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The basic design of a passenger car was standardized by 1870. By 1900, the main car types were: baggage, coach, combine, diner, dome car, lounge, observation, private, Pullman, railroad post office (RPO) and sleeper.
19th century: First passenger cars and early development.
The first passenger cars resembled stagecoaches. They were short, often less than long, tall and rode on a single pair of axles.
American mail cars first appeared in the 1860s and at first followed English design. They had a hook that would catch the mailbag in its crook.
As locomotive technology progressed in the mid-19th century, trains grew in length and weight. Passenger cars grew along with them, first getting longer with the addition of a second truck (one at each end), and wider as their suspensions improved. Cars built for European use featured side door compartments, while American car design favored a single pair of doors at one end of the car in the car's vestibule; compartmentized cars on American railroads featured a long hallway with doors from the hall to the compartments.
One possible reason for this difference in design principles between American and European carbuilding practice could be the average distance between stations on the two continents. While most European railroads connected towns and villages that were still very closely spaced, American railroads had to travel over much greater distances to reach their destinations. Building passenger cars with a long passageway through the length of the car allowed the passengers easy access to the restroom, among other things, on longer journeys.
Dining cars first appeared in the late 1870s and into the 1880s. Until this time, the common practice was to stop for meals at restaurants along the way (which led to the rise of Fred Harvey's chain of Harvey House restaurants in America). At first, the dining car was simply a place to serve meals that were picked up en route, but they soon evolved to include galleys in which the meals were prepared.
By the 1920s, passenger cars on the larger standard gauge railroads were normally between long. The cars of this time were still quite ornate, many of them being built by experienced coach makers and skilled carpenters.
With the 1930s came the widespread use of stainless steel for car bodies. The typical passenger car was now much lighter than its "heavyweight" wood cousins of old. The new "lightweight" and streamlined cars carried passengers in speed and comfort to an extent that had not been experienced to date. Aluminum and Cor-ten were also used in lightweight car construction, but stainless steel was the preferred material for car bodies. It is not the lightest of materials, nor is it the least expensive, but stainless steel cars could be, and often were, left unpainted except for the car's reporting marks that were required by law.
By the end of the 1930s, railroads and car builders were debuting car body and interior styles that could only be dreamed of before. In 1937, the Pullman Company delivered the first cars equipped with roomettes—that is, the car's interior was sectioned off into compartments, much like the coaches that were still in widespread use across Europe. Pullman's roomettes, however, were designed with the single traveler in mind. The roomette featured a large picture window, a privacy door, a single fold-away bed, a sink and small toilet. The roomette's floor space was barely larger than the space taken up by the bed, but it allowed the traveler to ride in luxury compared to the multilevel semiprivate berths of old.
Now that passenger cars were lighter, they were able to carry heavier loads, but the size of the average passenger load that rode in them didn't increase to match the cars' new capacities. The average passenger car couldn't get any wider or longer due to side clearances along the railroad lines, but they generally could get taller because they were still shorter than many freight cars and locomotives. As a result, the railroads soon began building and buying dome and bilevel cars to carry more passengers.
Carbody styles have generally remained consistent since the middle of the 20th century. While new car types have not made much of an impact, the existing car types have been further enhanced with new technology.
Starting in the 1950s, the passenger travel market declined in North America, though there was growth in commuter rail. The higher clearances in North America enabled bi-level commuter coaches that could hold more passengers. These cars started to become common in the United States in the 1960s.
While intercity passenger rail travel declined in the United States during the 1950s, ridership continued to increase in Europe during that time. With the increase came newer technology on existing and new equipment. The Spanish company Talgo began experimenting in the 1940s with technology that would enable the axles to steer into a curve, allowing the train to move around the curve at a higher speed. The steering axles evolved into mechanisms that would also tilt the passenger car as it entered a curve to counter the centrifugal force experienced by the train, further increasing speeds on existing track. Today, tilting passenger trains are commonplace. Talgo's trains are used on some short and medium distance routes such as Amtrak Cascades from Eugene, Oregon, to Vancouver, British Columbia.
In August 2016, the Department of Transportation approved the largest loan in the department's history, $2.45 billion to upgrade the passenger train service in the Northeast region. The $2.45 billion will be used to purchase 28 new train sets for the high-speed Acela train between Washington through Philadelphia, New York and into Boston. The money will also be used build new stations and platforms. The money will also be used to rehabilitate railroad tracks and upgrade four stations, including Washington's Union Station and Baltimore's Penn Station.
