GROUP I I
The Influence of the
Schuylkill Navigation Canal
BY EARL J. HEYDINGER
RLHS Bulletin Vol 106,
Pages 33 - 36
To describe anthracite coal traffic
without dwelling on canal coal traffic is comparable to describing horse and
wagon traffic without mentioning horses. Canals preceded railroads in all three
coal fields, but only in the Schuylkill Valley, from 1842 to 1864, was there
bitter competition between canal and railroad. The Lehigh Valley
"invasion," in 1855, of that region, and a flood brought the Lehigh
& Susquehanna R. R. by 1863, so the competition was of short duration. In
making this statement one must recall that the feud between the Baltimore &
Ohio R. R. and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was over right-of-way and
Maryland funds; actual coal traffic competition began only in 1850, when
Cumberland became the terminus for the canal.
The Schuylkill Navigation Canal,
chartered in March, 1815, during the coal shortage brought on by the British
blockade of Virginia, English, and Nova Scotia coals, passed its first
boat-load of anthracite through the last-constructed section at Reading, on
December 3rd, 1824. The craft was the "Pioneer," which passed at
11:30 P. M. through the four locks on what today is Pear Street, between Court
and Washington Streets. Waiting to pass these locks were 108 boats and arks of
hard coal with loads of up to 28 tons per boat. The canal, built to convey coal
from the Pottsville area to Philadelphia, was prohibited by its charter from
ownership of coal lands, while the Lehigh Coal & Navigation and the Delaware
& Hudson Coal Companies were empowered to own coal lands, to mine, ship and
sell coal. As a result, the Schuylkill Navigation encouraged the opening of
mines by individuals, and the numerous Schuylkill region producers became a
major factor in coal production. This lack of a sure and definite source of
coal bred bitter competition with the P. & R., and forced that railroad
eventually to purchase coal lands.
An Illustration of the difficulty and
high cost of pre-canal and pre-railroad transportation was the movement, in
1826, of 888 tons of freight from Philadelphia to Mt. Carbon, via the
Schuylkill Navigation canal. The Reading Journal, of December 23rd, 1825, reflected that this shipment
in pre-canal days would have required 444 wagons and men, and 1776 horses, at a
freight cost of $11,185. Canal costs, with 35 boats and 70 men, were $4,117.
With 1956 roads it is difficult to realize that wagon freight, with four horses
and two tons per wagon, moved only 12 to 15 miles a day, under favorable
conditions.
The same land transportation
difficulties attended the loading of boats at the canal ports of Schuylkill
Haven, Mt. Carbon and Port Carbon. Between June 19th and 25th, 1829, Pottsville
reported 1831 tons of coal in 1831 one-ton wagons passed through that town
enroute to the Mt. Carbon docks. All coal shipped on the Schuylkill Canal before
1830, except from those mines fortunately situated near the canal. arrived at
the docks via wagon. This wagon tonnage increased from 6500 tons in 1825 to
79973 tons in 1829. The Schuylkill Canal carried all coal delivered by the five
pioneer anthracite railroads until 1842. That tonnage was 4,250,740.
The assurance which engineer
Solomon W. Roberts, president of the Canal Company in 1844, gave his stockholders
at the time the P. & R. competition threatened the older company was the
wishful thinking they wanted to hear. Roberts told them that railroads would
not stand up under a: heavy, rapid traffic, rail replacement would be too
costly. Water replenished by nature, had a transportation advantage never to be
lost.
After the penetration of the
coal fields by the P. & R. Railroad, the Schuylkill Canal, in 1846,
enlarged its waterway to accommodate 180-ton boats and enlarged its dock
frontage to handle more coal. Unknown to most railfans today is the ownership
of locomotives and several thousand cars by this canal company. In 1849, wharf
frontage totaled 5760 feet, with 8 loading capacity of 10,000 to 19,000 tons
for each 100 feet. The company also owned, in that year, 1000 four-ton coal
cars, capable of delivering 814,000 tons to the docks, if each car made a
single round-trip per day during the navigation season. Later, the company
owned 3400 cars, designated as "yellows," (Those of the P. & R.
were "blacks.") and were maintained in car repair shops at Port
Clinton and Schuylkill Haven. This shop was 80' by 40'.
