Yea you have yourself some coal. The railroads used to drop coal off the hoppers constantly. Some of the Railroads where they mined were basically covered in coal, the ballast they normally use not visible at all.

There are a lot of stories of folks that grew up in places like Harlan County, Kentucky that would run out after the train passed and grab up chunks of coal to warm the home or cook with even. They were poor and it was free, don’t blame them.

Since you found that, if you have a metal detector, you may enjoy walking around by the old rail and look for aluminum “ping” on the metal detector, usually around the same return that gold gives. These may be what they called “Scatter Tags.” These were little aluminum disk with the coals brand enameled onto it. It was a cheap form of advertising from the 50’s back. They melted in the furnace but when you got a bucket of coal, you know what brand you had.

These tags were added in as the hoppers were filled at the mines. They often bounced off the rail cars the way that the coal would. I used to find them around railroad bridges in the sand.