There are 12 facilities at Norfolk and Newport News from which coal may be obtained. Seven of these are owned and operated by railroads and five by individuals or coal companies. The latter cater to vessels requiring coal in small amounts, such as tugs and other river and harbor craft. The newer railway coal piers are used primarily for loading cargo coal and will not ordinarily deliver in units of less than one full carload. Smaller vessels are supplied with bunker coal at Pier No. 2, and the larger vessels at Pier No. 3, Norfolk & Western Railway terminal, Lamberts Point. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, as a rule, delivers bunker coal at its Pier No. 12, Newport News. Coastwise and bay line steamers usually bunker at berths from barges from which the coal is transferred by wheelbarrow or by derrick and clamshell bucket. The larger ocean vessels generally shift to the coal piers to replenish their bunkers The coal terminal of the Norfolk & Western Railway at Lamberts Point consists of three piers. Pier No. 2, the oldest of the group, was constructed in 1892. Its operation is briefly as follows: Loaded hopper-bottom road cars are shunted up an inclined approach track by steam locomotives to the inshore end of the pier, 48 feet above mean low water. The pier tracks fall outshore on a slight grade which permits of maneuvering the road car by gravity under handbrake control to the desired discharge pocket. Car hoppers are then released by hand and the coal flows by gravity to the vessel. Cars are returned to the yard over a central depressed track reached by means of a turntable situated on the outshore end of the pier. The pier is equipped with 27 pockets and adjustable chutes and has a delivery capacity of about 500 tons per hour. Tugs and small steamers are bunkered at this pier and cargo coal is delivered to small river and harbor craft. The track arrangement of pier No. 3, built in 1901, is similar to that of Pier No. 2 excepting that empty road cars are returned to the yard over a kickback and crossovers on the outshore end of the pier. A barney is employed to convey the cars up the incline to the pier level. This pier is equipped with 62 pockets and chutes and will deliver a maximum of 800 tons per hour. This facility is used principally for bunkering large vessels. Pier No. 4, completed in 1913, is a modern electrically operated plant. Like the other piers, it has two outside tracks and a middle return track inclined shoreward. Under each side track is a line. of 32 bins with a capacity of 125 tons each. Each bin is equipped with an adjustable vertical chute. In operation, road cars are brought by barneys over scales to automatic car dumpers situated on either side of the base of the pier. The dumper inverts the road car and discharges its contents into an electrically operated pier car which is brought to the top level by an elevator. The pier car then proceeds under its own power to the ship's berth where its hoppers are air released and the coal transferred to the vessel. The pier car returns to the dumpers over the middle incline track. This pier has maximum dumping capacity of 6,000 tons per hour and is used exclusively for loading cargo coal. All trimming at this terminal is performed by hand labor. The Virginian Railway coal piers are similar in design and operation to Norfolk & Western Pier No. 4. Electric pier cars, however, are brought to the top level of Pier No. 1, either by elevator or |