 |
|
The RVRR's coal
bin. Collection of Jeff
Jargosch. |
|
Wm. Wyer & Co.
Report on Rahway Valley Railroad
August 1944 |
| There is a coal bin at Kenilworth 51'x14'x5'
high, built of creosoted wood. Coal is unloaded from cars by hand,
and engines are coaled by hand also. |
| While larger railroads had large coal tipples
to fill their locomotive tenders with anthracite, the Rahway Valley
Railroad had but a simple wooden coal bin (or coal bunker).
Jeff Jargosch relates the following, "
In the 'steam era' that wooden coal bunker in Kenilworth didn't
fill itself. George
Clark supposedly bought the best coal he
could get for his engines, which arrived from the CNJ in hoppers or
gondolas. The track gang would report with shovels and scoops to
unload the 50 ton hopper by hand into the bunker. Six days a week
the first chore for this tireless crew was to fill the tenders of
the locomotives. By eight o'clock start time, an average of eight
tons of soft coal would do the trick." The coal bin disappeared not
long after the end of the steam era in
1953. |
|
