COMMENTARY BY ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD whiteriverproductions.com


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KEVIN EUDALY


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from our readers are always welcome. Please contact the editor for details.


EDITOR


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The railroads, coal mines, and electric generators have worked together to fi nely tune unit train operations to keep the coal rolling across America. PATRICK YOUGH PHOTO


America’s Connection to Coal C


OAL IS CARBON, typically mixed with smaller amounts of other chemical elements such as hydrogen, sulfur, and


nitrogen. Coal is a fuel, and it is also integral to industry because it is a necessary element to forging steel. Coal is, moreover, a necessary element on the balance sheet of the North American railroad, and it has been for a long, long time. Coal is rooted in the very origins of railways


on this continent. The first American-made locomotive, the Baltimore & Ohio’s Tom Thumb of 1830, was built to burn anthra- cite. While not all railways burned coal, by 1900 it was the dominant locomotive fuel, replacing wood. Petroleum also had a share, ultimately triumphing with mass dieseliza- tion in the mid-20th century, but even at the end of the steam era, coal was still a primary fuel. Remember that the Norfolk & Western, “America’s last steam railroad,” still burned coal when it shut down regular steam runs in 1960. Yet the use of coal as railroad fuel is dwarfed by its wider adoption in industry as a whole. During the Gilded Age, coal became the dominant fuel in most major cities and among most manufacturers. Alongside iron ore, it was one of the most important ingredients of modernity, for coal is an essential component of steel. The Empire State Building and the Golden Gate Bridge would have been impossi- ble without coal; so, too, this can be said of the automobile, the washing machine, and the refrigerator. Ever since, steel — and thus coal — are everywhere in our lives. This vital coal supply moved by rail. Because coal is both bulky and heavy, it is not particularly suited to long-distance transpor- tation by truck, and while it can sometimes be sluiced it is not suitable for cross-country pipelines. Only rail and water are compet- itive, and given that most coal is mined in remote, mountainous areas, the railway gets the biggest piece of the pie.


4 JANUARY 2016 • RAILFAN.COM The relationship between the railroad and


coal has not been untroubled, however. The American deindustrialization that began to accelerate during the 1970s meant a slow but steady decline in domestic manufacturing and domestic steel production, and that, in turn, meant a decline in coal traffic. However, urban and suburban growth, exploding consumer goods markets, and exponen- tial technological development all drove an ever-greater hunger for electricity. With relatively few suitable potential hydroelec- tric dam sites and a general cultural skepti- cism of nuclear power, increased demand for electricity over the last 40 years meant steady coal traffic for the railways. However, eastern railroads that built their fortunes hauling black diamonds from the Appalachians saw a dramatic shift of traffic to rich pockets of low-sulfur coal in the West, thanks in part to clean air legislation. Most new U.S. power plants in the last


decade are built to burn cheaper, cleaner natural gas rather than coal. According to the Association of American Railroads, coal movements by rail have dropped a stagger- ing 22 percent since 2008. There appears no end in sight. “Railroads have typically derived more revenue from coal than from any other commodity,” says the AAR, but what becomes of them in a world with less and less coal? Railroads will survive, but their access to steady cash flow, the nature of how they operate, and the kind of customers they deem important may all radically shift. The features in this issue beginning on page 28 are largely about this moment of crisis. Routes “mothballed” and jobs lost — is this the swan song for a commodity that so greatly shaped the character of the nation’s railways? What comes next, only time will tell.


Consulting Editor Alexander B. Craghead is a transportation historian, photographer, artist, and author.


ASSOCIATE EDITOR/ART DIRECTOR OTTO M. VONDRAK OTTO@RAILFAN.COM


ASSISTANT EDITOR LARRY GOOLSBY


CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL T. BURKHART MIKE SCHAFER JEFFREY D. TERRY


CONSULTING EDITOR ALEXANDER B. CRAGHEAD


NEWS COORDINATOR KEVIN C. SNYDER


COLUMNISTS


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JAMES PORTERFIELD VINCENT REH


JAIME SERENSITS GEORGE M. SMERK WES VERNON


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