Growing up near Binghamton, NY, I remember the nearby DL&W tracks having a black material for ballast. It looked to me at the time like soft coal. In places it was built up very high to accommodate terrain changes, as tall as the locomotives, it seemed. What do you suppose it was and how could that stay in place to support the weight of the trains? NYSW still uses the route.
The D&H tracks farther east used a whiter colored material, like crushed granite, as I recall.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Can't answer your question.
You need to get "Clear the Tracks," by Joseph Bromley. It's the early story of your area's railroads. Binghamton plays a starring role.
In Chicago they would use cinders (this what we called it) for the alleyways behind the houses.
When the rain puddles got bigger you call your alderman and they would bring a dump truck of cinders and spread it down.
It was a black to brown gravel type material not sure where it came from but my guess from furnaces that burned coal? Then in the early 60s they started paving the alley's with concrete. I don't think I have seen the material since.....
franktrain
Most likely finely ground anthracite [hard] coal, known as "culm." It resembles black sand. There are mountains of the stuff piled up around coal breakers and mines throughout Pennsylvania "coal regions." Usually mixed with rock and other impurities, it was a useless byproduct of anthracite mining. But now it can be reclaimed. It is sprayed into power plant furnaces, where it burns instantaneously in tiny explosions that release heat but do no damage.
Other than in the Lackawanna's huge fills, culm was extensively used by the Reading, in particular to replace towering bridges on the Catawissa Branch between Tamaqua and West Milton as trains exceeded their weight limits. The Catawissa Branch was a vital link to an interchange with the NYC at Newberry Junction west of Williamsport. It was shorter than the Reading main through Shamokin. When Conrail took over, the Catawissa Branch was abandoned. A few segments are still used. But the immense fills are being reclaimed as fuel for power plants.
Growing up near Binghamton, NY, I remember the nearby DL&W tracks having a black material for ballast. It looked to me at the time like soft coal. In places it was built up very high to accommodate terrain changes, as tall as the locomotives, it seemed. What do you suppose it was and how could that stay in place to support the weight of the trains?
I could be a combo of cinders and Culm.
Thanks to all who took the time to respond. I learned something from each of you. I'm particularly glad to see that culm has a use now. I can remember Mom pointing the piles out when we would venture south of Scranton.
As noted, it could be both. In the "steam era" many railroads laid down cinders first, then laid track and their regular ballast on top of that.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
