Coke trains - Trains Magazine

  To answer the question directly, a coke train would be lighter using the same number of cars. Assuming the same cars are used for incoming coal and outgoing coke (lighter than the coal it was made from) then, more cars will be needed to move the tonnage. The alternative is to partially fill larger cubic capacity coke hoppers/gons with coal. This practice is as old as railroading. When more iron ore was being used by the steel industry than is now the case, most railroads loaded ore into coal hoppers with the result that the cars looked empty, but were filled to the weight limits of the car. Then, after unloading the ore at a steel mill, the cars would go to nearby coal mines, be loaded with coal that went to a great lakes port, to be unloaded and then filled with ore. Coke traffic worked the same way if a backhaul was practical.