N&W in 1912--Coal trafic and piers

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
Thu., May 2, 1912

[Paragraphs in the original article that consisted mainly of freight traffic statistics have been omitted from the following.]

TONNAGE WILL RUN CLOSE TO 1,900,000 [in April 1912]
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New Coal Carrying Record for Thirty-Day Month Probably Established
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NEARLY FIFTY THOUSAND CARS HAULED IN APRIL
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    The August [1911] high record would have been broken if it had not been for the floods of the early part of the month, which were followed by the Easter holidays and the Emancipation Day and pay day celebrations*, although the latter celebration has somewhat diminished during the past two years owning to the better class of miners now employed.  At the time when the floods and Easter holidays were at their zenith the western demand was very large, but later on in the month it dwindled down with the result that the eastern demand had to be largely depended upon.
    In this connection the road made a new record for daily average eastern shipments, sending east from Bluefield 872 cars a day, or 26,160 cars [month of April], or more than one-half of the total amount shipped. The eastern demand could not be fully supplied because the piers at Lamberts Point do not accommodate all classes of cars**, which condition will be remedied when the new pier [Pier 4] is built, contracts for the substructure having already been let.

*I know that Emancipation Day is currently observed as a holiday in DC, but I had never heard of it's being observed in West Virginia.  Also, pay day celebrations???

**This is the first information that I have seen that the Lamberts Point coal piers Nos. 1, 2, and 3 could not handle some classes of coal cars in 1912.  My guess is that the restricted cars were the "battleship" coal cars, which term was used in N&W employee timetables at least as early as 1906 according to previous postings on the Mailing List.
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Gordon Hamilton
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