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On Dec. 27, Norfolk Southern Railway loaded its second-largest cargo at Lamberts Point’s Pier 6 coal transloading facility in Norfolk, Va. The Class I loaded 155,522 net tons of coal from 1,487 rail cars into a ship destined for ArcelorMittal in Flushing, Netherlands.

The total volume narrowly missed a record 157,645 net tons of coal NS loaded onto a ship at Lamberts Point in 1998.

The railroad has been transferring coal and coke from rail cars to ocean-going export and domestic vessels in the Lamberts Point area since 1884. Pier 6 opened in 1962 and dumped its 1 billionth ton of coal in 1999 — the only facility in the world to have reached that mark, according to NS.
 
Most coal moving through Pier 6 originates from mines in southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Alabama. The coal is shipped to several dozen countries and some domestic receivers.