Coal Trains

Presents the history of the link between coal and railroading in the US. Taking up topics ranging from the colorful 'anthracite roads' of eastern Pennsylvania to AC-traction diesels working Wyoming, this title reveals how for 150 years the demands of coal have driven railroad technology.

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From the first, U.S. railroads have carried coal from mines to docks, steel mills, and power plants across the country. In this authoritative book spanning the whole of that history, from the mid-nineteenth century to present, noted rail author Brian Solomon explores the railroads and hardware that have transported the fossil fuels that made America work. Brilliant period and contemporary photographs convey the drama of the enterprise: the very longand very heavytrains powering up mountain grades and thundering across barren prairies. At sites from the eastern and western U.S., past and present, readers see giant double-headed Norfolk and Western steam locomotives moving Appalachian coal in Virginia; modern CSX diesels dragging unit coal trains over the well-groomed former Chesapeake & Ohio main line; BNSFs SD70MACs with more than 100 hoppers in tow; Rio Grande locomotives snaking through the Rocky Mountains; and coal trains working full-throttle up Colorados Tennessee Pass, cresting the Continental Divide at 10,000 feet above sea level. Taking up topics ranging from the colorful but now-defunct anthracite roads of eastern Pennsylvania to todays AC-traction diesels that work Wyomings thriving Powder River Basin, Solomon reveals how for 150 years the unique demands of coaland Americas demand for coalhave prompted new railroad technologies.