Saturday, July 23, 2016

Seldom Seen Coal Mine

Sometime last fall, I spotted Seldom Seen Coal Mine on a map, but haven't gotten around to visiting the place until today.  It's located near Patton, PA and is reached via a side road connecting to state highway 36.  Before taking the tour into the mine, I walked around the topside facilities.  We visitors rode into the mine on railcars similar to the yellow ones in this picture.

This is the hoist house....

....which houses this hoist.

Behind the hoist house was this machine.

As you can tell from the "high voltage" signs, this is the power house.

I didn't try to take any pictures inside the mine, due to the relative darkness.  After riding on a small train of railcars (as seen in the first picture), we put on our hardhats and walked some distance with the tour guide up to the "face", where coal was exposed.  There was quite a bit of equipment in the adjacent area, called the "room", which the guide then explained.  Several young members of the entourage were allowed to take a small pick ax, strike the "face", and take home a souvenir piece of coal.  In a way, I envied these youngsters, not because they got to mine some coal, but because young small people don't have to worry about low ceilings.

No comments:

Post a Comment