lived back up a hollar in hockin county when I was a kid. starting in november we could hear the train whistle in near by town,sister and I would head for the tracks jump on the coal train when it went by and start throwing coal off as fast as we could for about a mile, get off the train hide in the weeds untill caboose went by,start fillin gunny sacks as we walked back, when dad got home from work he would pick up sacks with his truck. about 4 sacks a day all winter long weather permiting
- Thread starter stonerock
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old popper
Well-known Member
Once knew a man that worked for the railroad that burned free coal all winter too.
Butch(OH)
Well-known Member
We did a lot of work on rt52 south of Huntington W Va and every time there was a coal truck wreck (often) there was people waiting for the truck to get towed away and the police to leave so they could load sacks and pick ups with whatever coal didn't get cleaned up. One time down near Kermit they dang near had a riot over it.
Just across the Gig Sandy river from rt. 52 is rt. 23 here in E. KY. Back when coal buckets were running hard and heavy the DOT would pull them over and weigh them. If they were overloaded, the DOT made them dump enough of their coal to be in regulation. You could drive down rt 23 and see mounds of coal dumped on the side of the road. By the next morning...it was as if those piles never existed. They would be gone.
Married2Allis
Well-known Member
Yeah Butch, Kermit is down in Hatfield-McCoy country I think. Some rough characters there for sure. That is coal country. My wife is from Elview WV. FIL and I went to a motorcycle hill-climb once near Williamson.
Bret
Bret
Bob Harvey
Well-known Member
When I was a kid, we had a 'coal man' deliver to a shoot in the basement. He wore a leather apron over his shoulder, packed it by the sack from his wagon (maybe 50') was covered in coal dust from head to toe and the wagon was pulled by a horse. Vancouver B.C. If memory serves from about 1950 - 1955 (when we moved). P.S. a couple of tons at a delivery.
Bob Harvey
Well-known Member
Oops, should be 'chute'. ---I think ;^)
Sometimes if the fireman saw little kids "urchins" near the track he would heave three or four shovels full off the deck of the engine to them. Then the little kids would pick it up for their momma. The best way to get that coal dirt out of your skin is with plain old Ivory Snow soap. It is 99%, pure fat. Works great. Let us hope the EPA gets told to back the h*%%/#@ off a little. Clean air is very nice but they want it cleaner than a pine tree fart.
wilson ind
Well-known Member
chute is how one kills an alligator .lol
showcrop
Well-known Member
Jeff, you are close to right. I am pretty sure that Ivory soap was the last real soap made. It was produced by mixing animal fat with lye, and then a lot of purifying was done. It contained no detergents, and was 100% pure soap. As recently as the early eighties I saw lye soap in use in Greek owned restaurants.
Moonlite37
Well-known Member
My dad was born in 1885 in Posey County Indiana. His dad died when he was 6 years old. He told me he and his sister two years younger would walk along the tracks and pick up coal. The brakemen walking on top of the cars would kick off pieces of coal to help the kids. I wonder if the brakemen may have also been poor in their youth. Workmen do have a heart for kids.
Rollie NE PA
Well-known Member
Living in anthracite coal country we have mountains of culm. Not to long ago the old timers would dig in to the culm banks and pick out the chunks of coal.
hillbillyhim
Member
My dad called it shoulder coal.
Northvale PA
Member
So,I use to drive down rte 222 along the Susquehanna. Coal trains sit down there overnight. I always wondered if locals help themselves to some.
Back when my Dad was a youngin , he said they used to go out behind the barn and dig coal out of the hill. Said the vein was maybe 2-3 feet thick. Lots of crawling in and out. This was in New Athens, Ohio. In 48 Grand Dad sold out to the Hanna Coal Company and moved to Fredericktown, Ohio. We heated with coal when I was growing up. We took a 48 Studebaker truck down to the coal tiple, came back with 5-6 tons of stoker coal. Shoveled a lot of coal over the years.
Indiana George
Member
When I was small coal trains would bring loads of rail cars full of coal for the steel mills.We would climb on the cars and while they were stop before going into the steel mill, we would fill sacks of coal and thats how we heated our house.Sometimes there would be 15 kids on those rail cars .Couple of times we got cought but he let us go and he also let us keep the coal.The man that guarder the train we knew him he was a local man.Many times he turned a blind eye, he was a nice man, he knew our situation
RedMF40
Well-known Member
I imagine a lot of coal cars are a few pounds lighter by the time they hit the power plants. I've travelled through coal country in my adult years, have seen the effects of mountaintop mining. I have to say i have respect for those who stay and want to preserve the way of life they knew growing up--being close to nature, unferstanding the cycle of the seasons and coexisting with
The wild things that live amongst them. This was not my life growing up, and it's why ive enjoyed the stories here.
(Sorry for typos, using my phone as typewriter)
The wild things that live amongst them. This was not my life growing up, and it's why ive enjoyed the stories here.
(Sorry for typos, using my phone as typewriter)
K Effective
Well-known Member
Grandpa's general store sold coal, as well as nearly everything else you ever needed. Dad got his start delivering coal- they had a coal truck, which was hand shoveled full. Dad always enjoyed the homes with coal chutes (like ours), lots less shoveling.
That was how he earned the gas money for his car in high school, and got to know darn near everyone in the township.
That was how he earned the gas money for his car in high school, and got to know darn near everyone in the township.
K Effective
Well-known Member
My first non-family job was loading trucks for the neighbor's strawberry and raspberry operation. The Grandpa of the family told stories of the old days, loaded trucks of fruit heading to Chicago markets had to pass through Gary, IN, stoplight every block on US12/20. The locals liked to glean a case or two from the back of the truck when stopped at the lights. The two farm brothers loaded a truck so one could ride in the back. He greeted every set of fingers on the tailgate with a short iron pipe. That slowed the borrowing a lot!
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