C&S coal, anyone?

[Jeff Young]

With the able assistance of Mike Trent, I managed to locate the site of the #73/flanger/#75 wreck and collected a bit of genuine C&S coal.  I model in HOn3, so I have about 10 times the amount I need.

If anyone wants some, send me your address (jeff at rokeby dot ie) and I'll pop some in the mail.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[John Greenly]

Jeff,  did you take any photos at the scene of your coal find?  Is there a reference to the wreck to read about it?

It'd be fun to hear about your and Mike's detective work.

Cheers,
John

[CBryars2]

Jeff,

If you have any left I would love to get some.  I'm sure it will find a happy home on the layout.

Cameron Bryars
2455 Tribble Creek Cv
Grayson, GA 30017

Thanks for all your posts, really enjoy your research.

[Chris Walker]

John Greenly wrote

Is there a reference to the wreck to read about it?

Cheers,
John

Tom Klinger's C&S High Line Memories has a number of pictures, and Mike Trent posted about the Wreck here http://c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/C-S-Cab-Curtains-Part-2-Modern-Style-Inside-hung-Curtains-with-Top-Roll-tp1181p1198.html

[Jeff Young]

The only thing I can add to Chris' post is that the easiest way to find the wreck sites is to locate the shoofly grades they built down to the engines to get them out the following spring.

I made the mistake of looking along the mainline, where 70 years of subsequent road grading has obliterated the beginnings of the shoofly grades.  But my daughter was walking parallel to the grade about 10 or 20 yards downhill and spotted them easily.

I didn't think to take any pictures, though.

Cameron, I'll get some in the mail to you on Monday.  I've been enjoying some of your scenery books....

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Jeff Young]

... forgot to mention: the other rookie mistake I made was in expecting to see evidence of cross ties on the shoofly grade.  But of course the track was taken back up immediately after use, so the ties would have all still been brand new, and would have been taken up with the rails.

Cheers,
Jeff.

[CBryars2]

Chris,

Thanks for the coal!

Glad to know someone reads the books.  

Cameron

[South Park]

  So, let me get this straight ....  we have an international coal smuggler
now distributing his contraband on this site ???  

[Jeff Young]

He he..., I had to go back for another lump or two of contraband, so I took the opportunity to snap a couple of pictures.

The top of the shoofly down to #73.  (It's harder to see in the picture than in the flesh, so I've drawn the mainline and shoofly grades in yellow below the photo.)



And the end of the shoofly (with a big, more recent tree in the middle of it).  The X marks where I think #73 spent the winter.



And back up top, I'm standing somewhere near where I think #75 landed (perhaps a little too far uphill), with the mainline grade in the background.

[John Greenly]

Thanks, Chris!  I found some photos and brief captions in the Pictorial Supplement to DSP&P,  pp. 142 and 147.  It says that the temporary spur, the shoofly as Jeff calls it, was 1068 ft long to reach # 73, by which it was retrieved the following summer, 8 months after the wreck.    

[John Greenly]

Jeff, that appears to have been real detective work,  certainly not obvious in these photos where to look-  at least until you draw in the yellow lines!  That shoofly to # 73 was said to be over 1000 ft long,  quite a serious construction!  Does the contrab…, er, coal,  come from # 73, or #75?

Cheers,
John

[Jeff Young]

Hi John,

The grades are a bit more obvious in the flesh, but they did take a bit of searching.

About 1/2 the coal is from #73, and 1/2 from the area around #75.  But there's some amount of scatter that has washed down from all along the mainline, so stuff from around #75 may or may not have actually been from #75's tender.  (#73's resting place was much farther from the mainline, so that coal is much more likely from #73's tender.)

Cheers,
Jeff.

[Jim Courtney]

OK, Jeff,

I could probably use some authentic C&S coal for the string of coal cars I'm working on.

Jim Courtney
3193 NW Weed Lane
Poulsbo, WA 98370

[Jeff Young]

Cool, Jim, I'll get some in the mail in the next day or two.

John's, Joe's and Cameron's packages are on the way.

Everyone else, I'm now out (bar some for Mike and myself).

Cheers,
Jeff.

[ComoDepot]

Is this Como or Baldwin coal?

[South Park]

  The Como coal mines played out pretty early.  If it is Como coal, it wasn't
put there by the 1936 wreck.

[ComoDepot]

Next time I am over that way I will see if I can find anything in the spoil heaps from the original Como mines, I know they were picked over well after the Railroad era.

[Robert McFarland]

There was mention in CRA 12 that Como residents used to swipe coal off of cars in the yard.

[Jeff Young]

The King coal mines (particularly the southern one) might have been far enough away to have avoided being picked bare.

The big explosion there was 1893.  I think it was shut down after that?

Cheers,
Jeff.

[CBryars2]

Jeff,

Just received the coal, you sir are a gentleman!.

Thanks so much!