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Coal is a great, although polluting without cleanup, fuel. Coal was a local consumption commodity that really did not become a significant source of fuel in the US until about 1880. Coal had been found in many localities, however, without a means of transport it to market economically it could not compete with wood that could be chopped down anywhere there were trees. In the days of building the transcon railroad (1860-1869) roads were primitive and the haulage costs of the coal by oxcart would be uneconomical especially when you consided the volumes the railroads use. The eastern US railroads were in a better situation due to the extensive infrastructure and mines all over Applachia. Unless the mine was adjacent to a rail line it would not be a viable source of fuel for the railroads. Consider the transportation cost to haul the Power River Basin coal to market if the railroads were not there. I doubt that the PRB would have been developed without the UP and BNSF being there, except for a limited local consumption. This was the case in the west before the advent of the railroads. Yes, coal had been discovered in many places in the west. The coal in Kansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming, etc would only be mined in small quantities to satisfy the local market, which at the time of building the transcom was very limited. The advent of the railroads made coal a competitive fuel in America. UP was fortunate enough to have coal at Carbon Wyoming which they exploited for their fuel as it was trackside. The CP was devoid of coal along their line from Sacramento so they had to use wood. Fortunately there was considerable abundance of trees in the high Sierras to fuel their trains although through Nevada trees were scarce. Due to Union Oil's testing of fuel oil in a SP steam engine in the '20s the SP found a source of local fuel for their California operations. If the oil experiment did not work today there might not be a tree in the high Sierras. W R Watkins, P.E. Engineer of Mines degree from West Virginia University '63
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