The New York Chicago & St. Louis was better known as Nickel Plate Road since the time of its construction. From the 1920s onward, Nickel Plate had made its name by funneling high priority freight from its western gateway cities of Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis to connections with eastern roads in Buffalo, New York. Coal had always been part of the mix but in 1949, Nickel Plate became a major originator of coal when they acquired the Wheeling & Lake Erie. The Xshaped W&LE linked Toledo with Wheeling, West Virginia on one axis, and Cleveland and Zanesville, Ohio on the other axis. The acquisition included 3,000 of these 70 ton hoppers. In 1964, Nickel Plate picked up another 500 of these cars from Bethlehem Steel. The hunger for coal for electricity, metalugical, industrial, and consumer use sent these hoppers across much of the country.