PORT CLINTON, Pa. — Reading & Northern Railroad has shipped more than 1 million tons of anthracite coal for the third straight year, the company announced on Dec. 31.
That figure came despite a downturn in export volume, the railroad said in a press release, thanks to the domestic market that mainly supports U.S. steel production. The railroad’s domestic anthracite traffic grew nearly 20% in 2025, with most shipments going to electric-arc furnace steel mills across the country. To support the traffic, the railroad purchased additional hoppers in mid-December that are expected to be delivered in January or February 2026. They will join R&N’s fleet of more than 2,000 railcars, and the railroad anticipates purchasing additional equipment to meet the demand.
Overall, the railroad expects to move more than 40,000 carloads in 2026.
R&N first reached the 1-million-ton mark in 2023 [see “Reading & Northern hits one million tons …,” Trains.com, Dec. 11, 2023].
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I am not 100% sure why, but seeing anthracite being hauled in aluminum hoppers seems incongruous to me. Maybe it is because I associate anthracite with home heating coal, something that started to fade away around the same time steam locomotives were replaced with diesels, whereas aluminum hoppers seem more at home as a string of 100+ cars behind Dash 9’s.