Article about coal and listing some dealers that sell coal in a number of States 10/4/2018
https://firstquarterfinance.com/where-to-buy-coal-near-me/
Some dealers on the Net
http://www.cornwallcoal.com/
https://www.blaschakcoal.com/
https://mandmcoal.com/
http://cicoal.in/
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Wow, Play Doh was invented to clean coal dirt off wallpaper? I had no idea. And Wiki backs you up on that. And repurposing it as a toy is a great end to the story. My mom used to make the stuff for us when I was a kid. Her mom made it, my grandmother, and I don;t doubt the old coal furnace was the reason.
A little late to this thread..........
We had a grocery store in Chicago from 48 thru 58. We had a coal furnace until 1954 (55?). My earliest memories was the truck would dump a pile at the curb and a very big man would wheelburrow it to the opening at the side of the building. Later on, the coal was delivered in canvas bags - which the same big man would heft to the opening in the side of the building.
In the basement, the coal ended up a boarded up area and would be carried in a bucket to the furnace, which of course heated water to make steam for the radiators. Obviously all of this was labor intensive and dirty.
In 55, we got two big kerosine stoves, one for the back of the store and the other for our apartment behind it. We had 4 - 55 gallon drums on a rack in the basement and by then I was strong enough to bring up 5 gallon containers of kerosine to feed the stoves. It was all a more reliable system, cleaner, but still labor intensive (mainly me).
During all that time, in the spring break (called clean-up week) we would rub down the walls with wallpaper cleaner. It came in cans and you would start with a fresh pink handful and as you rubbed it would turn black. It was work, but the results were obvious.
To the best of my recall, our coal came from a coal dealer, and the kerosine from a heating oil dealer. Neither was connected to lumber yards. Of course this was the "big city", and I do know that in the small town like Anna in southern Illinois the coal dealer was also a heating oil dealer and had a lumber yard connected to it.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Coal and ice dealers were part of the reason for choosing to set my layout's era in the late '30s, as both commodities were still in demand....
...and both generate rail traffic.As a child, I lived in a neighbourhood where pretty-well all of the houses were heated by coal, although I think that ice for refrigeration had mostly faded by that time.Three or four years ago, I was visiting friends in Pennsylvania. It was October, with lots of vivid leaves still on the trees, so on my trip home, I opted to avoid the highways, instead wending my way back to Ontario on the less busy backroads.As I crested a hill, a small community came into view, and at the same time, the distinct scent of burning coal became apparent. I immediately down-shifted and opened the car's windows, taken back in an instant to those days when that same scent filled the neighbourhood of my youth.I was probably the slowest-driving tourist those folks had ever seen.
Wayne
wjstix I suspect it would depend on the area you're modeling - not just what part of the country, but when the buildings on your layout were built. Very few if any suburban homes built after WW2 would have been heated by coal or oil - natural gas or electricity would have been the norm. But in the older parts of town, built in the 1890's-1920's, you'd probably still have coal-fired heat. FWIW re lumber yards selling coal, I've heard it was often the other way around - coal (or heating oil) was a seasonal commodity, so they would sell lumber in the warmer weather when there was little call for coal or heating oil. Apparently true for some Midwestern grain elevators too.
I suspect it would depend on the area you're modeling - not just what part of the country, but when the buildings on your layout were built. Very few if any suburban homes built after WW2 would have been heated by coal or oil - natural gas or electricity would have been the norm. But in the older parts of town, built in the 1890's-1920's, you'd probably still have coal-fired heat.
FWIW re lumber yards selling coal, I've heard it was often the other way around - coal (or heating oil) was a seasonal commodity, so they would sell lumber in the warmer weather when there was little call for coal or heating oil. Apparently true for some Midwestern grain elevators too.
I worked one summer at an ice house. It was Murray City Coal and Ice Co. in Columbus, Oh. Actually, it might have been Grandview. Not sure where the boundary line was. This was 1970. By then their business was almost exclusively ice and cold storage although I remember seeing a hopper car on the spur track so maybe they still did sell a little bit of coal. That would fit the seasonal theme you described.
SPSOT fan This is kind of thing really comes down to how much are you willing to stretch plausibility. But from what it sound like based of responses of others, you may not really be stretching it much or at all... The thing is, your likely not modeling a specific industry, so your not 100% accurate anyway (an realistly can’t be). So what does it matter if you strench era a tiny bit. Perhaps you could build a coal and lumber yard, but build it so the coal part is clearly in decline. Bring less cars in if coal than lumber, make the coal part less full of figures than the lumber part. Honestly I think it would be quite fun to model the yard that way!
This is kind of thing really comes down to how much are you willing to stretch plausibility. But from what it sound like based of responses of others, you may not really be stretching it much or at all...
The thing is, your likely not modeling a specific industry, so your not 100% accurate anyway (an realistly can’t be). So what does it matter if you strench era a tiny bit.
Perhaps you could build a coal and lumber yard, but build it so the coal part is clearly in decline. Bring less cars in if coal than lumber, make the coal part less full of figures than the lumber part. Honestly I think it would be quite fun to model the yard that way!
I am a freelancer so I have quite a bit of leeway. However, I choose not to put too many oddball things on my layout. I want it to seem as plausible as possible. I suspect that somewhere there were lumberyards that still sold retail coal but based on the replies I've read, I'm guessing it would have been rare. I do remember when I was very young my Dad would head to a lumberyard each spring to get fresh sand for our sandbox. This would have been during the time frame I am modeling. I don't recall seeing coal for sale there but I doubt I would have noticed it.
The lumberyard is fully built so it's a question of whether to squeeze in a coal bin and a second spur. It's not practical to use the same spur as the lumber. I'm still keeping this open as an option but unless I can figure out that it was not uncommon for lumberyards to still be selling coal, I think I'll hold off.
mbinsewi Our local lumber yard sold coal until well into the 60's. They had 2 concrete silos, and the coal was brought in by rail. Right next to the lumber yard was a fuel oil dealer, with a couple of big tanks, also supplied by rail. The coal silos were finally demolished in the 80's to make way for more lumber storage, and when the owner of the fuel dealer died, the business closed, tanks were removed in the 70's. Mike.
Our local lumber yard sold coal until well into the 60's. They had 2 concrete silos, and the coal was brought in by rail.
Right next to the lumber yard was a fuel oil dealer, with a couple of big tanks, also supplied by rail.
The coal silos were finally demolished in the 80's to make way for more lumber storage, and when the owner of the fuel dealer died, the business closed, tanks were removed in the 70's.
Mike.
I got around to reading your reply last. I probably should have read it first. I find this interesting because I have a fuel oil dealer right next to my lumber yard. The spur off the mainline forks with one track going to the lumber yard and the other track goes past the lumberyard to the fuel oil dealer. If I were to add a coal operation to the lumberyard, I would probably have another spur off the one that leads to the fuel oil dealer. That would put the coal bin behind the lumberyard. It will be a tight squeeze but I think I can make it look plausible.