There is currently only one operating high speed line in the US, Amtrak's Acela Express between Washington, DC, and Boston. It currently has a maximum speed of , and only in some sections between Boston and Providence, RI, soon to be after introduction of new Avelia Liberty trains, eventually to be upgraded to over some sections. The state of California is constructing its own HSR system, California High-Speed Rail, constructed to standards in some places. The first section in the Central Valley is due to open around 2027.
Every piece of railroad rolling stock operating in North American interchange service is required to carry a standardized set of reporting marks. The marks are made up of a two- to four-letter code identifying the owner of the equipment accompanied by an identification number and statistics on the equipment's capacity and tare (unloaded) weight. Marks whose codes end in X (such as TTGX) are used on equipment owned by entities that are not common carrier railroads themselves. Marks whose codes end in U are used on containers that are carried in intermodal transport, and marks whose codes end in Z are used on trailers that are carried in intermodal transport, per ISO standard 6346). Most freight cars carry automatic equipment identification RFID transponders.
Typically, railroads operating in the United States reserve one- to four-digit identification numbers for powered equipment such as diesel locomotives and six-digit identification numbers for unpowered equipment. There is no hard and fast rule for how equipment is numbered; each railroad maintains its own numbering policy for its equipment.
Federal regulation of railroads is mainly through the United States Department of Transportation, especially the Federal Railroad Administration which regulates safety, and the Surface Transportation Board which regulates rates, service, the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines, carrier mergers and interchange of traffic among carriers.
Railroads are also regulated by the individual states, for example through the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.
South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad is a short line railroad which operates of rail lines in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri that used to belong to Missouri Pacific, Frisco and Santa Fe lines. SKOL is a unit of Watco Companies. The present railroad was created in July 2000, when WATCO merged one short line railroad, the Southeast Kansas Railroad (SEKR), with another short line, the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. SKOL was the surviving company.
Rail lines of the present SKOL include:
The only part of the former SEKR system that still operates is Sherwin, KS to Liberal, MO.
SKOL was honored as Regional Railroad of the Year for 2008 by rail industry magazine "Railway Age".
SKOL has Class I railroad interchanges with the BNSF, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific.
The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) trackage, mostly acquired by the state of Wisconsin in the 1980s.
Within Wisconsin, WSOR connects with four western Class I railroads: BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Through trackage rights over Metra, WSOR accesses Chicago to connect with the two eastern Class I railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. WSOR also has access to harbor facilities in Prairie du Chien, and transload facilities are located in Milwaukee, Janesville, Madison, and Oshkosh. 22 grain elevators have located rail load-out facilities on the WSOR system.
WSOR is headquartered in Madison, which is also a central hub terminal. The train dispatching office is located in Horicon. Locomotive maintenance is centered in Janesville, with secondary work also being performed at Horicon. WSOR's Horicon paint shops perform contract work on both rolling stock and locomotives.
WSOR was named the 2009 Regional Railroad of the Year by "Railway Age" magazine.
On April 11, 2011, WSOR's president and chief executive officer (CEO), William Gardner, was charged with two felonies after he was accused of funneling more than $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions through WSOR employees during the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. Gardner agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts. Under a deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time but instead would seek two years of probation. In a statement, Gardner acknowledged his mistakes and said he took full responsibility. The vast majority of the contributions were to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
On November 29, 2011, it was announced that WSOR would be acquired by Watco, with the deal to close on January 1, 2012.
In December 2012, the state of Wisconsin issued $17.1 million in financial aid to WSOR to rehabilitate of rail line between Plymouth and Kohler, which connects with existing WSOR tracks at Plymouth. Service has begun as of 2015.
WSOR planned to operate a terminal railroad in Madison called the Madison Terminal Railway.
These are the numeric train symbols that are used by the railroad to organize operations.
The Kanawha River Railroad is a common-carrier railroad in the United States. A subsidiary of Watco Transportation Services, the company leases 309 miles of track in the US states of Ohio and West Virginia from the Class I Norfolk Southern Railway. The KNWA also operates an additional 6 miles of track on the southern side of the Kanawha River, where the railroad breaks down, loads, and rebuilds coal trains before handing them off to CSX Transportation.
