Re: [CBQ] Seasonal use of gondolas on the Q

["'John D. Mitchell, Jr.' cbqrr47@yahoo.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

Up until the late 1950's, Midwest coal mines depended heavily on home and institutional heating requirements. Summer was a very slack time with mines working one or two days a week and sometime not even that. That's why my father farmed. The wasn't much mine work to interfere with his time farming and we needed the money, such as it was! After the introduction of home air conditioning and the demise of coal home heating, there was a peak demand in the summer for utility coal.

Also, the Q used gondola cars for company coal, because many coal chutes had hoppers outside of the rails.
 

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From: "RWA325@aol.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2015 6:55 PM
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Seasonal use of gondolas on the Q

 

Might the sugar beet harvest season have accounted for much of the off-season usage?

 

Bob Arthur

 

In a message dated 1/26/2015 7:17:01 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, CBQ@yahoogroups.com writes:

 

Having recently ordered some of the forthcoming InterMountain USRA drop bottom gondolas from from Dave Lotz, I wanted to read a little about these cars and so consulted the BRHS Freight Car Data Sheet on the Burlington's Composite Gondola Fleet (for those interested in this topic, John Mitchell's superb Bulletin on the Q in the Coal Fields also has much good information). A couple statements in that data sheet made my head itch. First, it says that "Like most western roads, the Q favored gondolas for its coal service because they, unlike hoppers, could be used in the off-season to haul general freight."

What is this "off-season&quo t;? To what extent was coal a seasonal commodity? I certainly get that home and other heating demands would be much greater in winter than summer, but demands for industry, power generation, engine fuel, and other uses would not be that different, would they? What percentage of coal went for seasonal uses like heating? And where there were seasonal differences, wouldn't coal companies try to stay ahead of demand to some extent and try to even out production? Maybe they wouldn't. I guess with a commodity as bulky as coal, there's only so much inventory you can store. Best storage place is probably in the ground, un-mined.

What other freight typically would have been hauled in these gons during the off-season? And roughly what percentage of the fleet would have been reassigned during those months? Would those gons have been pulled out of coal country and sent to other parts of the system, or would they stay in the same division and carry other freight there?

Thanks for any clarification!

Jonathan

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Posted by: "John D. Mitchell, Jr." <cbqrr47@yahoo.com>

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