DL&W Coal Hoppers
Hopper cars like these carried the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's heaviest and most profitable freight - anthracite coal.
With increases in coal production came the need to increase hauling capacity. In the decades before 1900, the DL&W progressed from six-ton-capacity jimmies, to twenty-ton wood drop-bottom cars, to forty- and fifty-ton steel hoppers for hauling coal. Steel hoppers, like those in front of you, were loaded from above and emptied through two bottom chutes. Some railroads used rotary dumpers, which turned the entire hopper car upside down to speed unloading.
Marker can be reached from Mechanic Street, on the right when traveling east.
Courtesy hmdb.org