To switch its own cars at its
own four docks the Canal Company purchased locomotives, buying the
"Conestoga" from the P. & R., in 1853. This was a 13-ton 44-0
built in 1843 by the Locks and Canals Company. When the P. & R. leased the
Canal Company in 1870, it paid $10,900 for the three locomotives then owned,
viz.:
"Lippincott" Baldwin
#589 1854 0-6-0 Clys. 132:x18 DD
42"
"Navigation" Baldwin
#544 1853 0-6-0 Clys.
132x18 DD 42"
"J. R. Worrell" Baldwin
#758 1857 0-6-0 Cyls.
132x18 DD 43"
They became P,& R. Nos.
283, 284 and 285, respectively.
To insure their coal traffic
the Schuylkill Navigation had leased the Mine Hill & Schuylkill Haven R. R.
for ten years, in 1862. This road alone had furnished 812,000 of the 1,183,570
tons transported by the canal in 1861. After the lease of the M. H. & S.
H., by the P. & R., in 1864, the entire Schuylkill production was prorated
55% to the P. & R. and 45% to the Navigation. Considering that the canal
closed several months in the winter, the portions were nearly equal. This
arrangement continued until Navigation was leased by the P. & R., June
12th, 1870. At this time the railroad paid the canal company $582,9Z5 for 3331
("yellows") four-wheeled coal cars.
With the 1956 news of
100-mile coal transmission via pipeline, in Ohio, it is appropriate to note
that the proposal to ship Schuylkill anthracite via pipeline from Pottsville to
Philadelphia was reported in the Reading papers in 1825, just as the Schuylkill
Canal began its first full year of operation.
THE PHILADELPHIA & READING R. R.
INFLUENCE
In 1830, Philadelphia
railroad writer Thomas Earle advocated a railroad up the Schuylkill Valley to
Pottsville coal, and Hazard's Register, during 1830-34, especially in discussion and description of the
Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown R. R., repeated statements by
officials of that line of the necessity of a rail link with the coal regions.
There was sufficient coal demand, these officials stated, to supply traffic for
both canal and a railroad. George E. Potts, pioneer Pottsville area coal miner
and shipper, claimed, without mentioning the route, to have surveyed the first
railroad from Pottsville to New York. This may have been the Hamburg, Bethlehem
& Easton Railroad, incorporated on March 17th, 1838, which, in conjunction
with the Danville & Pottsville extension to Port Clinton, (or the Tuscarora
& Cold Run R. R. ) and the Little Sehuylkill's 1833 extension to Reading,
would have provided a line to the Delaware River. (The writer has not read the
Pottsville Miners Journal, which
covers all the lines of this region, both built and proposed, except for the
first several years.)
With the advent of the P.
& R. Railroad at Mt. Carbon, coal toll rates fell $1.11 a ton below the
1841 rate on the canal. This reduction was without any great benefit to
producers that year, because the depression had cut the demand for coal. However,
this rate cut created un-measurable good will for the railroad; a monopoly was
out of favor.
A second result of the
arrival of the P. & R. in the coal region was the revolution in operation
of the lateral railroads which culminated in 1845. Rebuilding of rights of way
and bridges to accommodate standard gauge and the heavier equipment will be
discussed with the individual lines. With reconstruction, all lines used P.
& R. or S. N. coal cars, the latter company having been forced into car
ownership by the P. & R. arrival in the field. Lines terminating at Mt.
Carbon and Port Carbon received locomotive service from the P. & R. The
laterals had charged from $.025 to $.045 per ton-mile for privately-owned coal
cars coming onto their lines from short privately-owned branches With the
advent of the P. & R., mine owners saved the expense of car investment and
maintenance, while transportation with locomotives slashed charges from 50 to
66 per-cent. Nevertheless, the owners soon thought that their dependence on
either corporation for coal care cost them control of their own coal
production. Though the railroad company increased its car supply yearly to meet
demands, complaints against unfair distribution and short supply began in 1845.
Its car ownership increased from 1800 in 1843, to 10,188 in 1863.
Of the 142 Schuylkill area
collieries owned by 160 operators in 1846, 32 operators sent 990,000 tons to
market; the others furnished 247,000 tons. Of these collieries, 107 were mining
above water level, without pumping expense, and 35 were below water level.