The railroad uses rebuild SD45s and SD60s for manifest trains, GP39-2s for switching and local duties, and their fleet of SD60s as helper power on coal trains, with leased power from Norfolk Southern leading the coal trains.
The railroads roster includes 3 GP-39-2s, No.s 3901, 3902, and 3921.
3 SD45s, mechanically rebuilt into SD40-2s, No.s 4211, 4213, and 4221.
Watco Australia is a rail haulage operator that was formed in 2010 to haul grain for the CBH Group in Western Australia. In 2019 it commenced operating in Queensland under a contract with GrainCorp. It is a subsidiary of Watco Companies.
On 2009, CBH Group decided to put its rail grain haulage services out to tender for the first time. This work had previously been performed by the Western Australian Government Railways, Australian Western Railroad and QR National (now Aurizon). CBH aimed that the amount of grain transported by rail rise from 50% to 70%. CBH settled on a business model that saw it invest in new locomotives and grain wagons, with day-to-day operations contracted out.
On 13 December 2010, CBH awarded Watco WA Rail a ten-year contract to operate services in the south of Western Australia. To operate the services, CBH purchased 22 CBH class locomotives from MotivePower, Boise, and 574 grain wagons from Bradken, Xuzhou. The cost of this rolling stock was $175 million.
Under the agreement, Watco is responsible for providing a comprehensive rail logistics planning service, including train planning and scheduling, tracking, maintenance, inventory control and crew management. Watco operates and maintains the rolling stock, with ownership remaining with CBH.
The services link various CBH grain collection points in the wheatbelt with CBH terminal and port facilities in Albany, Geraldton and Kwinana. CBH operate on the Arc Infrastructure managed open access network. Watco transports an average of 10-12 million tonnes (368-441 million bushels) of grain from 192 country reception sites to CBH’s four export terminals.
Although the contract officially commenced on 1 May 2012, Watco operated its first service on 30 March 2012. Because of a delay in the delivery of the rolling stock, QR National continued to operate some gauge services until October 2012, while to operate standard gauge services, locomotives were hired from Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia and SCT Logistics. A further three locomotives were delivered in 2015 as compensation for late delivery of the original order.
In 2016 Watco Australia was awarded an infrastructure train contract by Brookfield Rail to operate infrastructure trains with two 422 class locomotives purchased from CFCL Australia. In December 2016, Watco acquired a majority shareholding in Intermodal Group, a Western Australian intermodal container transport group. In July 2017, Watco took over the operation of the Forrestfield to Fremantle Harbour intermodal container service from SCT Logistics with flat wagons purchased from CFCL Australia.
In late 2019, Watco Australia will commence operations in Queensland under a seven-year contract with GrainCorp. Eight locomotives from the National Railway Equipment Company and 128 wagons from China have been ordered.
Watco as the operator for CBH railway operations is outlined in news stories following the agreement finalization on the first of November 2019, and the list below: The agreement involved keeping the Miling railway line open, and all other tier 3 railways closed, and allowing CBH access until 2026.
The Boise Valley Railroad is a shortline railroad connecting Nampa, Idaho with Boise, Idaho and Wilder, Idaho. It is owned and operated by Watco Companies.
On 23 November 2009, the railroad began operations, running over an 11-mile(18 km) line between Wilder and Caldwell, Idaho and a 25-mile(40 km) line between Nampa and Boise, with the two lines connected via trackage rights on the Union Pacific Railroad. Watco purchased the line from Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad. Watco took over operations and leased the line to Union Pacific. Operations for both branches are based at Nampa Yard in Nampa where cars are interchanged to the Union Pacific.
The Wilder Branch begins at Caldwell and goes west to Wilder and switches several packing houses. The branch is 11 miles long.
The 25 mile Boise Branch goes from Nampa to Boise Airport and is Union Pacific's former main line into Boise. The City of Boise closed the Boise Yard in 1989 but kept the branch active until 1996 when the eastern half was abandoned with the departure of the Amtrak Pioneer. BVRR also switches the Nampa Industrial Lead which comes off the Boise Branch at Nampa Junction and goes out to Amalgamated Sugar Company at the end of the branch.
Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco is composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is the owner of Watco Transportation Services, L.L.C. (WTS), which operates 41 short line railroads in the U.S. and Australia. It is one of the largest short line railroad companies in the United States. As of December 2018, it operated on of leased and owned track. Also under transportation is the contract switching the company provides service for 30 customers. That is the service that Watco originally offered before it branched out into other areas.
Watco’s mechanical division has 19 car repair shops and is one of the largest mechanical services provider in the United States. They provide program, contract and emergency repairs. These services include maintenance of all types of cars including tank cars and coal fleets, and the preparation and cleaning of boxcars and refrigerated cars.
The terminal and port services division operates ten warehouses throughout the country. They also operate several transloading facilities and specialize in loading and unloading railcars and moving commodities to their next destination.
Watco also operates two port services in the Gulf Region. Greens Port Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County, Texas and Port Birmingham Terminal on the Black Warrior River in Alabama both provide access to the Gulf of Mexico.
Watco's newest division, Watco Supply Chain Services, provides supply chain logistics for highway, intermodal, rail, and international logistics.
Watco was established in 1983 by Charles R. "Dick" Webb. The first operation was an industrial switching operation in DeRidder, Louisiana, that is still in existence. Webb then started his first mechanical operation, a railcar repair shop in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1985.
The Coffeyville mechanical shop was held captive to the major rail lines, and during discussions with the Union Pacific the opportunity arose to purchase the line running from Nevada, Missouri, to Coffeyville. This was the Union Pacific’s first short line sale. Watco then looked to the West Region, acquiring the Blue Mountain Railroad in 1998, the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad in 1992 and the Eastern Idaho Railroad in 1993.
In December 2010 Watco entered the Australian rail haulage market when it was awarded a 10-year contract to operate grain services for the CBH Group of Western Australia. Operations commenced in March 2012. In late 2016 Watco Australia was awarded an infrastructure train contract with Brookfield Rail operating ballast and rail work trains.
On December 15, 2010, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, announced an agreement whereby it would invest up to $150 million over the next year in Watco in exchange for a preferred equity position in the company. Kinder Morgan made an initial $50 million preferred shares investment on January 3, 2011. Additional $50 million equity investment completed in December 2011. Kinder Morgan will receive 3.25% quarterly distribution on the equity investment. Kinder Morgan is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. The transaction provides capital to Watco for further expansion of specific projects and offers Kinder Morgan the opportunity to share in the subsequent growth.
In April 2011, Watco began operating the Autauga Northern Railroad, between Maplesville and Autauga Creek, Alabama, the third short line in Alabama operated by Watco.
On December 28, 2011 Watco began operations of the Swan Ranch Railroad in the Swan Ranch Industrial Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. On January 1, 2012, Watco gained majority ownership of the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, a regional railroad in Wisconsin, and on February 1, 2012 took over operations of the Birmingham Southern Railroad.
On June 4, 2014, Watco and The Greenbrier Companies announced that it would create an equally owned joint venture, GBW Railcar Services, providing railcar repair services. This joint venture was dissolved in August 2018.
Track IQ formerly known as Trackside Intelligence, is an international manufacturer and supplier of railway equipment and services for the purpose of measuring operating conditions. After developing the RailBAM (Bearing Acoustic Monitor) and WCM (Wheel Condition Monitoring) systems, Track IQ formed a partnership with Siemens to install the systems in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.
In October 2015, Track IQ was acquired by Wabtec.
Track IQ, is installing wheel bearing and tread defect detection systems at 20 sites on key railway routes across India. In 2017, Track IQ acquired Imaging Technologies, which enabled the supplier to boost its capabilities to accurately measure wheel profile, brake and brake shoe condition FleetOne is a multi-sensor trending database product that extends the capability of the wayside monitoring hardware interface. The database integrates a range of wayside monitoring equipment data into a single system and facilitates vehicle monitoring and data mining via key vehicle metrics, which are delivered through a web-based application.
Although Track IQ operates out of Australia, more than 150 of their systems have been installed around the world. The company currently services 14 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Brasil, USA, South Africa, Mexico, Ireland, Northern Ireland, India, China, UK, Belgium, France and Norway.
In 2014, Track IQ received the SNCF Innovation Award for its RailBAM (Bearing Acoustic Monitor) system, which detects damage to a train’s wheelset bearings at an early stage.
Pioneer Lines (formerly Pioneer Railcorp) is a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offer locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning. Pioneer Lines also has interests in real estate and newsletter publishing.
