Hard Coal and Coal Cars: Hauling Anthracite on the New York, Ontario & Western Railway [Hardcover]

Martin Robert Karig III (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1589661206 | ISBN-13: 978-1589661202 | Publication Date: March 20, 2006 | Edition: annotated edition

From 1880 through the 1950s, the New York, Ontario & Western Railway hauled coal from the rich anthracite deposits of eastern Pennsylvania to homes throughout the eastern United States and Canada. In Hard Coal and Coal Cars, Martin Robert Karig chronicles the rise and fall of the O & W’s coal hauling operation in a richly illustrated work that interweaves economic, industrial, and technological history. 

Karig opens his history with the intense competition for the rights to eastern Pennsylvania’s lucrative coal-hauling business. He then details the technological developments that transformed coal cars from wooden carts carrying just a few hundred pounds to steel hoppers hauling several tons. Bringing the story into the twentieth century, Karig explains how the O & W’s ownership ultimately abandoned the coal-hauling business in the 1950s as coal was supplanted by more reliable and convenient home heating fuels. 

Rich with the romance of the railroad and crucial to any understanding of Pennsylvania history, Hard Coal and Coal Cars will be the definitive book on a fascinating chapter of American life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Martin Robert Karig III lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and serves as a docent at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. His grandfather was a fireman and engineer on the O & W.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 220 pages
• Publisher: University of Scranton Press; annotated edition edition (March 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589661206
• ISBN-13: 978-1589661202
• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 8.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,239,127 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bob Karig, born Martin Robert Karig III, was a career military officer who served two combat tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and retired from active military service in 1989. He holds a bachelors degree in history and political science from Alfred University, a masters degree in business administration from Georgetown University, and has studied international business at Oxford University.

After retiring from industry as a research and development program manager, Bob moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he volunteers as a researcher and docent at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

Bob's first two books, "Hard Coal and Coal Cars" and "Coal Cars: The First Three Hundred Years," dealt with the history of freight car technology. He is currently working on a third book, "From the West Shore to the Coal Fields," which traces the business histories of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo and the New York, Ontario & Western Railways.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful labor of love about anthracite and coal cars, October 8, 2007

By 

Robert Ray (Orange County, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hard Coal and Coal Cars: Hauling Anthracite on the New York, Ontario & Western Railway (Hardcover)

This is a great book about (ultimately) the cars used to haul anthracite coal on the New York, Ontario and Western Railway. Clearly a labor of love (the author's grandfather was an engineer on the road), it covers the anthracite industry, the railroads involved, and railroad car construction and appliances, before getting into the cars used by the NYO&W itself. The biggest complaint would be that the book is too short, especially in its introductory chapters. The author has clearly done a lot of research, from which he has drawn some clear conclusions, well argued and well-written. It will be of great usefulness to anyone interested in the anthracite industry and its associated railroads, rairoad car construction, model railroaders, and of course the NYO&W.
The author, the publisher (University of Scranton Press), and everyone else involved are to be congratulated for a book that is so well put together, and which clearly is the result of much effort and devotion by all concerned. It is a wonderful (and unfortunately infrequent) contrast to so many other railroad history books that seem to be just thrown together, with no one caring about the final result.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spectacular intellectual product, November 3, 2006

By 

John Carven "emersonthoreau" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Coal and Coal Cars: Hauling Anthracite on the New York, Ontario & Western Railway (Hardcover)

A really definitive study of coal/coal cars that extends far beyond the NYO&W. Any industrial historian or model railroader interested in coal haulers needs a copy of this spectacular intellectual product. See Railroad Model Craftsman for October 2006 for a full, very positive rview.