Birmingham Coal Company

{{Use American English|date=February 2025}}

{{Infobox rail

| railroad_name = Birmingham Coal Company Railroad

| logo_filename =

| logo_size =

| system_map =

| map_caption =

| map_size =

| marks =

| image =

| image_size =

| image_caption =

| locale = Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

| start_year =

| end_year =

| predecessor_line =

| successor_line =

| gauge = {{RailGauge|3ft2in}}

| length =

| hq_city =

| website = Map https://web.archive.org/web/20110927045243/http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?view=entry%3Bcc%3Dhopkins%3Bentryid%3Dx-20090330-hopkins-0026

}}

The Birmingham Coal Company was a coal mining company in the Pittsburgh Coalfield area.{{cite book |last=Chance |first=Henry Martyn |title=Report of Progress... |year=1884 |pages=175–179 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ip0MAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22Ormsby+Mine%22&pg=PA175 |accessdate=2008-09-08}} It operated mines along Becks Run,{{cite book |title=Geological Survey of Pennsylvania 1886 |url=http://collection1.libraries.psu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/pageol&CISOPTR=42626&CISOSHOW=41046&REC=6 |page=176 |year=1887 |accessdate=2008-09-07}}

as well as other mines south of the Monongahela River, such as the Bausman Mine and the American Mine. It is named for Birmingham, Pennsylvania, a town which was later annexed to Pittsburgh. Part of the company was the Birmingham Coal Company Railroad, a {{RailGauge|3ft2in}} narrow gauge railroad that ran Along 21st street. Coal was transferred underground using a tailrope system from Spiketown to the mine entrance, and from there to the railroad on a gravity plane to the railroad.{{cite journal |last=Furman |first=H.V. |author2=A.E. Swain |date=June 11, 1881 |title=Underground Haulage in the Coal Mines of Pennsylvania |journal=The Mining and Engineering Journal |volume=31 |issue=24 |page=400 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=okbnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22Haulage+by+Tail+Rope%22&pg=PA400}}