Convention follow-up

[NW Mailing List]

Regarding two issues from the Convention, previously asked about here:

They may have been the only ones, but Pocahontas crews did refer to M's as
"Mollies."  And referring to locations where Elkhorn crews would set out
empties, Elk Ridge is in the North Fork neighborhood of the same name,
between "downtown" and Algoma.  Called Elk Ridge Storage Track, it was the
second over of two storage tracks alongside the North Fork Branch just off
the WB Main junction, the other called North Fork Storage.  According to a
track map of the time, it is on the alignment of the oven track that served
the Elk Ridge Coal & Coke Co. coking operation in the adjacent hillside.  I
don't recall the tipple location being indicated, but Alex Schust's
excellent presentation at the Convention included a photo of the tipple,
placing it across the wye that was there at the time, on the opposite side
of North Fork Hollow.  Railroad records seem to indicate that Elk Ridge
Coal may have been in decline and the tipple may have been (re)moved by the
1920's when the map was drafted (?).  Alex?

Grant Carpenter