Coal operators' efforts to free themselves from imaginary or real railroad control occurred on the M. H. & S. H., as well as on the P. & R. The Forest Improvement Company, located on the lateral, attempted to secure a rail charter in order to force lower rates until finally defeated in 1853. This may have been Kimber Cleaver's Mahanoy, Shamokin & Schuylkill R. R., via Rattling Run, of 1844. Unfair car control was the operators' excuse for the effort in 1858-59 to build the Schuylkill Haven & Lehigh River R. R. This and an attempt in 1862 by the M. H. & S. E. to construct this line ended through P. & R. effort. Last minute legislative acts to aid the Allentown Railroad, authorizing 11-mile, branch lines, and Schuylkill coal operators' efforts to attract M. H. & S. H. aid for this line also ended with the Reading lease of the lateral. The Manufacturers & Consumers Anthracite Railroad, incorporated during March, 1866, with R. A. Wilder as engineer, proposed to build over either the Allentown or on the S. H. & L. R. routes, but financial support failed to materialize. How this line planned to use corporate routes owned by the P. & R. is difficult to understand.
On the other hand,
competition with the Northern and Lehigh Coal lines in the 1860's forced the
Reading to acquire existing laterals by purchase or lease, and to finance new
lines to insure its share in the anthracite trade. Examples of these operations
were the Schuylkill & Susquehanna-Allentown threat of 1854-61, the M. H.
& S. H. attempts to reach the Lehigh Valley, and the Mahanoy & Broad
Mountain R. R. manipulations of 1861. In the Mahanoy-Shamokin region of the
Second Coal Field, the P. & R. was competing not only with the strong Mine
Hill road, but also with the Lehigh & Mahanoy R. R., financed by the Lehigh
Valley interests, and a proposed L. C. & N. line.
Of the 72 P. & R.
locomotives in 1846, six operated 59,422 miles on the lateral roads, evidently one
on each line. In 1852, almost twice that number, plus one used on the
"Valley Express, " ran 160,737 miles.
THE MT. CARBON &
PORT CARBON RAILROAD
In constructing its line to
Mt. Carbon, the P. & R. actually contacted only the Mine Hill and the Mt.
Carbon Railroads. The depression of 1841 had forced the Reading to use $5.00 to
$100.00 circulating notes to pay contractors and to purchase material. While
the Carbon & Port Carbon had been incorporated on July 16, 1842, it was
July, 1844, before the P. & R. was able to finance the 2.5-mile link to the
Mill Creek & Mine Hill and S. V. N. & R. R. lines at Port Carbon. In
1844, Engineer Osborne had a November 30th deadline to beat. From mid-November
to the deadline date, round-the-clock excavation enabled a coal train to
"save the charter." This connection ended the Schuylkill Navigation
monopoly on Port Carbon coal.
A second track was opened in
1848. The average earnings of this line, between 1845 and 1859, were $27,686,
or 12 percent. By 1859, a passenger train operated, chiefly to accommodate
miners. The P. & R. Operated the M. C. & P. C. under a tonnage
agreement until, in 1860, a fifty-year lease provided for an annual payment of
$36,250, and was renewed on September 30th 1909 for 999 years.
P. & R. LOCOMOTIVES
ON THE LATERAL ROADS, 1846
Name Builder Date Type Cyls. DD Wt. Mileage to date
Philadelphia Norris 1844 0-6-0 17.7 38969
Columbus New
Castle 1844 0-6-0 16xl9 40 18.2 35813
Pennsylvania New Castle 1843 4-4-0 12x16 41 11.4 48323
Tioga* Locks
& Canal 1843 4-4-0 12sx16 40 11.8 47547
Erie* Locks
& Canals 1843 4-4-0 12sx16 40 11.8 49188
Lycoming Dotterer
& Co. 1842 4-2-0 11x20 54 10.4 49940
* Modeled after the
"Gowan and Marx."
ON THE LATERAL ROADS IN
1852
Wyoming Baldwin
162 1842 4-2-0 10ax16 54 19.6 10427 in
1852.
Palo Alto P. & R. 1847 20.8 14963 in
1852.
Monterey P.
& R. 1847 19.9 15007 in
1852
California P. & R. 1848 71.5 20088 in
1852.
Atlanta P.
& R. Reb. 1841 10.3 18519 in
1852.
On
Valley R
Pass.
train
Witch P.
& R. 1847 5.2 11339
Lateral RR
Express
Carolina New
Castle 1846 18.8 11241 in
1852.
Missouri New
Castle 1846 18.8 13412 in
1852.
Tuscarora New Castle 1842 44 12X164 40 11.8 5774 in
1852.
Shamokin Locks
& Canals 1843 4~0 122X16 40 11.8 7434 in
1852
Potomac Locks
& Canals 1843 4~0 122xl6 40 11.8 1136l9 in
1852.