11/04/2026
In the Headlight at CFRHS Library and Archives:
Loading Coal Cars at the Mine – Coal mines and railroads work together. Each depends upon the other. Coal mines help the railroads by supplying them with fuel for their locomotives, shops, stations, and offices, and by furnishing them with coal to haul.
Railroads help the coal mines by bringing them machinery, tools, and other supplies, by purchasing large quantities of coal for railroad uses, and by hauling coal to places where it is needed.
In this picture, coal is being loaded into freight cars at the mines. Both hopper cars and gondola cars carry coal. The average car holds about 57 tons. Railroads take the coal—sometimes for hundreds of miles—to factories and mills, to railroad coaling stations, to coal yards in cities and towns, and to seaports and lake ports.
From the 1940s into the 1960s, the Association of American Railroads produced Teacher’s Kits with photos of railroad scenes and explanatory booklets to educate students and their families about the railroad industry. Our CFRHS Archives is fortunate to have materials from 4 slightly different Kits from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
The weekly posts will feature these photos and the stories behind them. We will also contrast earlier and later photos of the same topic as much as possible. Notice that the rail equipment is either unmarked or is from the “East and West Railroad.”
Holdings in the CFRHS Library cover many different aspects of railroading present and past. Open Saturdays from 11 am to 3 pm, we invite you to visit us.
