Mule stable, lamp house, and pump house remaining from H.C. Frick Coal and Coke's mine
at Ralph, PA. The high quality metallurgical coal from the Ralph mine was transported by underground conveyors to the Palmer Dock
for shipment down the Monongahela River to the Clairton coke ovens until the mine was closed in the 1950s. In this picture a few
of the patch houses can be seen on the hill above the mine buildings.
This is what's left of the Crystal patch, built around 1900. The United
Connellsville Coke Co. had 120 coke ovens there. Where are they now? Other
companies to operate at Crystal include Sackett Coke Co. and Hekla Coal Co.
The remains of the coke works at Fairbank, PA, an operation of Struthers Coke Co. or Struthers Furnace Co.(Thanks to Wes C. for the photo.)
Contemporary scene in Outcrop, PA, Springfield Township, where long ago coal
was mined and transported to the coke ovens by aerial tramway. Rich Hill Coke
Co. opened Outcrop in 1901.
H.C. Frick Coke Company's mines began shipping coal to US Steel's Clairton by-product coke plant in the 1920s. The coal was delivered to coal barges from an underground conveyor system
to the Colonial Dock, shown here in 1955. (Courtesy of a private collection, used with permission)
A postcard of the Colonial Beltline, used by U.S. Steel until 1961. (Courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette)
St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church with the company houses of the Gridnstone patch in the background. I think this church is a mission church from St. Peter Parish
in Brownsville. This part of the Grindstone patch is called Old Hill, and another section of housing not shown in this photo is New Hill. The coal mine and coke yard at Grindstone was Colonial No.4, which, after being operated by the Pittsburgh Coal
Company for a number of years, was purchase by Frick in 1911. The name came from the Grindstone School House because it featured a grindstone on its gable.
A vintage picture of the Lambert mining camp, where the American Steel and Wire Co. had over 400 ovens in blast at one time. (Courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette)
The dedication pamphlet from the opening of the Robena Prep Plant from 1946. Mining at Robena began in 1943 when Frick Coke drove two entries
under the Monongela River from the Ronco mine in Fayette County. At the time it was the largest coal mine in the nation.(Used with permission)
The first barge of coal loaded at Robena, H.C. Frick Coke Co., Mid-1940s. (From a private collection, used with permission)
A more recent (2000) photograph of the Robena barge loadout (Courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette)
What remains at Robena in April 2009.
John writes, "I used to work at Robena , Cumberland and Dilworth mines. I thought you would have more to read about Robena, being that it was the biggest mine in the USA at one time. I worked at Colvin shaft. There was something like 8 or 9 shafts. Lots of guys worked there. I only worked there 4 years, then it closed in 1982, I think. I went to Cumberland mine for maybe a year and ended up at Dilworth mine until it closed a few years ago. Sad to see them all closing. Did you know that off the bottom of Colvin shaft there was a big motor barn? It was made out of red bricks. When you walked in it you thought you were in a REAL BIG garage outside. It had rails going in and out of it where they pulled motors in and worked on them. They had lots of motors that pulled wagons - 10 toners, 20 toners, 50 tons. Some of the motors had a spool on them with 50 or 100 foot of cable to hook to the trolly wire. If they had to go beyond the trolly wire they would use their cable. What's funny is I can remember running a buggy there. They would have their trip setting on the ramp. When you pulled your buggy up onto the ramp to dump coal you had a cable to pull to make the wagons move up so you could dump your load of coal. The cable you pulled was connected to a big winch up the tracks away. SOMETIMES the motor crew would forget to unhook the winch cable when they would pull the trip out of the section. They would drag that winch down the tracks with the trip. MAN the dust would be flying. Funny how you remember little things like that."
Red brick houses at the coal mining patch of Pittgas, PA. I've never seen coal company-built housing quite like this anywhere else.
Here is part of the Dilworth mine at Rice's Landing, PA. CONSOL owns it now, but it was originally a Frick Coke Co. operation dating back to the 1920s. It was
still open when this photo was taken, but was closed at the end of 2002 due to exhaustion of reserves.
This 1998 photo taken at the Dilworth Mine shows how the lamphouse got it's name (Courtesy Coal and Coke Heritage Center, Penn State Fayette)
Here is the Moffitt-Sterling coal patch town, about which there is virtually no information.
Tipple Ruins below the Moffitt-Sterling mining settlement.
One of the few active coal enterprises remaining in the Klondike Field is this facility at Alicia, PA owned by CONSOL. This is
where coal is transferred from rail cars to river barges.
Coal hopper at the ruins of the Eclipse Mine, near Elco, PA. For more photos of the ruins of this coal mine see this link. (Photo courtesy of Robert Deavers)
Ballfield and company houses at Maxwell, PA, on the banks of the Monongahela River. The workers' housing is reflective of reforms in patch construction resulting in "model towns". Evidently this was one of the last Frick Mines in Fayette County
to close, being opened at least until the 1950s, and one source even says 1960.
Ruins of the tipple at the patch of Martin, PA, one of Republic Steel's captive mines.