lettering for Peabody Short Line hoppers

Peabody Coal Company was at one time the largest coal producer in the United States, operating ten coal mines in the Illinois Basin, primarily to industrial customers for electrical generation. Founded in 1880 by Francis S. Peabody, Peabody Coal by 1949 was listed on the NYSE. In 1955, the Sinclair Coal Company purchased 95% of the stock, still retaining the Peabody name and expanded, doubling the business even as far as Queensland, Australia. In 1968 Peabody Coal was purchased by Kennecott Copper Corp for $1.1 billion and continued through the 1990’s. In 2008 the company was well overextended with 5.5 billion in debt, as markets in China and Australia became soft, filed for bankruptcy. Share trading halted when the value dropped to $38 million.

The PSL was a small local railroad on the east side of St. Louis that ran primarily from the central Illinois coal mines to nearby power plants. In 1959, the ORER showed the road having 180 cars, mostly used rolling stock acquired from local roads like St. Louis & Belleville Electric Railway (StL&BE) and the Peoria & Pekin Union (P&PURy) Under reporting marks PCCX the ORER showed 88 cars remaining.

Series 1001-1025, 6401-6430, 6600-6662, 6700-6744 were all USRA 1920’s out-side post 30’6”, 50-ton design with a capacity of 1880 cu. ft.. Series 6801-6820 were the only o-set side 33’ , 50-ton hoppers in the fleet and with a capacity of 2145 cu. ft. and were acquired from P&PURy series 700-725, and built by Pressed Steel in November 1937. Peabody Coal Co also had 88 40’ 70-ton hoppers under reporting marks PCCX. The first group were 50 outside post, triple hoppers in series 6901-6950, built in May 1951 by AC&F in Lot 3539. The second and final group were 130 offset-side 70-ton, 40’ triple hoppers as Series PCCX 7001-7131

Paint & Lettering: The yellow and green scheme of PSL was a short lived creation that originated in 1958, later taken over by the Illinois Central in 1961.