Coal Operations: Prep Plant Part Two

 Happy Armistice Day!

After some investigation what I’m learning is something I seem to be plagued with concerning a lot of industries and procedures I model: timing.

I model 1952. Labor was still pretty cheap, but the post war boom was on, and wages were rising. In the 1960’s and 1970’s the United Mine Workers union grew in strength, and through negotiations and strikes miners wages rose. 

Before WWII coal companies were able to pay labor for menial “Coal Picking” jobs. These coal pickers worked at tipples on sorting tables, removing impurities, sizing, and grading coal; in short cleaning it. 

These tipples loaded coal hoppers with clean coal. By 1952 some of the coal production was run through a prep plant, but most still was cleaned at tipples prior to loading. 

As wages rose the hand sorting and cleaning of coal got too expensive for coal companies to continue and coal companies found it was cheaper and more efficient to run their coal through larger dedicated prep plants to clean, size and grade the coal. 

By the 1970’s most coal was cycled through prep plants. So if I modeled 1972 a large prep plant operation would be SOP on a coal hauling railroad, but I model 1952.

So while I WANT to model a prep plant, in 1952, their use was not wide spread. 

I’m going to model the Prep Plant, realism be damned, but it will only process about a third of my coal traffic. 

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