My car hauling trailer has more than one duty. I picked up 2 1/4 ton of coal on Saturday. I’ll need another load like that to get through winter. De

nnis

 

How much is a ton of coal these days? What are you saving by not having it delivered? In my neighborhood, everything is electric.

 

It is cold here in north Central PA suddenly. There is a frost warning this weekend in Renovo. For those guys that were at Central PA Mountain Truckstock 2019 Renovo is 6.5 miles north of Hyner View.

 

I get it at the breaker for $170.00 a ton. 2 years ago I ran out and picked up some locally from a dealer. It was $230.00 a ton. I can save $300.00 if I pick up 5 ton myself.

 

Wow that brings back memories of my childhood growing up in Ohio. Had a coal bin in the basement with a window that opened to the driveway. Coal truck would back into the driveway , put a chute through the window, and the coal would roll into the bin. Seems that the lumps were bigger but then again I was a lot smaller then. My parents went to gas before I was out of elementary school...I guess I didn't realize that folks were still burning coal to heat their homes.

 

In the early to mid 70s I worked at a lumber yard that also delivered coal. Sometimes I had to go along with the old guy that delivered coal and go down in the basement, into the coal bin and pull coal away from the window so they could get more call in. I'm surprised I don't have black lung disease! I was blowing black junk out of my nose for hours.

 

The first 4 years of coal burning I bought stove size, about the size of your fist. This year and last year I bought nut (chestnut). I burned firewood for 36 years and I was able to get new grates 6 years ago so now I can burn coal. We got the boiler in the basement before the wall were laid up. We have oil fired hot air heat, but I like running the boiler better.

 

My Grampa had a coal chute & coal bin in the basement, by the time I was around it had been converted to oil heat. I remember my dad said it was his job to stoke the fire or whatever in the morning, and clean out the "clinkers" &c. Usually the local Coal co. also sold and delivered Ice in the summertime (before electric refrigerators became commonplace) to even things out business wise.

Ice deliveries lasted longer than you might think, as refrigerators were expensive. My dad worked all kinds of crappy jobs, including delivered coal and the high school football coach encouraged players to deliver Ice to homes and apartments, because it was a real workout in the off season carrying 25 or 50 pound blocks up and down stairs all day.

"The Shadow" radio program advertised something called "Blue Coal", which I think was just sprayed with dye, but it was supposed to be good hard anthracite. Dad also talked about something they would buy called Cannel Coal, which was longer burning or hotter or cheaper or something. I think it's a type of shale.

I tried to buy some coal for tent camping in a Kni-Co, and it's kind of hard (impossible) to find in some places. Delivery or shipping cost is the problem. Maybe walk along the railroad tracks...

 

It's a Pinto. Looks like a '71 or '72. Mag wheels and a chin spoiler. It had better have a V8.

 

never heard the term chin spoiler. Took me second to figure out what you were talking about

 

In Eastern and Central PA anthracite is plentiful. I remember riding with my Dad up to Schuylkill County, what we called the coal region, to get a load of coal for our house. He'd get a ton and a half in his 3/4 ton 48 Chevy pickup with racks on. Then he'd shovel it off by hand and throw it in the chute in a basement window to go into the bin next to the furnace. We didn't get central heat and indoor plumbing until 1960-ish when I was 5 or 6 so our new state of the art furnace had an auger that brought the coal into the fire box. But hauling up the ashes in a big galvanized tub was one of my jobs.

It was only 35 miles or so to the mines but it seemed like a long trip to me.

 

It’s a 71. It was wrecked sitting in a parking lot. I was the 3rd car she hit. I saved the wheels and the spoiler. It had the 2000cc engine. I did 100mph beating my brothers Pontiac V6 sunbird.

 

I picked this one up in 1997

 

Was that at Maple Grove Dragway or the Rothsville Road? Or Newport Road?

 

222 northbound between Ephrata and Adamstown.