Coke Oven Hopper - Fernie, BC
Posted by: 
Bon Echo
N 49° 30.399 W 115° 03.908
11U E 640076 N 5485579
A single narrow-gauge hopper car
Waymark Code: WMYV5B
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 07/26/2018
Views: 0
Located in Fernie's Rotary Park, this relative small train car was no doubt used to load coal (from nearby coal mines) into the many coke ovens in Fernie at the beginning of the 20th century. On the nearby British Columbia Heritage Marker (
visit link) , there is a (very faded) image that appears to show a similar (and possibly the same) train pulling a single small hopper over the top of the coke ovens (that image can be viewed here: (
visit link) ).
And then there's this statement (along with two photos of this exact locomotive and hopper), describing the Fernie coke ovens and the machines that were used to load them:
Fernie, B.C. : History Printer by DM Wilson (
visit link)
"In two double-row’d batteries, they [the coal ovens] were each charged with 6.5 tons of slack coal delivered by a special little bottom-dumping, electric-powered “larry” that moved across the tops of the ovens on rails. Having been filled and sealed and allowed to burn for 60 to 72 hours to reduce 6.5 short tons of coal to 4.4 tons of coke, the side port of the oven was then unbricked and the coke pulled out onto the adjacent quay to be cooled by water before being shovelled into boxcars spotted on the quayside tracks. In 1901 Harry Oldland, also of Pennsylvania, added 112 more at a cost of $640 per oven. The next year the Larry was replaced by a short, tall-sided gondola pulled by a tiny, standard-gauged “dinky” locomotive. In 1908 28 more ovens were built to bring the total to 452. When the plant was in full production and the wind was from the east, Fernie’s streets were choked with acrid smoke and woe betide the dutiful housewife who had her Monday’s washing hanging out on her backyard clothes line."