The company, originally named Pioneer Railroad Company, was founded in January 1986 by Guy L. Brenkman. The company raised the capital for its first acquisition through a self-underwritten public stock offering. It continued this method of raising capital for subsequent acquisitions.
Almost all of the short lines owned by Pioneer are lines spun off by Class I railroads.
The Vandalia Railroad is a shortline railroad subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, providing local service from a CSX Transportation connection in Vandalia, Illinois. The line part of the original main line of the Illinois Central Railroad, completed in the 1850s between Cairo and Galena. Successor Illinois Central Gulf Railroad abandoned the portion through Centralia in 1981, and in December 1983 the newly created Vandalia Railroad reactivated a short piece. Pioneer Railcorp gained control in October 1994.
Not to be confused with the Railtex International Exhibition in Birmingham, UK
RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America.
Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads into viable transportation routes.
The company was sold on February 4, 2000 and merged into RailAmerica.
Railtex was founded in 1977 by Bruce Flohr as a business that leased rail cars. Flohr had invested $50,000 of his own money and had investor help for another $50,000 from investors. Flohr had started as a Southern Pacific train-crew brakeman in 1965 and rose to superintendent of Southern Pacific's San Antonio Division until he became deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration in 1975.
Seeking to broaden the revenue base, he purchased the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad. Operating the railroad the company quickly developed a formula for a series of successful takeovers, including:
In 1986 it acquired its second Austin and Northwestern Railroad.
In 1989 it sold its rail car business to Chrysler.
The company went public in 1993 trading on NASDAQ under the sign RTEX.
At the time of its acquisition by RailAmerica it had 26 railroads over approximately 4,100 route miles in the southeastern, midwestern and New England regions of the United States, as well as Eastern Canada and Mexico. The acquisition was valued at $325 million.
Consol Energy Inc. is an American energy company with interests in coal headquartered in the suburb of Cecil Township, in the Southpointe complex, just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2017, Consol formed two separate entities: CNX Resources Corporation and CONSOL Energy Inc. While CNX Resources Corp. focuses on natural gas, spin-off Consol Mining Corporation, now Consol Energy Inc. focuses on coal. In 2010, Consol was the leading producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States and the U.S.'s largest underground coal mining company. The company employs more than 1,600 people.
Consol Energy was originally created in 1860 as the Consolidation Coal Company after several small mining companies in Western Maryland decided to combine their operations. The company was formally established in 1864 and headquartered in Cumberland, Maryland for the first 85 years (1864–1945), where the company became the largest bituminous coal company in the eastern United States.
Western Maryland's coal production rose about 1 million short tons in 1865, exceeded 4 million short tons by the turn of the century, and reached an all-time high of about 6 million short tons in 1907. A small amount of the coal production in the early 1900s was premium smithing coal (as in blacksmith) that was specially processed and delivered in boxcars to customers throughout the United States and Canada. In 1945, Consolidation Coal Company was merged with Pittsburgh Coal Company and its headquarters were moved to Western Pennsylvania.
With growing demand for natural gas in the U.S. following World War II, Consolidation Coal Company was acquired by the Continental Oil Company, or Conoco, in 1966. By the mid-1970s, Consolidation Coal Company operated 56 mines and employed nearly 20,000 miners. In 1981, Conoco along with Consolidation Coal Company was acquired by DuPont, which then sold some of its coal mining interests in Pennsylvania to the German energy company, Rheinbraun A.G.
Looking to invest in coal reserves in North America, Rheinbraun A.G offered Dupont stakes in coal mines and $890 million in 1991 to join in an equal part joint venture creating Consol Energy. Despite the cost of coal dropping in the 1990s, Consol's long-term contracts and investments in longwall mining techniques allowed the company to remain competitive. In 1998, Dupont sold the large majority of its stake in Consol, leaving it with only a 6 percent share and Rheinbraun A.G with a 94 percent interest. Consol also acquired Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1998.
In 1999, Consol underwent a public offering (NYSE: CNX) in order to pay down some of the debt the company had incurred with the majority buy-out from Dupont and the acquisition of Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company. Due to uncertainty surrounding demand for coal in the early 2000s, Consol began to place a greater emphasis on diversification, primarily into natural gas. Consol's first major natural gas investment was through the acquisition of MCN Energy Group Inc.'s methane reserves in southwestern Virginia for $160 million. In 2001, Consol acquired Conoco Inc.'s coalbed methane gas production assets in southwestern Virginia.
