Virginian (NW/NS) Roanoke South Yard - COAL CLASSIFICATIONS

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Those coal classifications indicated the BTU's, the Ash Content, the Moisture Content, the Size, and maybe something else which I have forgotten. The code names were only meaningful to those who purchased the coal. At the export pier, the order might be to dump 5 loads of GINZBERG class for every 10 loads of GILHOOLEY class, or whatever.

The classifications were indicated by words, a few of which were MYRTLE, MARGARET, SILVER, BEAR, and suchlike.

MARGARET was the best coal for a stove. Train crews were not given the coal classifications, but we had our ways of finding out. Of course, when the collieries began crushing coal and loading it as almost a powder, that pretty much ended our "coal picking," but occasionally we could find a load or two of lump coal.

The last load of lump coal I saw was when I was Night Trainmaster at Harrisburg in 1982. A 100 ton hopper full of that stuff was mis-classified somewhere along the line, and came to us by mistake as an out-of-route car. For some strange reason, one of the hopper doors came open that night and when a crew pulled the track, about a third of the load went on the ground. (It also derailed the car, and we had to get the rerailing boys from the shop track.) Burlap bags and buckets and boxes were in high demand for the next few weeks.

-- abram burnett
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