- the latter generally cheaper than the larger sizes, but generally less efficient as well. If a customer wanted Chestnut, they didn't want Buckwheat <g>.

The concrete silos became especially popular after World War I, but there were a variety of designs and manufacturers and builders of these things.

In general, you see some sort of lift conveyance that brings coal to the top from beneath the coal hopper of space beneath the track. Coal would be dumped into the top of the silo -- but inside there might be some sort of spiral chute, because you did not want the coal shattering when dropped from a high point to a not-so full silo.

We see in some of the later pictures, the lifting device is no longer installed, because the silos are no longer used, which leaves how they worked something of a mystery to those who only saw these at the very end.

Just a side note: Most consumers HATED their coal dealers, because they always thought they were getting cheated. It's hard to confirm the measure of coal purchased (and put in the cellar via a chute off the coal delivery truck) -- Who's to say that "ton" was really 2,000 pounds or maybe 1700 pounds? The "exact" measurement of oil from an oil delivery truck (and county bureaus of weights and measures to confirm their accuracy) is a legacy of that era in many ways, and is one of the major reasons people switched to oil the moment it became available.

The other reason was that the coal furnace was either on or off -- burning anthracite or not. Oil was "instant on" and "instant off" -- which was another advantage.

You usually see a chute partway up the silos (or what looks like a boarded up window after the silo was no longer used <g>).. That's where trucks were loaded to make their deliveries. The wooden storage  buildings like the Heffner would have a place for carts (later trucks)  to unload beneath each bin. There were also concrete versions of this -- big oblong buildings similar to those made of wood.

There are lots of variations on a theme. Some of these outfits used open air storage -- simply with a trestle -- and maybe had trucks pull up under the trestle and have coal loaded directly. More often, the coal would be dumped below the trestle, and a portable loader put into the coal pile to lift it and dump it into nearby trucks.

Dieckel on the West Hempstead Branch seemed to take "live" real time deliveries after the Valley Stream Grade Crossing Elimination eliminated their siding -- another variation -- and perhaps unique. Can someone confirm that?

The busiest coal route on the LIRR was apparently between the Kopper's Coke Plant near Maspeth and Long Island City .

There was probably more tonnage in the early twentieth century than the rest of the railroad combined. I'm not clear on the actual movements, but this is shown as a major coal volume route in places like USRA documents, for example.

Coke of course is "cooked" coal -- which led to all manner of dirty air complaints, and is one of the leading reasons for Superfund Sites today (Coal Gas being another one, and coal to coal gas plants on Long Island were probably more important in volume than even the State Hospitals, but I digress). Kopper's was a major Coke plant for the NY Area -- and some even went to New England, mostly via barges and schooners from the big Sprague plant just north of the Long Island City passenger terminal.

Two other things are important to understand: The anthracite railroads **hated** to see cars go off line -- so few did (despite railfan mythology about carfloats and the Poughkeepsie Bridge <g>). Most coal was dumped on the NJ side into barges and delivered around NY Harbor points -- some reloaded into rail cars on the NY/LI side. We know that there were exceptions -- Burns Bros., for example had contracts with DL&W Coal for rail delivery both on the LIRR and South Brooklyn Railway.

The other thing to remember is that a substantial amount of anthracite was delivered in boxcars - both loose and in bags. Companies like Ottumwa even sold automatic boxcar coal loaders and dumpers -- so pre WWII photos of coal yards might very well show boxcars being delivered.

Not everyone had room for a big coal bin in the cellar, and others could not afford to buy tons of coal at a time. One could purchase a 50-LB bag of coal at most corner grocers, or even have bags delivered.

In short -- you're not just looking at hoppers when you're looking at domestic coal.

Most of this is pretty much antediluvian stuff, as many of us remember the silos from the tail end of the anthracite/coal domestic use era, plus the hospitals of course but have little grasp of what coal -- especially anthracite -- meant to the area. Hope this [now way too long] note helps flesh out the story, and gets some thinking going.  Cheers, Jim Guthrie

F-M Elevator Head and Hopper Photo Details
Reprint 1930's F-M Catalog  Info: John McCluskey

Request: Searching for a schematic diagram showing the operation of the coal silos that once were all over Long Island.  From my understanding, the coal was dumped from the bottom of the coal hoppers into bins below the track.  From there an bucket escalator device would bring the coal up to the top of the silo structure where it was dumped into the silos. Anyone with a schematic diagram showing this operation, please contact: Coal Research

LI City Coal Tower 07/17/1919
Collection: Dave Morrison

Sheepshead Bay 1908
Heffner & Pillion Archive: Jim Guthrie

Burns Bros. Fountain Ave. Brooklyn, NY  
Archive: Art Huneke

Long Island Coal Co. 1953
Oyster Bay

 Nassau Mutual Fuel Co. 1955
West Hempstead
Rolf H. Schneider photo, Dave Keller archive

Fleer Bros Coal Hillside, 
Hoppers Seaboard Coke 
view E c.1920s

Morris Park Coal Tower 2/10/1921 View NW Archive: Art Huneke

LIRR #508 hopper Morris Park 2/10/1921 Archive: Art Huneke

Dependable Fuel MU3-car Mail Express west under signal bridge leaving Babylon Station 9/19/1950
The train’s lead car is an RPO/REA car. The middle car is a passenger/baggage/RPO car and at the rear is a combine car.
Edward Hermanns photo, Dave Keller archive

Photo : early 1944 
Archive: Dave Morrison

T. C. Warren & Co., 
c. mid-1950's Quogue
Photo: LIRR Archive: jim Gillin 

Eagle Coal Glendale
Archive: McEnery

Plaza Fuel Co. New Hyde Park Rd view NE Archive: Daniel Marra, Sr.