Consol subsidiaries CNX Ventures and CNX Land Resources also began diversification efforts during this time into methane gas and timber and farming. In 2006, Consol spun off its subsidiary CNX Gas as a standalone company, but retained 83 percent of the new company's shares. On June 28, 2006,Consol Energy entered the S&P 500 replacing Knight-Ridder. In 2007, CNX Gas also began investing heavily in natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. In 2010, Consol acquired Dominion Resources Inc.'s natural gas production and exploration assets for 3.74 billion dollars, which included nearly 500,000 acres of Marcellus potential, tripling Consol's position in the Marcellus to approximately 750,000 acres. Consol also acquired all of the remaining publicly owned shares of CNX Gas for a cash payment of $991 million.
In 2010, Consol was also named by "Forbes" magazine as one of the "100 Most Trustworthy Companies." In 2011, Consol entered into two separate joint venture agreements to expedite its natural gas production. The first, an agreement with Noble Energy was to jointly develop the company's 663,350 Marcellus Shale acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The second joint agreement, with Hess Corporation, jointly explored and developed Consol's nearly 200,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio. Consol also began an expansion of its Baltimore Terminal in 2011 to increase capacity from 14 million to 16 million tons to increase its revenue from sales of its metallurgical coal.
In 2017, Consol Energy Inc. spun off from CNX Resources Group. Officially announced on November 29, 2017, this move marked the start of Consol Energy Inc. operating as an independent, publicly traded company.
Consol has begun to inject CO2 into geologic formations which is being practiced in 2012 in the petroleum industry. However it is impossible to know the greater impact this will have.
Consol Energy operates as a producer of coal, primarily for electric power generation. Consol also maintains support services including Baltimore Marine Terminal and Land Division.
Consol Energy's flagship operation is the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, which includes three large underground mines capable of producing approximately 28.5 million tons of coal per year. Consol's coal division received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining for the company's innovative reclamation practices in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
Consol's Gas Division deals with natural gas exploration, development and production, producing nearly 128 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane in 2010. With the acquisition of the exploration and production business of Dominion Resources in 2010, the company has access to over 3.7 trillion cubic feet of proved clean-burning natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, including coalbed methane and shale beds. The company currently has nearly 13,000 net producing wells.
As the owner of more than 430,000 surface acres in the U.S. and Canada, Consol Energy has a Land Division that oversees various projects, including selling reserve land that the company does not develop, land donation and conservation projects. Consol Energy has also been recognized for its reclamation efforts by national and state governments and has worked in partnership with several conservation groups on land reclamation projects. Consol's Baltimore Marine Terminal provides coal transshipment services from rail cars to ocean transport ships.
Consol's Water Division is involved in water purification with a focus on treating wastewater produced as a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing. The company operates reverse osmosis water purification plants and has a minority interest in a company that develops solar-powered water purification systems which, , was conducting a pilot test at one of Consol's gas drilling sites. Consol also maintained the Fairmont Supply Company, dedicated to the sale and distribution of mining services and equipment. However, in 2015, Consol sold that Company. Additionally, the company operates the largest privately owned research and development facility in the industry that is devoted exclusively to coal and energy utilization and production.
In 2018, Consol Energy had an annual revenue of $1.53 billion. Consol Energy was ranked number 428 on the Fortune 500 list in 2011.
As a producer of coal and natural gas, the environmental impact of coal mining and natural gas drilling has been a subject of controversy for Consol Energy. Despite this, the company has been recognized for its efforts at environmental protection and was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Protection Award in 2002. Additionally, Consol maintains ongoing environmental efforts aimed at restoring and enhancing property managed by the company and has worked with conservation groups including Ducks Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation on habitat restoration efforts.
An ad by the National Rifle Association critical of President Barack Obama that was filmed on Consol's Blacksville No. 2 coal mine in West Virginia became an issue of political debate in 2009. The National Rifle Association intended to ask miners the question "How do you feel about having your Second Amendment rights taken away if Obama becomes president." Word spread among pro-Obama miners who contacted their union, the United Mine Workers of America, resulting in 440 miners taking the day off to avoid appearing in the ad in a contract-sanctioned protest, halting production at Consol's Blacksville No. 2 coal mine.