N&W 2-6-2

Sun Apr 5 11:21:05 EDT 2020

On a further tangent, would these pockets of Anthracite have been (geologically) part of the same deposits found in northeastern PA? Both fields are on the eastern edge of the ridge and valley section of the Appalachians - so it seems plausible. 

A quick Wikipedia dive doesn’t confirm or deny this, other than brushing on various folding events along that margin - a process that creates the pressure needed to form anthracite.

Matt Goodman
Columbus, Ohio, US

On Apr 4, 2020, at 11:24 PM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

On Sat, Apr 4, 2020, at 10:42 PM Frank wrote:

Digging this up also led me to another fact.  The reasons for the VAC and the camelback were a pocket of anthracite coal in Southwestern Virginia.  (Anthracite?).  There were at least two anthracite mines on the Virginian, and at least one on the N&W.  On CoalCampUSA if you find Raleigh County, Virginia, there's a picture of an anthracite breaker that, to my eye, looks like it belongs in Eastern Pennsylvania.  

The anthracite coal in Southwest Virginia is in Montgomery County and Pulaski County and there were multiple mines in both counties. It outcrops in Price Mountain south of Blacksburg and Brush Mountain north of Blacksburg, and Little Walker Mountain north of Pulaski. Merrimac Mine (which is why the Virginia Anthracite Coal & Railway Co. came into existence) is the most well-known. Big Vein was a mine in McCoy while there was another large mine across the river in Parrott. The Altoona Mine was north of Pulaski, served by a branch line that ran from downtown to the mine.

Bruce in Blacksburg

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