Railway Coal Car

Front:
Coal Car 1870s Coal Car 1870s 13.2 Bulk Rate 13.2 Bulk Rate URG TISBU JUL 19 1988 15299 GAR 5 TOTIS NU30243 PA PITA

Back:
RAILWAY COAL CAR First Day of Issue: July 19, 1988 First Issue Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania The world's first modern railway, the Stockton & Darling- ton, was opened in 1825 to link England's South Durham coalfield with the sea. And, though the coal car has never achieved the acclaim of the passenger car or express mail car, it was once the second largest class of cars owned by the railroads, with only the boxcar more commonplace. The coal car shown on this Maximum Card is a five-ton wooden hopper car, built at the Elizabethport Shops in 1876. Thousands of these small coal cars — affectionately known as “ jimmies” — were once used to carry coal from mines to market. Jimmies were not very fancy — many had no brakes, and their couplings consisted of three iron links attached to a hook. But, in America, trains of 100 or more of these hopper cars were common for many years. For coal was the cargo and fuel around which America's railroads were built. The gradual increase of coal car capacity — from loads of less than a ton in the early days, to more than fifty tons today — charts the progress of the railroads, and of heavy industry as well. No. 88-42 ©1988 The Maximum Card Collection A Division of Unicover Corporation • Cheyenne, WY 82008-0007 Original painting by Basil Smith