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 Post subject: Moffat Colliery Question
PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 9:44 am 
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Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:54 am
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Location: Baltimore, MD
This past weekend I was up in NEPA and my brother and I checked out a few colliery sites. One of them was the Moffat site. Inside the brick building, which I think was the washery, there is a square hole in the floor. It's about 18" by 18" and it seemed to have a cold breeze coming out of it. The bottom of the hole is clearly in sight (well at least a pile of trash is), but the walls in 2 directions were beyond site (and that of a camera flash and the reach of a 10' stick.)

Is that an opening into the mines or just something else (like a huge drain?) with natural ventilation? If it does go to the mines, why is there an opening into the building that is clearly too small to use as an entrance? 1915-style air conditioning?


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 8:21 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jul 08, 2005 12:41 pm
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Location: Hard coal region, PA
Hey Jesse,

Theres a lot of buildings like this with holes in the floor around the area. It wouldn't go into the mine workings though unless there was a conveyor line or something running underneath it...which shouldn't be the case there. It's probably a hole for a duct or steam pipe into a basement. It probably felt like cold air was coming out because with the lack of ventilation it hasn't warmed up much in there from the nights / winter weather that is just starting to break. Because it's finally warm pretty outside it feels like mine air down there! Most mine buildings do have holes in the floors though for steam pipes for heating and such.

Did you happen to stop into the mine tour at all?

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 1:55 pm 
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Thanks

No I didn't do the mine tour this time. We checked out the Diamond site and took a look at the groundhog-size hole you guys crawled through at the slope entrance and got a new respect for the courage it takes to enter these old workings. :shock: The entrance is flooded now, It looks dry in the UGM pictures. And we went up to the Pancoast site to see what was around, but there wasn't much too see there. Moffat was the most interesting.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 3:20 pm 
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Location: Hard coal region, PA
courage / stupidity / insanity... its all the same :lol:

Naaa yeah that ones no good. Water, bad top, bad air. That mine is the reason for the Stay Out Stay Alive campaign, and thats why we support it! We haven't done that one in a very long time, and don't plan to ever again.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:07 pm 
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Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field
the building at moffat was some kind of repair shop. not sure if it was for mine cars and locomotives or machinery. that hole you saw drops down into a tunnel that runs the length of the building i guess like a basement but it was just a tunnel. there were small chutes coming in from the outside that are filled in now, not sure at all what this was for. but on the map, this building is described as a shop. i have a picture from inside that hole somewhere ill have to dig it up, i didnt go into the mine though, just ran the length of the building and ends. dont remember what happened at either end, i think there was steps on one end that were pushed full of dirt and the other maybe went outside but there top concrete fell down. havent been up there in probably 7 years. as for diamond, did you see the fan house half buried in the dirt? that makes a cool picture. also that entrance is the main drift opening, not a slope. there was always residual water at the opening, we used waders to make our way through. theres a steel lined tunnel after that which goes under the rr tracks. after the steel section its real bad. like banks said, bad top, blackdamp, its bad. we didnt make such a great decision going in that one. like banks said, been a long time, and not going back!

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 9:58 am 
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Joined: Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:54 am
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Oh yeah...drift entrance.

Yeah, we checked out the Diamond fan house, breaker and elevator remains. That place is really filled though, not much resembles the way it looked 60 years ago (in pictures).

Thanks for the information on the basement.


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