@Nick Chillianis posted:Many, if not most railroads owned mines that provided fuel for their locomotives. The Union Pacific Coal Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the railroad, operated mines in Rock Springs and Hanna, WY and the New York Central burned high quality coal from company owned subsidiary Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corporation of Pennsylvania, just to name two of them. Pretty sure the N&W owned fuel coal mines in the Pocohontas seam, some of the finest steam coal on the planet.
And, if they didn't own the mines themselves, they owned the land they were on and leased it to the mine operators, meaning that I'm sure favorable pricing would not have been hard to arrange. Look up Pocahontas Land Corporation.
