Large Scale Central

Alfred Brown Coal Company

I ran across this video a few weeks ago. One of the last deep anthracite coal mines in PA closed down. A small handful of guys had been working it for the last several years. A fascinating view into how anthracite is mined by hand, compared to bituminous, where it is very mechanical.

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Good grief. Nice video, but WHAT a way to make a livingā€¦ :innocent:

While I watched this, an old country song kept running through my mind.

Since you brought up anthracite a good recommendation for any (near or far) future trips down 1-81 into Pennsyltucky would be.

http://www.pioneertunnel.com/

Ainā€™t been there in 35 yrs and Frackville welp thatā€™s more like 30yrs. Iā€™m turning into an old fricking man!

Thereā€™s a couple more videos of the mine at work. This one on YouTube is the above ground.

and if you have FB, this one shows running the coal buggy.

Definitely a hard way to make a living.

Cool. Definitely a place I wouldnā€™t want to be in for more than an hour or so.

Not sure if it is still running, but there was a fairly modern Anthricite mine open for tours just South of Scranton. I believe itā€™s called the Lackawana Coal Mine. Been almost 30 years since we toured. You go down in a crew car suspended by an electric hoist.

Hard to believe that it is still mined this way. Not much has changed in a 150 years or more. Thanks for sharing

Going to take a stab at modeling the above-ground parts of this mine. Only three major components, the slope entrance, the hoist house, and the hoist itself.

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Does this fall under the donā€™t start new projects list?!

Nope, I had the tower and the pipe already cut, in a pile in my shelvesā€¦ :slight_smile:

Some work today. Did some repairs on the tower, and added the top sheave wheel, supports and bracketing. Built some of the chute, and took a cut at how the ore skip rails would have been laid out.

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Next up Iā€™ll work on the proportions for the ā€˜gunboatā€™ that hauls the coal out of the mine. Simple steel box with a few features, and the mechanism to hoist and dump.

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Third timeā€™s the charm? Took a couple prototypes to get it to look right, but this will work nicely. A piece of welding rod is taking place of the cable for photographic purposes. Next is to build the runners for the bottom and add a couple details, and then maybe batter it a bit. I need to rummage in my Ozark parts box to see if I have a clevis large enough or if Iā€™ll need to make something.

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I am stealing this trick for our own purposes!

Thansk!

Eric

Very nice.

Do you have a location in mind on your layout?

This will go somewhere around the new location for the Majestic mine. Not really sure yet.

Sounds like a plan! At least itā€™s got a place to go to! :innocent:

Really neat build, Bob.

Funny how the box just scrapes along the wear strips, no wheels. I imagine there would also be some guide bars beneath the box, inside the rails, to keep it tracking along.

Youā€™re really kickin butt, my hatā€™s off to ya!

At one time there were a lot of little ā€œMom & Popā€ mines similar to that in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. I once was taking a walk in the woods behind Wicanisco, and stumbled onto an abandoned ten-track hopper gathering yard, probably ex-Reading RR.

Yours, David Meashey

So is this going to be operational? Will it move up and down on its own? Probably over guessing it. It will be a nice addition either way

This will be fun. Especially as I am working on my mine complex. Very much a different type of operation. On thing I am toying with is having at least the top portion of the main hoist exposed. In the era I am modeling, it was completely enclosed. But at various times and remodels it has been exposed and as it sits today it is exposed. And since I get to do what ever I want I might do it.