Rise of the Rubber Railroad
Fortune Magazine Cover - April 1951
For many years, I’ve had a Fortune magazine cover from 4 years before I was born hanging on my office wall. Why not? I’ve made my modest “fortune” from belt conveyors and the cover highlights a great painting of a belt conveyor. The more interesting reason is the article inside under the heading “Technology”. The article "Rise of the Rubber Railroad" in the April 1951 issue of Fortune magazine discusses the growing importance of conveyor belts in the transportation industry. The article begins by noting that conveyor belts are already widely used in mines and factories, but they are now beginning to be used to transport materials over long distances as well. Well it makes sense that someone who founded a company called “Overland Conveyor” in 1996 might be interested in this topic. The article tgoes on to profile some of the companies that are developing and using new conveyor belt technologies such as the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; my first employer. The article concludes by stating that “conveyor belts are revolutionizing the transportation industry. Conveyor belts are more efficient, more reliable, and less expensive to operate than other forms of transportation. They are also less damaging to the environment. As a result, conveyor belts are being used to transport a wider range of materials over longer distances than ever before.” Well we can still use that same statement today in 2023.
“The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc”
But the most interesting part of this article to me was its description of “The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc”. This company was founded to promote a conveyor belt system that would have transported coal and other materials from the Ohio River to the Great Lakes and iron ore in reverse. It would run from Lorain, OH to East Liverpool (that’s over 130 miles). And it was to transport up to 55,000;000 tons of bulk material a year. The system would have consisted of a two-directional main line and one-way spurs to Cleveland and Youngstown. This proposal in 1949 was made by a group of businessmen who believed that conveyor belts were the future of transportation. The Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc. was opposed by the railroads, who argued that the system would “put them out of business”.
The project was widely debated and hugely controversial and was eventually defeated by the railroads in the Ohio legislature and was never built. The project was described because it was an example of the growing importance of conveyor belts in the transportation industry in the late 1940s. Despite its political failure, the Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines Inc. is a significant example of the early development of conveyor belt technology. The project's proponents were ahead of their time in seeing the potential of conveyor belts to revolutionize transportation.
BELT CONVEYOR LINE IN OHIO IS ADVANCED
The project also appeared in the New York Times Feb 22, 1951 . And it got international attention as described in the Lithgow Mercury below.
“The proposal was presented by 44-year-old Mr. H. B. Stewart, head of the Akron Canton and Railroad Co.. The belt has the support of steel mill operators and coal shippers since there would be a saving varying from 4 to 13 (shillings) a ton on coal moved 4 to 6 (shillings) a ton on iron ore. And once built, the belt would join the two great inland waterways, the Ohio/Mississippi River and the Great Lakes. Although thousands of conveyor belts are used in a wide variety of industries, the longest built so far was 10 miles long, used in the construction of Shasta dam. The longest in actual operation today is a mere seven miles. Mr. Stewart has investigated both the technical and financial aspects and has obtained backers for his Riverlake Belt Conveyor Lines; Inc. He even calculates to have the entire structure paid for (over 90 million pounds) in 20 years. Imagine a giant flattened tube meandering across the Ohio countryside on 22-foot high stilts. Inside the tube are two conveyor belts, runing in opposite directions. In operation the belts move along at a steady 6.8 miles an hour and can be kept running for more than 300 days a year at 3000 to 5;000 tons an hour. Fully loaded, the conveyor can haul as much ore at one time as 21 freight trains. Actually, one long trough shaped belt does not cover the entire distance. Instead, it is planned to use 172 separate belts that will dump the ore on to each other. The longest single belt will be about two miles long. “