New Hyde Park Coal & Ice 
view east 1951 Archive: Art Huneke

Mid-Island Fuels - New Hyde Park
Archive: Art Huneke

Hicksville Coal 05/06/1932

View SE  Hicksville Coal 05/06/1932
View SW

Hicksville Coal 05/06/1932
View west from Jerusalem Ave

Wood & Nostrand Inc.
Just east of railroad station on the south side of the tracks
Farmingdale,  c.1920
R. Emery map: Siding installed in 1924. Archive: Dave Keller

Islip Coal & Feed c. 1968 view SE
Photo: Steve Lynch  

Nassau Mutual Fuel Corp. 
West Hempstead, NY – c. 1955
W. J. Edwards photo, Dave Keller archive

LIRR Coal Loads Received 1945

LIRR Coal Loads Received by Road 1945 

Morris Park Shops 3/31/1940 Conveyor to wooden coaling tower in background
Archive: Dave Keller

Weeks Fuel Bldgs and coaling ramp
 West Ave 05/1943
Fred Weber photo, Dave Morrison collection, Dave Keller archive

Loco Coaling Facilities and coaling ramp for Week’s Fuel  05/1943
Fred Weber photo, Dave Morrison collection, Dave Keller archive

Week's Coal Patchogue View NE 
c. 1904

Week's Coal Patchogue View SW
c. 1904

Week's Coal Ramp 1954 Patchogue
Archive: Dave Keller


Underwood Coal & Coke 10/1943
Fred Weber photo, Dave Morrison collection, Dave Keller archive

LIRR Coal Operations Remains 

St. Albans Coal Trestle 2007

Huntington: W. Wilton Wood  Lumber & Coal   Photo: Steve Rothaug 10/2007

Moving Coal by Prayer by Mark Smith (Retired LIRR Locomotive Engineer) 

"...The L.I.R.R. was not a big coal hauler as to operating unit coal trains as many large roads did.  We did haul a lot of coal in lots to three state hospitals by local freight jobs that worked the lines the hospitals were located on.  We did not have heavy, long grades but many places did have short, steep grades requiring careful handling to get over the road. These coal docks were all up on trestle where cars could be unloaded by opening the hoppers.  One dock at Kings Park was at the bottom of a steep grade and was a scary move for all concerned every time it was switched...."

East NY Industrial Park serviced by the Bay Ridge Line 

Covering the area south of the East New York station, and proceeding to where the Bay Ridge branch hooks a sharp turn to the west at New Lots, going as far south (west) as the east side of Rockaway Ave. we have the following coal customers from 1958 and earlier, back into the 1920s:  Info: Dave Keller 

(In no special order) 

Rubel Coal Co.(having moved from 2 prior locations in the same area) 
Thatford & Ackerman Coal 
Security Coal Co. 
Holland Steel Co. 
Burns Bros. Coal

Switching the Coal at Island Park by JJ Earl
"...the coal train used the trailing point cross over east of Long Beach Road to shove across into "The Light"

Loads would be placed in the empty tracks and empty cars gathered up and pulled out onto #2 main.

The engines uncoupled and were reversed at LEAD to come back west on #1, over the cross over and pull back west onto #1 stopping for a member of the crew to throw these hand thrown switches back to their rightful position.

All main line crossovers had/have what is called a locking bar halfway between the switches with a lever that, when thrown over, moves a rod that connects to a locking device in each switch that will not allow it to be thrown unless this security device itself is thrown." 
Emery Map 9/58 MP 20-22 Click on image to enlarge

LIRR 1950 Freight Car Loads  Prototype Info for Modeling

LIRR Coal Freight Car Locations

1924

1902

c.1925

1956

66

58

66

66

58

66

<1920

Municipal Elec. Light & Power Co.
Archive: Art Huneke

<1913

1924

Kenney Coal Co. later
Knickerbocker Ice Co.

MU #1694 on a 2-car shuttle laying up at the old station at West Hempstead in 1955. 

In the background are the old Meadowbrook Bank and the coal silos of Nassau Mutual Fuel Co. Per Robert Emery’s 1959 map of the station area, the silos and Nassau Mutual Fuel Co. were either no longer standing or no longer serviced by the LIRR. 
Rolf H. Schneider photo, Dave Keller archive