Iron Miners
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 5:10 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 17 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next
Author Message
 Post subject: Anthracite Storage Structures and Retail Sales Yards
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:53 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:43 pm
Posts: 921
Location: Western PA
Anthracite Storage Structures and Retail Sales Yards

Image

This article is dedicated to an important and overlooked aspect of anthracite coal mining; anthracite storage structures and local coal retail sales yards. After being mined, anthracite was transported via one of the Anthracite Railroads into a widespread and important market for the coal companies-residential and business heating. The structures and machinery that developed around this seasonal demand for energy were designed to facilitate the weighing, sorting, storage and transportation of anthracite coal.

These neglected structures can still be found scattered throughout the parts of the Northeastern United States. The examples shown here come primarily from rural New York State. This region of small, agriculturally-based towns has not seen much development and hence these buildings, whose purpose disappeared with the anthracite industry, still stand, reminding us of the one time importance of anthracite coal in the US. In addition, the ingenuity they exhibit deserves recognition.


RETAIL SALES YARDS

Image

Coal yards typically had a sales office with a scale used to weigh the delivery vehicles before and after they were full of coal. This example from Ithaca, NY, once served by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, provides a typical example. The scale is located inside the building, the portion the delivery vehicle drove up on to be weighed is just inside the garage door. An additional garage door on the rear of the building allowed the delivery vehicle to pass directly through on its way to and from the coal storage structure.

Image

Image


DELIVERY

Early methods of transporting coal locally from the yard to the home or business it was to heat involved wagons pulled by horses. With the advent of the automobile, the truck was used.

Image

Image

The bed on this truck could be inclined and the gate opened to dump coal onto the chutes (missing) that would have been stored in the space beneath the bed. The coal could then be directed into the basement of a home or wherever it was desired.


SORTING

Specific sizes of coal (stove, chestnut, rice and buckwheat, etc) were needed for particular applications. Breakers located near the mines in Northeastern Pennsylvania sorted the coal prior to shipment to the coal yards. Once it reached the coal yard, storage structures were designed to keep the different sizes separate (they accomplished this in various ways). Sometimes it was necessary to re-sort coal sizes at the yard due to breakage and accidental mixing. When this was necessary, a hand-cranked (or later motor-driven), hand-fed machine could be used to separate the sizes.

Image

The tumbling of the coal over the various sized screens eliminated first the smallest pieces, with the screen size increasing as the coal moved down through the inclined screen tube.


STORAGE

The following sets of photographs focus primarily on the chronological evolution of the anthracite storage structure form. Storage of coal was done in such a way as to protect it from the elements until needed, keep different sizes of anthracite separate and make it easy to move from storage bin to delivery vehicle for transportation. The four structural types: sheds, trestles, boxes and silos; evolved to meet storage requirements and represent an interesting study in creative design and reflect technological developments that became available over time.


STORAGE PART 1-SHEDS

The simplest, cheapest and earliest structural form used for storing anthracite was the shed. Especially where demand was small, a three-sided, open-topped or covered box worked well. They were designed with dividers to hold the different sizes of coal separate. This design required the coal to be shoveled from the pile into the delivery vehicle, which was very labor-intensive. Many modern examples exist and they are all basically the same, so one example should suffice.

Image

Later, conveyors like the one pictured here were used to load coal from a pile in a bin to a waiting delivery vehicle.

Image

Image


STORAGE PART 2-TRESTLES

Image

A trestle-type coal storage structure served by the DL&W Railroad and located in South Waverly, PA

As demand increased, the need to easily handle large volumes of coal became important. The trestle represents the next step up in cost and complexity from the bin and was the technological limit before the advent of the electric and gasoline motors.

The coal was initially "lifted" into the storage bins by the locomotive delivering the coal. A fairly short, steep inclined railbed led to a trestle with bins directly below the rails. This structural type initially left the coal below the rails in bins on the ground which still required it to be lifted by some means into the delivery vehicle. Later, these structures further eliminated the need for labor by storing the coal above the ground level and allowing it to pour out when a gate was opened.

Image

When the hopper's bays were opened, coal poured out of the railcar and into the appropriate bin. The trestle shown here is completely enclosed which kept the coal free from ice in the winter. The structure's end doors would be opened and the locomotive would push the hopper car inside the structure to be emptied.

