Susquehanna Colliery No. 7

   

The colliery seen during operation.

   This colliery was located off of Main Street in Nanticoke. The repair shop to this operation is the only full building intact and is still used, by a construction company now. Other remains are standing walls to the boiler house, the basement to the boiler house, coal pockets to the breaker, a brick tower to the breaker, a small tunnel and various concrete foundations all about. I don't know too much about this colliery. These photos were taken in the spring of 2011, except the first one.

A postcard showing the colliery during operation.

This is one of the first things spotted, providing you enter from Main Street. It's a mound of dirt with a thick cable resting on concrete foundations. If you look at the photo taken during the colliery's operation you'll see a shaft headframe in the distance. I think this may of been that shaft. 

Possible shaft?

Close up of concrete pieces and the cable.

Once you've gone passed that, there is an abundment on the hillside and two small concrete supports. It appears to been part of a bridge of some sort, probably rail related.

The abundment can be seen on the and the two concrete supports are right next to the path.

Once passed this, the remains of the breaker can be seen. All the remains is a brick tower and the coal pockets with various other remains laying about within them, mostly timbers.

The brick tower that was once part of the breaker.

The brick tower can actually be entered through an opening on the one side. It appears this had some sort of purpose based on the metal inside of it.

Inside the brick tower looking up.

Also, something else we discovered inside the tower, a tunnel. We didn't notice this until the second trip here.

At first glance, it just looks like the ground settling underneath the structure but this is the opening to a tunnel.

When we realized this was a tunnel, we got a shovel that was in the boiler house basement and dug into this just enough to fit down into it. It was rather muddy in this tunnel and the farther down you followed it, the muddier it got, due to it dumping at the nearby creek.

Looking down the tunnel. It goes for a bit before slanting to the right and dumping into the creek.

A pipe that comes out of the wall at the beginning of the tunnel which suggest that waste from the colliery was sent to this tunnel to be dumped into the creek.

Going up the hill, towards the boiler house, there are many different various concrete foundations about. The one concrete piece that has the year 1921 engraved on it I believe to be a filled slope entrance. Just behind it, up the hill, the ground is subsided rather badly so if it is a slope, it's collapsed just inside, making it not worth digging to get into. 

Close up at the wall I believe to be a slope entrance.

After this is where the remains of the once massive boiler house stands. If you looked at the first photo, the boiler house is that long building with all the smoke stacks.

Bricks lay everywhere from the boiler house and that concrete section is all that stands.

Not much of this structure stands today but it's still interesting to look at, despite very little remaining.

Close up of the year 1913 engraved on the remaining part of the boiler house.

A look "inside" the remains of the boiler house.

On the other side of this is an opening that goes under where the photo just above this sentence was taken.

The back of the boiler house with the tunnel in view. I apologize for the blurriness of this photo.

At the end of the tunnel looking outside.

The most interesting thing about this boiler house isn't even what is outside. There are several openings on the outside that go into the basement.

The beginning of the basement.

Once inside the basement, a short walk takes you to this pipe with valves on it.

I'm really unsure what this did but it's an interesting find.

Once you get to this, the basement turns right and light can be seen coming from the outside.

A pile of rubble along the wall inside the basement.

What can't be seen in that last photo is, in my opinion, the most interesting thing on this site, a tunnel that is to the left. The tunnel is smaller than the rest of the basement, 5 to 5 1/2 tall, and it's narrow, but it's made out of brick, nothing but brick, and it's solid.

The end of the tunnel looking back.

The tunnel is about the length of the boiler house, about 90 feet long. It ends because of a pile of bricks blocking the path. After examining the area above this, it appears the tunnel stopped there but when the building was torn down, bricks were pushed into the tunnel opening. Inside the tunnel are pipes that appear every now and then and soot.

The end of the tunnel is met with bricks that look like a collapse, beer cans (no surprise there) and other junk.

This tunnel, I have to say, is probably the safest underground structure I've been in. The bricks are all solid and are still held rather tight. The repair shop that is now used by a construction company can be seen from the remains of the boiler house.

The back of the repair shop with some boiler house remains in view.

It may be hard to see, but a set of stairs leads up to the repair shop from the boiler house.

  Another thing on this colliery site is a small tunnel, along a hillside, that looks like a slope entrance. The tunnel was for a conveyor and the reasoning for it going underground for about 30 feet is because a train line ran on top of the tunnel.  

The small conveyor tunnel has no signs of a conveyor even in it, probably was all scrapped.

A close up of the top reveals the year 1910, but if you look closely at the 0, there appears to of been a piece in the center that has eroded away, making the 0 an 8, thus it having the year 1918.

Also, if you look at the outline, it slants it a bit at the center on both sides, like an 8 would do.

The other side of the conveyor tunnel.

A farther view of the other side of the conveyor tunnel.

Near this was another interesting find, an abandoned pole standing with this tag still on it: 

  The two trips we had here were rather successful, except my camera dying on the first one. There are many different years engraved on various pieces of concrete, the latest that I found so far was 1940. These photos were taken in April of 2011 and we haven't been there since so I'm unsure if anything has changed. If so, I will put up an updated article about those changes.

A last look at the brick tower from the breaker before leaving.