File:Coal Tipple in Brunswick Load Coal Into Railroad Cars.jpg

Summary

The Coal Tipple in Brunswick.

Basic coal tipples, no longer used in the industry, loaded coal into railroad cars from a vantage point above the box cars. Many tipples had simple screening equipment to sort coal pieces by size before loading.

In the movie created for the 2012 Smithsonian Journeys Stories, Charlie Smith told a great one of how his father used to drive the coal train up the tipple with new employees standing on the side. As a right of passage his dad would suspend the new guys for about 5-10 minutes hanging on the uppermost point. Most likely this was a character-building moment because, as you can see, it's a long way down.

(From the Myer Kaplon Photo Collection at the Brunswick Community Library; Frederick County Public Libraries)

Smoketown History (Brunswick, Md.) In the movie that was part of the Smithsonian Journey Stories exhibit last year, Charlie Smith told a great story of how his father used to drive the coal train up the tipple with new employees standing on the side. Said as a right of passage his dad would suspend the new guys for about 5-10 minutes hanging on the uppermost point. As you can see it's a long way down.