Image

These bins had a steeply angled floor which directed the coal toward the aforementioned gates, shown here.

Image

Image

Delivery vehicles would be positioned below the chutes and filled with the desired size of coal.

Image

This particular facility could load delivery vehicles from gates on both sides, visible here.

Image

Large volumes of various sized coal could be handled efficiently with this type of structure. It was however an expensive one to build and maintain, due to the heavy construction necessary to support railcars and locomotives. Length eventually became an issue, with the largest reaching over 330 feet in length with multiple tracks, arranged side-by-side, required to meet demands. Long structures with additional length necessary for the incline to reach the upper level required very long properties adjacent to rail lines. As land was developed, finding sites for this type of structure became difficult. Local topography could eliminate the need for long inclines, as this Dolgeville, NY (NYC Railroad) site shows.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Coal chute detail. The folding chute could be flipped down for loading then folded up out of the way when not in use. Just above the folding portion is a screen of appropriate size that removed coal pieces smaller than the desired size. Just below the fold-away chute and screen is the "dust box" which collected the coal which passed through the screen. This coal could be re-screened in a device like the screen tumbler pictured above and sold as a smaller grade coal.

Image

This example from Phillipsburg, NJ shows a more modern cement trestle.

Image

Image

Image

A steel coal trestle in Binghamton, NY used to supply fuel to a nearby powerplant.

Image

Image

Another DL&W example in Candor, NY.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Combination trestle and ground-storage bin on the NYC in Little Falls, NY.

Image

Image


The trestle design remained in use especially where large volumes were dealt with and space was available. However the structure's cost was a major drawback because of the heavy construction techniques required to support loaded railcars. This made the trestle not well suited for use in yards where the volume of coal dealt with was relatively small. The solution to this problem awaited the advent of small sources of mechanical power. These came in two forms, the electric motor and the associated power generation and transmission network and the internal combustion engine and associated fuels. Once these power sources became available, new types of coal storage structures were made economically possible. Two new types of buildings came into use-the "box" and the "silo."

The need to move granular materials easily from railcar to storage bin to delivery vehicle was not a problem isolated to the anthracite industry. The technology used here undoubtedly borrowed from that of grain storage and transportation-an industry closely linked to many of the rural towns served by railroads. Some structures built originally for coal storage have been re-used as storage structures for various types of granular materials, primarily grain.


STORAGE PART 3-BOXES

Image

Box storage structure in former NYO&W railyard in Smyrna, NY. Notice the neighboring grain storage facility still in use.

As highlighted in the discussion of sheds, the need to move coal from railcar into the storage bin created a substantial demand for manual labor. The power-driven conveyor alleviated some of the manual labor required, but was required for both loading coal into the bin and loading coal into the delivery vehicle and had to be repositioned and “fed” coal as the pile decreased in size.

The storage "box" was made almost exclusively of wood and combined features of both the conveyor-fed bin and the elevated storage bins of the trestle-while minimizing the drawbacks of both designs. Storage capacities obviously depended on the dimensions of individual structures, with values ranging from less than 500 tons to more than 1,000 tons.

Image

Image

Image

Railcars full of coal would be positioned over a pit located at the bottom of the upward sloping portion of the building. The coal would be emptied from the bottom of a hopper, into the pit and carried by conveyor up the slope to the top of the structure.

Image

The conveyor consists of "scoops" mounted on a large chain with small wheels that rode on supports of wood covered with steel in an "endless" loop configuration. Coal would be scooped up in the pit, taken to the top of the structure and dumped into a chute which directed it into the appropriate bin.

Image

Looking into the pit where the railcars were emptied.

Image

Looking up the inclined conveyor, towards the top of the building.

The bin portion of the building was elevated, with the bottoms of the bins sloped to allow the coal to pour out when a gate was opened.

Image

The local delivery vehicle would be driven into the structure, through the door visible on the side of the building.

Image

Once inside the delivery vehicle could be filled with the desired size of coal, the driver being sheltered from the elements while doing so.

Image

Image

Just as with the scale house above, this building has two "garage door" type openings allowing the vehicle, once loaded, to drive directly through and out the other side.

