A new look at mines, towns, trains, people that were involved in transportation of coal from mine to market on C&O in the period 1945-1960. Chapters include Background; Coal Fields Motive Power; Coal Fields Rolling Stock; C&O Coal Operations; Coal Towns; Mines & Tipples. Most photos are from C&O official files and illustrate every aspect of coal mining and transportation. Maps show branches and their relationship to whole scheme. Ideal for C&O fans, modelers, and those interested in the coal fields of Appalachia. If you have the C&OHS’s 1995 book C&O in the Coal Fields, this book is ALL NEW, and does not repeat the photos or data.

This book is the first complete detailed history of the Chesapeake & Ohio's Coal Rver District. These branch lines tapped a fabulously rich coal field just to the south of the C&O main line in sourthern West Virginia, and remains to this day an important coal producing area. Dr. Wendell McChord has researched the line and presents one of the most comprhensive histories in text, maps, and photos covering this very important part of the C&O's coal era.