Okay, more "Adventures in Anthracite" . . . Randy writes: > Boston and Providence probably got their coal via Beacon (CNE or NY&NE) > >and then Poughkeepsie (CNE and then NYNH&H) in an era when Erie was > >fighting it out with Philadelphia & Reading for the traffic. Although a minority of the anthracite went via Newburgh/Fishkill in the early days, this went away -- not because of the bridge, but because the anthracite railroads decided that it was not in their interest to ship that way. The Pennsylvania Coal Company was a holdout, but the Erie pretty mnuch put a stop to those New England routings when they took over in 1901. But there were other problems, not the least of which was that the Poughkepsie Bridge route was unable to handle any volume of anthracite traffic, as poor A.A. McLeod found out in his "Greater Reading" scheme. But even if the bridge (and the CNE) had been up to par, the anthracite railroads had little incentive to use it. Why would they? If anthracite was $6.00/ton in Boston, but $4.00/ton FOB at New York, why would they want to give the CNE or the New Haven $1.90/ton to carry it via the bridge to Boston, when putting it on their own schooners at NYC get it there for 50 cents a ton? Why would the DL&W hand over that cash to the NYNH&H rather than, say, build beautiful concrete viaduts and stations and towers <g>? Most New England anthracite went by water until the 1930s. Substantial amounts of anthracite were reloaded onto trains at places like Boston, Salem, Providence, Portsmouth and on up the coast to the B&M, MEC and BAR after a water journey from tidewater NY or Philadelphia. All the anthracite roads save the D&H -- PRR, CNJ, P&R, Erie, NYS&W, DL&W, O&W and LV -- all had schooner fleets to serve New England. NYS&W's vessels were the first commercial traffic through the new Cape Cod Canal in 1913; a Reading schooner was the first American Merchant ship ever sunk by a submarine in wartime. There's even an 1890s photo floating around of the "CRRofNJ Station" at Salem Massachusetts. Even the O&W -- owned by the New Haven after 1905 -- still shipped the majority of its New England anthracite by water until the 1920s. Even the Lehigh and New England seemed to have moved more anthracite via its NYS&W trackage rights to Edgewater 1910-1918 than it delivered to Campbell Hall and then Maybrook (figures ar murky because of the continuing fight with the CNJ over this traffic that was not really settled until 1926 or so). Of course, at the other end -- the PRR, LV, Erie and DL&W didn't want to hand over anthracite to interchange partners for the same reason -- so dumped it into boats on the Great Lakes for cheap water transportation. The Erie moved anthracite west by its all rail route, but even the PRR sent it over the dumper at Erie PA. Finally, inland waterways played a major role too -- particularly the NYS Barge Canal System. The answer my other "Quiz Question" -- the last load of anthracite dumped by the NYS&W at Edgewater went upthe Hudson, through the Barge Canal to Oswego -- and on to Canada. I'd be interested in figures that would indicate that electric utilities used any major amounts of anthracite in the 1880s -- electric lighting wasstill a novelty, after all. Anyone interested in the general subject should read "Electrifying America" by David Nye. I have seen some great information regarding transit systems in NY, Philadelphia and Boston in CTJ when the transit systems electrified and built subways. Cheers, Jim Guthrie ELHS #1296 PS -- It wasn't until after a Supreme Court decision in 19134 that the ICC actually required (1815) that the anthracite railroads to follow published tariffs in anthracite. Except in rare circumstances, the anthracite roads always split the FOB cost with the mine operators, regardless of published tariffs. The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html ------------------------------
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