Image

More examples of box structures and the associated machinery...

Edmeston, NY on the D&H RR (Unidilla Valley).

Image

Image

Image

Image

New South Berlin, NY, again on the D&H RR (Unidilla Valley).

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Odessa, NY on the Lehigh Valley RR.

Image

Sherburne, NY, on the DL&W RR.

Image


STORAGE PART 4-SILOS

Image

Silo-type coal storage facility, Poland, NY, on the NYC RR.

The final type of coal storage structure considered here is the silo or silo complex. The silo, in its familiar rural farm setting, was used to hold feed for the animals kept there or for storage after harvest. Silos were also found extensively in railyards and sidings in small rural towns where grain was stored while awaiting either shipment after harvesting or distribution for farm or food use. Much less familiar are the silos used specifically for storing coal.

These structures developed from agricultural silos designed to hold silage functioned in a manner similar to the "box" detailed above. Coal was emptied from the bays of a hopper into a pit below the rails. From there a conveyor made up of "scoops" moved the coal to the top of the silo complex, where it was directed into a particular vertically-oriented "tube" or silo. In some examples, this tube had a cone-shaped bottom that collected the coal and directed it towards the external gate and chute used for vehicle loading. Other examples made use of good coal or cinders to fill the space in the tube from ground level up to the gate/chute level.

The silos could be arranged linearly or in a "cloverleaf" pattern (when viewed from above). Single silos were used, but more typically four were included to accommodate the various sizes of coal. The distribution vehicle could be loaded from inside or outside, depending on the arrangement of, and spacing between, the silos. Silos shown here were made of four types of materials: wood, cement block, corrugated metal and reinforced concrete. Capacities per silo ranged from approximately 100-150 tons.

Railcars would have emptied here. The conveyor is just inside the small doorway and continues up inside the steeply sloped portion of the building.

Image

This structure has four silos arranged in a "cloverleaf" pattern. Enough space was left between the silos to allow the delivery vehicle to be driven into and loaded from within.

Image

Cement block "staves" with steel bands compose these particular silos. Notice that the spacing between bands gets closer near the ground and chute levels. The pressure exerted on the sides of the silo increases in proportion to the amount of coal that lies above, thus greater strength was needed in the walls near the bottom. Also, additional strength was required near openings in the tube, i.e. in the region around the gate that emptied the silo. This hole weakened the structure overall, requiring additional steel bands as reinforcement.

Image

Looking up from inside.

Image

Chutes for loading vehicles.

Image

Image

Additional examples:

A wooden-staved structure on the Erie Railroad in Owego, NY:

Image

Image

Image

Image

A reinforced concrete silo complex in Gloversville, NY on the former Fonda, Johnstown & Gloversville Railroad:

Image

Image

Image

DL&W railyard with block-staved silos in Oxford, NY:

Image

Image

Image

Morrisville Station, NY corrugated metal coal silos, on the NYO&W Railroad. Notice the linear arrangement of only two silos:

Image

Image

Image


PRESERVATION

Many coal storage structures that remained standing in 1979 (detailed in IA reference at end of page) were no longer during my visits in early 2006. These historic structures are not typically recognized as so and are left to deteriorate unless another use can be found for them. Their robust construction has allowed many to survive 70, 80 or more years-long enough for people today to catch a glimpse of a once common building type.

Here are a few I just missed...

Trestle remains, Ithaca, NY.

Image

Double tracked 200+ft brick trestle remains in Gloversville, NY.

Image

Wooden trestle remains, Dogleville, NY.

Image



Additional information on retail coal yards in New York State can be found in a published article in IA The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archaeology (IA Vol. 26/2 (2000): IA of retail coal yards of Upstate NY; Daniel D. Mayer) Back issues can be ordered at: http://www.sia-web.org/iajournal/siaia.html

_________________
-Thou shalt not little vein-


Last edited by John on Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:23 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:26 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pm
Posts: 6872
Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
amazing john! thanks for that article! great info and pictures. its often forgotten where the coal went after it left the breaker. we tell people it was loaded into rail cars and shipped to destination. well heres the destination!

