Industry | Railroad and coal transportation company |
---|---|
Predecessor | Formed by the merger of more than 80 independent coal mines and river transportation businesses in Kentucky and Pennsylvania |
Founded | 1899 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Successor | Merged with the Pittsburgh Coal Company on December 24, 1915 |
The Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company was a railroad and coal transportation company, founded in 1899 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [1] [2] It was formed by merging more than 80 independent coal mines and river transportation businesses, both in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. [3] Initially, it had an agreement with the Pittsburgh Coal Company to ship its coal only by water, and not to compete with it by using rail transport, but the agreement was ended in 1902. [4] It merged with the Pittsburgh Coal Company on 24 December 1915. [5]
The company had a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge railroad and mine along Becks Run. The railroad was originally opened in 1878 (the same year that the mine opened) as a narrow gauge line by the H.B. Hays and Brothers Coal Railroad. [6]
One important part of the business was the riverboat Sprague , nicknamed Big Mama, [7] a steam powered sternwheeler towboat capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. A model of the Sprague is in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa.
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of 395 miles (636 km). The railroad was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853, and created primarily to provide a means of transport of anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeast Pennsylvania to large coal markets in New York City. The railroad gradually expanded both east and west, and eventually linked Buffalo with New York City.
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The Monongahela Railway was a coal-hauling Class II railroad in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the United States. It was jointly controlled originally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central subsidiary Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, with NYC and PRR later succeeded by Penn Central Transportation. The company operated its own line until it was merged into Conrail on May 1, 1993.
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The Western Maryland Railway was an American Class I railroad (1852–1983) that operated in Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It was primarily a coal hauling and freight railroad, with a small passenger train operation.
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The Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation, also known as J&L Steel or simply as J&L, was an American steel and iron manufacturer that operated from 1852 until 1968. The enterprise began as the American Iron Company, founded in 1852 by Bernard Lauth and Benjamin Franklin Jones, about 2.5 mi (4.0 km) south of Pittsburgh along the Monongahela River. Lauth's interest was bought in 1854 by James Laughlin. The first firm to bear the name of Jones and Laughlin was organized in 1861, and headquartered at Third & Ross in downtown Pittsburgh.
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Becks Run is a tributary of the Monongahela River. As an urban stream, it is heavily polluted, receiving combined sewer outflow from Carrick (Pittsburgh) and Mount Oliver, Pennsylvania. There is a waterfall on a tributary, just downstream from a slate dump, near the intersection of Wagner Avenue and Mountain Avenue. There were coal mines along the stream, including Becks Run #2, owned by the estate of James H. Hays, served by an incline and the H.B. Hays and Brothers Coal Railroad. Other mines at various times were operated by the Birmingham Coal Company, H.G. Burghman, Jones & Laughlin, and the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company.
The Keeling Coal Company (1861–1878) was a 19th-century coal mining company in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Its mines were located in the Pittsburgh Coalfield of western Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway was a predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. By 1905, when it was merged into the Pennsylvania, it owned a main line along the left (west) side of the Monongahela River, to Pittsburgh's South Side from West Brownsville. Branches connected to the South-West Pennsylvania Railway in Uniontown via Redstone Creek and to numerous coal mines.
The Birmingham Coal Company was a coal mining company in the Pittsburgh Coalfield area. It operated mines along Becks Run, as well as other mines south of the Monongahela River, such as the Bausman Mine and the American Mine. It is named for Birmingham, Pennsylvania, a town which was later annexed to Pittsburgh. Part of the company was the Birmingham Coal Company Railroad, a 3 ft 2 in narrow gauge railroad that ran Along 21st street. Coal was transferred underground using a tailrope system from Spiketown to the mine entrance, and from there to the railroad on a gravity plane to the railroad.
The Little Saw Mill Run Railroad was a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge American coal railroad that was located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel, also known as the Mount Washington Coal Tunnel, was a 3 ft 4 in narrow-gauge railway tunnel under Mt. Washington.
The Pittsburgh Terminal Coal Company was a bituminous coal mining company based in Pittsburgh and controlled by the Mellon family. It operated mines in the Pittsburgh Coalfield, including mines in Becks Run and Horning, Pennsylvania. Unusually for that time in Pennsylvania, it hired African-American miners for some of its work.
The Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad company that formerly operated in western and north central Pennsylvania and western New York. It was created in 1893 by the merger and consolidation of several smaller logging railroads. It operated independently until 1929, when a majority of its capital stock was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. At the same time, the B&O also purchased control of the neighboring Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railway. The Baltimore and Ohio officially took over operations of both roads in 1932.
The Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Plane was a 3 ft 4 in narrow gauge incline railway that ran from the northern end of the Pittsburgh and Castle Shannon Tunnel to Carson Street in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Sprague, built at Dubuque, Iowa's Iowa Iron Works in 1901 by Captain Peter Sprague for the Monongahela River Consolidated Coal and Coke Company, was the world's largest steam powered sternwheeler towboat. She was nicknamed Big Mama, and was capable of pushing 56 coal barges at once. In 1907, Sprague set a world's all-time record for towing: 60 barges of coal, weighing 67,307 tons, covering an area of 6+1⁄2 acres, and measuring 925 feet (282 m) by 312 feet (95 m). She was decommissioned as a towboat in 1948.
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