Lite and Narrow Column - 3
There were no turning facilities at either end of the line, so the
locomotive pushed the cars to the tipple.
The term tipple might be generous, as both of them were noth-
ing more than a trestle that crossed the lower tracks, with a hole
to dump the coal into the hopper cars. At least the Miller and
Knepp tipple had a shelter on it. These two tipples were exam-
ples of the crude construction that took place in early part of the
last century. The open-deck tipple did become pretty much stan-
dard for the mines on the East Broad Top, being used until their
closings in the 1950s.
As an aside, research for this project uncovered a name for a coal
company that seems to be one only a model railroader could con-
ceive – the Possum Hollow Coal and Coke Company. I’m going to
have to find a place for that company on my layout. The Miller
and Knepp mine opened in 1916 as the Mid Valley Mine. The drift
mine tapped into the Barnett coal seam, but also had a tunnel to
the Fulton seam. The Mid Valley mine was relocated to the town
of Joller, and a new tipple was built, very much like the one at Mid
Valley. The owners changed to the J.H. Miller Coal Company. In
1937, a fire destroyed the wooden tipple, and it was replaced by
one of steel and concrete. This is the tipple being modeled. It was
designed to serve trucks as well as and rail.
In 1938, mine ownership changed to the George E. Miller Coal
Company, still remaining under the Miller family’s control until
1950, when it became the Wray’s Hill Coal Company. Wray’s
Hill operated the coal tipple until 1966, when it reverted to the
Miller family. During its lifetime, the mine produced over 1.2
million tons of coal.
The East Broad Top began serving the mine in 1916, taking over
for the short-lived Juanita and Southern Railroad, a standard
gauge line. It was built as an extension from a logging line to
serve the mine at Jacobs after a dispute with the EBT developed
over the transfer fees at Mt. Union. However, the production of
the Jacobs mine was not sufficient to provide enough revenue
for the short 15-mile railroad, and the railroad was abandoned
in 1917 and sold for scrap. Because of the need for steel during
World War I, the scrap sale brought in more money than it had
cost to build the railroad.
There were several mines on the East Broad Top that weren’t
owned by the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company, EBT’s parent
company, but none of them were as large as the Jollar tipple.
Because of this, the Miller mine and the Vernon Coal Company,
a small wagon mine located near Rocky Ridge, continued to
operate during the miners’ strike and depression following
World War I. The Miller mine was non-union. This led to some
car availability problems. EBT hoppers were diverted to their
own mines, leaving Miller to get standard gauge Pennsylvania
hopper cars with narrow gauge trucks sent for loading to the
tipple at Jollar. Although the EBT could handle standard gauge
cars easily, these cars were probably only the 50-ton GLc hop-
per cars due to the rail loading. For my railroad, I have converted
two Bowser cars to narrow gauge to run to the tipples.
As early as 1928, the tipple at Jollar began shipping a por-
tion of their coal by trucks. This greatly concerned the EBT,
and they began to work out an agreement with the truckers to
“The Mid Valley mine was relo-
cated to the town of Joller, and a
new tipple was built, very much
like the one at Mid Valley.”
MRH-Jun 2014