_________________
Come over to the Dark Side....... We have Cookies!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:41 am 
Offline

Joined: Sat Dec 02, 2006 2:01 pm
Posts: 19
Location: Lewes,DE
What a great piece of information. I found it both fascinating and educational.Thank you so much for placing it on the forum.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 11:45 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:28 pm
Posts: 1758
Location: Winnemucca, NV
John, this is amazing. This is so much overlooked written and photographed history captured in a single post. That is great that you have taken the opportunity to visit these unique structures and preserve them on film. When buildings like this are demolished, our history feels so far away and out of touch. But when they still have a physical presence, they take on a special meaning and symbolize that the death of an industry doesn't have to destroy our memories and appreciation of it.

_________________
"If you thought old, abandoned mines were only in the west, then you haven't been to IronMiners.com!"


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:27 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:48 am
Posts: 194
Location: Gouldsboro, PA
That is pretty wild stuff. I have a few pictures of some in N.J. I will try to dig them out and post them also. I like the old Reading Anthracite signs. One would look good up on my wall you know out of the elements and preserved!! :lol:


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:17 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:41 pm
Posts: 2919
Location: Hard coal region, PA
NICE John! I second what everyone said! Swwet dude.

_________________
This ain't longwall... this is long hole!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2007 12:33 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:43 pm
Posts: 921
Location: Western PA
thanks boys. glad you liked the article.

yeah, Dragulajeeper, if you or anyone else has anymore info/pictures/locations of these types of structures, i'd appreciate hearing about them.

i knew about these structures but i didn't realize what they were used for until i came across the referenced IA article. i started looking around and was surprised how many of them were still around the rural parts of new york state. they're all pretty old too-according to the article, trestles were popular in the late 1800's, boxes came into vogue just after the turn of the last century, and silos hit their peak construction period in the early 1920's. many remain because they've been re-used for other things-grain storage, or for the basic shelter they provide. others would probably be costly to remove and because of their ample construction they've held up pretty well.

actually there's all kinds of interesting things in areas that haven't seen much development-check out my railroad tunnel and coal dock posts.

more to come.


john

_________________
-Thou shalt not little vein-


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:24 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:43 pm
Posts: 921
Location: Western PA
just added a small update to the post-much better now...


john

_________________
-Thou shalt not little vein-


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 8:18 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 7:16 pm
Posts: 478
Location: Anthracite Region of PA
Nice job on the pics and captions. :D

_________________
Scott K
"Watch Your Top"


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:08 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 6:51 pm
Posts: 1418
Location: SW Indiana
I hadn't seen this before now. Nice article.

Maybe we should thank the spammer for bumping it.

And then delete them.

_________________
I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Mon Aug 23, 2010 9:39 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:47 pm
Posts: 95
Location: philly 'burbs
agreed, on both accounts.

_________________
creeps of the world..........unite!!!!!!


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 7:07 pm 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:33 pm
Posts: 3080
Location: Above the Sterling Hill Mine
I forgot about that, but that was awesome John! I guess this needed a good bump...

Miner Greg


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Ithaca coal office - John?
PostPosted: Tue Nov 23, 2010 11:08 am 
Offline

Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2010 12:39 pm
Posts: 2
Location: Rochester, NY
Related to the article above. Is John out there? I'm trying to determine the location (street address) of the Ithaca coal office that he pictured. For model train modeling purposes in N Gauge.

Mike
Rochester, NY

_________________
Mike


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:44 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:43 pm
Posts: 921
Location: Western PA
Hi Mike!

Great to see that there is continued interest in my article!

The Ithaca office you are interested in is on Maple Ave right where the old LVRR tracks cross the street. The tracks are gone, and the ROW is now known as the "East Ithaca Recreation Way".

Also, in your other message you asked about the shed pictured above. That is located in Greene, NY, on the railroad tracks south of town, just north of the crossing at Jackson Hill Road.

Let me know if you make it to either of these places. There's plenty of other interesting structures mentioned above, so if you, or anyone else, would like locations, just let me know.

Hope this helps!

John

_________________
-Thou shalt not little vein-


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sat Nov 27, 2010 10:48 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2005 3:43 pm
Posts: 921
Location: Western PA
hey Chris, can I make this article a permanent page on the UGM site?

_________________
-Thou shalt not little vein-


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 17 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 104 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group