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 Post subject: Pioneer Tunnel Work
PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 1:02 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
i made this topic sticky cause i figure we can just keep posting our work on here instead of individual posts. so anyway, we are doing some timbering work on sunday, i know adam is in, banks how bout you?

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Last edited by Chris on Sat Apr 07, 2007 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Jan 11, 2007 3:08 pm 
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Location: Hard coal region, PA
Yepper! :D

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:12 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
just got back from some timber and general work at the tunnel. great stuff. we set up a timber set and did some transporting of props. first we got there in the morning and walked into the mine to meet the foreman and 2 workers. then began the work of setting the legs (sides) and fitting the collar (top piece) then we added sprags...... not used to stop mine cars, but the same name. these are small props between the timber sets and keep them from falling parallel with the tunnel. it was alot of work, those things are heavy. the set is about 16 inches in diameter. this is being done to open up another gangway for the tour. during the week they have 2 more timber sets to replace then next week we begin work on cleaning up the gangway. theres 2 coal chutes that have spilled almost the entire tunnel shut. the first is open and the second is full. so we are going to clean this out then work twards the face of the gangway. not sure what we are going to put in there yet but some ideas are floating around for the tour. after that banks became the human mucking machine and cleaned out most of the mud and muck in the gangway where we were working. we filled the car and took it out to the dump. at the dump we unloaded the muck and filled the car with props. took the props back in and dropped them off at the mammoth gangway. its funny the wheels were really slipping on the wet rails in the rain today and in the mine. i sanded the rail at one point to get traction to get up a hill without slipping. it definatly handles differently in the rain outside. the cool thing is going to be when we clean out that gangway, theres some big rocks in there so that means we are going to fire some shots to break them up......... excellent! ok, see ya

chris

pics coming up in a few.......

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:47 pm 
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Location: NEPA
It was definately an experience to see how hard it actually is to put in the timbers, I was surprised, when I got there I was thinking that we were gonna be able to do the entire section with all of us that were there. turns out it took 4 of us just to lift 1 timber, that was when I realised that it was gonna be a little tougher. every time I turned around the human mucking machine was at my heels with the shovel, with just a half a can of "MONSTER" (the official drink of UGM) he was like 6 year old after eating a bag full of pixie stix running around and pushing the shovel between everyones feet, before we knew it he had half of the car filled with this nasty watery mine mud. then after we pulled the car outside and emptied it we put prolly about 27 props on the thing, had it fully loaded and took them into the mine along with 3 buckets of gravel to finish off the day.


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PostPosted: Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:46 pm 
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"Mucker" :lol: What an awesome day...working at Pioneer is like playing with big toys!

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:46 pm 
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today we finnished setting a timber set. then we mucked out the gangway where we progressed so far and loaded the mine car. took it out to the dump and back in again. at this point we set up a new wood plank floor, drove it forward into the debris and muck then shoveled it into the wheelborrow for adam to load in the mine car. we made 3 cars full of this junk then came to a large rock. we all wanted to blast it but it was just sandstone so the foreman kept smashing it with the sledge. got some pics, ill try to get them up in a bit.

chris

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:47 pm 
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oh yea, after all this work for about 6 hours we advanced the gangway about 4 feet!

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 9:59 pm 
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Lota work, but a lota fun! :D

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:11 pm 
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I now have a new respect for mining and mine workers


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:15 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
yes i definatly agree with that, imagine doing that for 6 days a week! good times though definatly. by the way i thought you were going to bed!

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:37 pm 
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I had to tell my story!@!


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PostPosted: Sun Jan 21, 2007 11:40 pm 
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:D

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 7:04 pm 
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well the boys got alot done during the week last week! got some rail put in the top of the timber sets extending down the gangway with planking on them to support the top so we can work under it. once we get it cleaned out this weekend, we will put up another timber set there and continue driving the gangway. also they proped up the entire coal chute that comes out right at the end of the timber sets. thats where all the spill came down from that we are cleaning out. we took out 5 cars of muck and rock today. we average that to be about 13-15 tons of muck and rock! nice. well back down tomorow for more fun. put up some pics of todays work on the ugm site.

chris

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PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 9:29 pm 
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UGM back in action for the second say in a row at the Pioneer Tunnel. yesterday Chris and Adam and Today the three of us continued clearing the gangway of the Orchard vein and setting roof support where needed. We now have a HUGE dump pile outside the mine down the tracks a ways. moving ton after ton of dirt is hard enough..... but when half of it is clay it makes it 4 times as bad. Funny thing is though..... i still can't wait to do it again next week! :D We should have a nice new gangway for the tours to view in the summer time.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:22 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
yea, i got some good pics and videos. was a great work session today. that pile is getting huge. when we get that dirt and clay spill cleaned up, we will have to take a pic of the pile outside. i think there is some shots of it in some pics from last week but now its 3 times that size. ill take some shots next week when we are done, we should have that pile clear by then. also besides that pile of clay, muck and dirt, we also dumped 4 car loads of rock out the tracks further, so that adds to the pile also! ill have to take a pic of our rock dump this year! ill get the pics and vids up tomorow.

chris

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