A Look Underground

A look inside a slope, looking as it goes down.

This entry is going to compose of some of my underground shots I have taken. Now as I have stated in the past, exploring the coal mines is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS and I don't recommend anyone to do so. I do not encourage anyone to do so either. Deadly gases and chances of collapse can injury or kill you if you do so. So just enjoy these photos of the actual places where the coal was extracted from. Don't ask me where these photos were taken because I won't bother to reveal their locations.

Some supports inside of a low mine.

Some ice inside of a low mine. Some supports can be seen in the background.

Looking at a support that could be seen was a tree.

A look at a support. This is one of my favorite underground photos.

A look at a rock and the different layers of coal can be seen in it.

A look at another support.

Looking down a slope where it's flooded.

Looking at a doorway. To the left is a shaft that has been filled.

The other side of the doorway. The light that can be seen is the opening.

Inside a low mine looking towards the opening.

Looking outside of another mine. The blue thing that is outside is one of my friends who waited out there, just in case.

Looking at a support along a wall. The rocks laying around were part of the ceiling.

Looking down a mine with two stone walls. Further back are some rather bad rock falls and support posts not supporting anything.

Further down a mine, looking down towards the doorway that was pictured earlier.

Not the greatest quality, but this is of ice formations looking towards the opening.

A look at some rather large ice formations.

These photos are just some of the underground ones I have. In time I may update this entry with more photos. This next photo I'll go into more detail about it.

Looking into a mine with a pile of junk, like tires, thrown into it.

That last photo is of one of the mines to the Loomis Colliery. This one was blocked off but some time ago, it was discovered that it had opened up a bit so a grate was put in place on it.

An outside look at the same mine.

The above photo is what many mines look like these days. The purpose of the grates is for the bats that may live the old mines. Speaking of bats:

We found this little guy fast asleep in one of the mines. Not too far from this one was another small bat, fast asleep as well.

Nottingham Colliery Update: Fire Ravages a Remaining Structure

Early morning on February 5th, a fire broke out at Campus Collision which was housed in one of the former Nottingham Colliery buildings. The whole inside is gutted out and the roof is gone. While I was there getting photos of the structure, Plymouth Fire Department were still there investigating the cause of the fire, which is still unknown as I'm doing this entry. Below are several other photos I took of the structure at roughly around 11:00AM.

The engravement on the building was untouched by flames. The owner said that if the building has to come down, he wants this cut out and saved.

A fire fighter can be seen in the inside looking around, most likely for the source of the fire.

A look inside one of the windows with a fire fighter in view.

One of the garage door openings with another fire fighter looking around.

 

 

 I'm unsure what the fate of this structure will be now since the fire. The building itself looks good but it will need much work to fix it up. Expect more updates about this as time goes on. 

These are some more pictures I took on the following day of the structure.

These next shots are looking inside from the garage door.

Introducing a New Section to This Page: A Step Away From Coal

A Step Away From Coal will be entries I do on here that aren't related to the collieries or the mines but will cover other abandoned and forgotten places in the area. Those locations will basically be the locations I post photos up on my other Facebook page, The Forgotten Places of NEPA. The next entry on here will be of one of these locations, a location I'm sure many around where I lived have been to, or at least have heard about, before it closed.

Loree Colliery

 
The Loree Colliery was located along Nesbitt Street in Larksville. Today, the large culm piles are the biggest reminder of the colliery. Other items, like the Dorr Thickener tanks, power plant floor and basement, culm screening building, electrical sub-station, an oil and grease storage building, a slope entrance, the capped off No. 2 Shaft, the filled in No. 1 Shaft, a foundation and tunnel I believe to off been the boiler house, and what I believe to be the remains of the wash house. Many smaller items also lay around such as timbers and sheet metal pieces. The Loree was built to replace the old No. 5 that burned down. In 1919, the Loree opened and began operation, it was named after L. F. Loree, the president of the D&H Railroad. The breaker closed sometime in the 1960s but was used as a fine coal recovery plant into the 1970s before being closed for good. In the fall of 1993 the breaker was torn down. Some of the other buildings stood until recently and the No. 2 Shaft was just recently capped off in 2008. .

