The Lite and Narrow - 9
to the processing plant; from photos of other larry cars in use,
it wasn’t common practice. Instead, the cars moved coal from
a hopper to the trunnel head (opening) and dumped.
There were two methods of moving the larry cars atop the
beehives. The first used a trolley pole and a power line
erected over the tracks. A wooden roof covered the operator’s
platform. The other method used a small steam locomotive to
move the cars. The tracks were mounted on brick and concrete
columns built at the same time as the beehives. These columns
were 12’10” x 2’6” and placed at 14’ intervals. The rails
centered on concrete pads 2’6” x 2’6”x 1’3”. The center of the
fill hole for the beehive was located 5’3” from the front wall,
10
10: Larry cars in position for charging the ovens at
Sewell, WV on the Mann’s Creek Railway. Ron Lane
photo.
MRH-Dec 2013
