Nine Grades of Coal and a Yard that Never Slept

The East Broad Top yard at Mount Union went in with the line itself, in 1873, and its whole reason for existing was that two railroads of two different widths met here. Everything coming off the narrow gauge had to get onto standard gauge cars, and everything going the other way had to come off.

They kept finding better ways to do it. Around 1922 an overhead electric gantry crane went up to move McKelvey Brothers lumber from one railroad to the other. In 1933, after the lumbering had stopped, that same rig was put to a smarter use: instead of moving the load, they lifted whole standard gauge cars off their wheels and set them down on narrow gauge trucks. The original apron conveyor was rebuilt in 1925 with a sand flotation cleaning plant, which let the Rockhill Coal and Iron Company ship nine separate grades of coal out of this yard.

Checked 2026-09-03 · Historic Mount Union collection

← All stories from Mount Union borough

Have something to add to this story, or a photograph of it? Send it here →