The Reading anthracite colliery at Locust Summit, PA is coming down.

Even though final demotion isn't planned for next
week, there is only a skeleton left. The breaker has been "skinned" and the supporting buildings
demolished.

This leaves old Saint Nicholas and the Huber as the last intact large collieries from anthracite coal's heyday in Pennsylvania. If the importance
of these two sites is to be recognized, now is the time.

Locust, St. Nick and Huber were all centralized plants. Coal was mined on-site, but it was also brought to the collieries in railroad cars as "mine run" unprocessed coal from near-by loaders.

In a well orchestrated move, railroad hopper cars would be brought to the colliery and run through a thawing shed if needed (where steam would loosen
frozen coal). Cars would then progress to a dumper, where the mine run coal would be dumped into a pit and brought by conveyor to the top of the breaker. The now-empty rail cars could be sent down to the breaker for loading with processed coal headed to market. The raw coal would reach the top of the conveyor and descend via gravity from the top of the breaker building through a series of grates and cones that would separate the rock by size. Now sorted, the coal would be loaded into rail cars to be shipped out. This is a simplification of the centralized process, but it gives the general flow.

The three survivors are remained entirely intact for years including rail cars from standard gauge and narrow gauge rail lines. Little by little, each lost some of its infrastructure. Locust Summit was the largest breaker of its kind ever built, and its physical plant remained largely intact through the 1980's.

With the loss of Locust Summit, attention will turn to old St. Nick and the Huber. From what I understand, almost the entire St. Nick complex remains intact, shorn only of rails. The Huber is in similar shape, though it has benefited from a grass-roots effort to stave demolition.

St. Nick, located near Wiggin's in the middle field, is of a more typical colliery architecture. It's steel skin is covered in corrugated sheeting. A full patch town, Maple Hill, is sandwiched between the colliery complex and Route 54. I have heard of no immediate plans for old St. Nick.

The Huber, in the upper field at Ashley, is a world-famous building and oft-noted as the finest
use of the "International Style" of architecture in a heavy industrialsetting. Both sites have out buildings of steel, wood frame and brick
construction.

Does anyone have updates on efforts to keep St. Nick and Huber standing?

--
Rob Davis
trains@robertjohndavis.com

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Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

>The Huber is indeed the subject of a grass-roots campaign. There are some property and environmental issues that must be addressed to assure the future of the project but the association has gotten further than many would have imagined.

Politics will play some part as well. For sometime, many influential NEPA citizens have tried to have the area run away from its hard industrial past, in part because of things like acid runoff and mine subsidances and in part because of urban legend stories of Fortune 500 CEOs deciding not to relocate operations to the area because of large "culm" (partially spent coal) banks and the open-pit successors to the deep mines. A small but growing group has begun to question the idea of running away from the past.

The current U.S. Rep has stated the project is not a "priority", and whether that means active opposition or mere disinterest by him is open to speculation. Generally a 70-30 winner every for the last two decades, redistricting makes the seat far less safe.

His opponent has spoken to the association to encourage their efforts, although governmental involvement will likely be at the state and local levels, not federal.

Ironically, a state senator and state representative who are members of the same party as the current U.S. Rep, serve on the Board of directors.

It would be nice is they can pull this off. Although most traces of the nearby CNJ yards and the line to Mountaintop are pretty much gone (with the exception of a two-head search light signal about a 1/2 mile north on the west side of Main Sreet which passes in front of the breaker)

Its really hard to imagine the impact of the anthracite industry on the many (CNJ, LVRR, D&H, PRR-just to name a few) railroads that served NEPA, the local and national economies now that the old breakers and those that remember them are passing on, but this is truly a project worth mentioning and supporting here, even if it is sort of on the periphery of railroad preservation.



Superheater@beer.com

Can someone post some pics of the breakers? Being from the west coast, I have no idea what one of these looks like nor how it relates to the rails. Sounds very interesting.

Smokebox

"orhf dot org"

Heres a picture of the breaker at Locust Summit, taken about 7 years ago. Its nto a great picture because I wasn't in the mood to tresspass to get up close to it. On the other hand, I've driven the road that passes directly next to the St. Nick breaker so many times in my life that I've never even THOUGHT to take a picture of it. I grew up in the adjacent town of Shenandoah PA, and my parents currently live in Ringtown PA, once a stop on the Reading's scenic Catawissa branch.


mrwowak@yahoo.com

http://www.huberbreaker.org



Ahead of the Torch
trains@robertjohndavis.com

For those not familiar with the anthracite business, breakers are centralised processing plants where raw coal from individual collieies is brought to be cleaned, washed and sized.

Some are more centralised than others; many were colocated with the collieries; Locust Summit and old St. Nicholas were huge centralised facilities that produced loaded coal movements in both directions.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association