A look at the No. 1 Shaft.

The above photo was taken from where Pete Broody Tires stands at today. Shawnee Concrete can be seen in the near distances, which they are still in business and in that same location.

Looking at the foundation wall to the No. 1 Shaft as it looks today.

The No. 2 Shaft is up on the hill behind Shawnee Concrete. That was capped off in 2008 but before that, it just had some pieces of metal covering it.

A look at the No. 2 Shaft that Steve Kondrad took. I was given permission to use this photo.

A look down the No. 2 Shaft that Steve Kondrad took and gave me permission to use.

This old photo shows a lokie at the site of the Loree with what I believe to be the No. 2 Shaft in view.

What looks to be the No. 2 Shaft

The No. 2 Shaft looks different today.

The capped off No. 2 with a fence and large No Trespassing signs.

I can understand the reasoning on why it's fence off because these concrete caps have failed in the past. Back near Nesbitt Street is where the power plant once stood.

This floor is about all that remains of the power plant.

While walking on the floor of the former power plant, I took notice of several openings filled with bricks. Getting down to get a better look, I found it those are the openings into the basement. I didn't bother going down because it's flooded but I did get this photo.

A look inside reveals the water, pipes, and lights hanging from the ceiling. Your typical mold can be seen hanging as well.

Just down a little bit is the only portion of the power plant that stands.

A doorway and some electrical panels.

Just a little way from the power plant are the remains to another building.

The wood that lays there used to stand up and was part of the structure.

On the area of the structure is a small opening that drops down to the under of the building, where it's like a tunnel.

A bit down the tunnel. All that dirt leads to the outside. It appears they filled the entrance into this, don't see why though.

Up the hill from this is a sheet metal building the screen for coal in the culm banks then sent that coal to the breaker to be processed.

 

The inside of the building is rather open but had to be because of all the dust that would of been floating around when the screener was on.

Coal would of dropped to this conveyor where it would of went to the breaker.

The machine that did the screening is located on the second floor.

The screening machine and the second floor.

Right near this building is a solid brick building that was the electrical sub-station.

This building is surrounded by trees, which makes it hard to photograph.

The inside of it has a small repairing station and most of the electrical panels.

The front of the electrical panel.

The back portion of the electrical panel.

Behind this building is the oil and grease storage building.

This building is even harder to photograph because of all the stuff growing around it.

The inside of the building doesn't have much except the old storage containers and an old ladder.

A look inside the building.

The only other building that stands was converted into an auto body shop.

An old water tower and the auto body shop as seen from Broadway Street.

Further down Nesbitt Street are the remains to the Dorr Thickener tanks. When the building to it were torn down, the rubble was just pushed into the small tank. I need to get better photos of the smaller tank so perhaps in an update I'll have them up. These photos are of the larger tank.

The large concrete Dorr tank as seen from up the hill

Inside the tank looking at the center piece.

A look at where water from the tank dumped into the creek.

These last few pictures are just of other, smaller, items on the lands.

A small wall and rubble lay about. I suspect this to of been the wash house based on the pulley parts I found laying around on the rubble.

An abundment with the year 1919 engraved into it.

A large piece of concrete with May 1?, the last number is damaged, 1917 engraved onto it.

A slope entrance with 1920 engraved on it. It's filled inside however.

A warning sign on a tree along Nesbitt Street. Since this was taken in 2010, the sign was ripped down, it was only paper.

Two nice size insulators with their posts still screwed in and the thick copper wire connecting them. These now make a nice entry into my collection. Besides, someone else would of most likely just smashed them to get the wire off of them so I'm glad I found them first.

These last to photos are old ones that I just couldn't find a spot anywhere else on here for.

A Loree shaft that isn't labeled. It kind of looks like the No. 2 but I am not sure at all.

A winter shot of the breaker.

I'd like to thank Steve Kondrad for allowing me to use his photos of the No. 2 Shaft before it got capped and for sending me all of the old photos of the colliery since I couldn't find them anywhere.