By 1825, the Schuylkill Navigation Company had completed the Schuylkill Canal, which allowed for the transport of anthracite from Pottsville to Philadelphia in barges capable of holding 200 tons. In 1842, the first train by the P & R Railroad (Philadelphia & Reading) from Philadelphia made the trip to Pottsville (Pa.) to compete for the READ MORE >>
The Mahanoy Plane is an engineering feat that moved hundreds of millions of tons of anthracite coal up Broad Mountain, just north of Frackville, PA. What made this mega-machine run was a tandem frictional rope with a 6,000 horsepower steam hoist at Mahanoy Plane. The anthracite coal from the surrounding 48 collieries went through the READ MORE >>