an 11’-square concrete pit filled with water. There were metal
rungs on one wall leading down into the pit. I assumed that the
pit was another entrance to the coal seam, and mentioned this
in “Evolution of my Railroad”, Lite and Narrow, November, 2013.
Ron also made this assumption in his articles on the tipple. In
recent discussions on the tipple, Ron stated that the pit was only
ten feet deep and that its purpose was unknown. Further evi-
dence that the pit was used for other purposes came from photo-
graphs showing a lean-to covering more than half the pit, without
a tower. Speculation is that the pit held coal cleaning equipment
similar to the Chance equipment in Mt. Union, PA.
A brief history
Most narrow gauge and shortline railroads were constructed
and operated for one purpose – the movement of one or two
commodities to an interchange with a mainline railroad or other
transportation. In most instances, the commodity was coal and/
or lumber. In addition, the railroads were owned by the compa-
nies, as were the towns and the mines/sawmills, plus all of the
land in the area. At times, in areas where the companies didn’t
own the towns, they would pay the miners with two-dollar bills
just to let the local politicians know how much impact they had
on their towns. For the towns they did own, Tennessee Ernie
Ford’s song, “Sixteen Tons” says it all.
There were two tipples in close proximity, the Broad Top Coal
and Mineral Company Jacobs tipple, which was reached by
the Rocky Ridge branch, and the Miller and Knepp Mid Valley
tipple. The Miller and Knepp Mid Valley tipple was located on
the winding two-mile long Coles Valley branch of the East Broad
Top, which was more like a very long spur. Clinging to the side
of Wray’s hill, the line climbed a 2.6% grade to reach the tipple.
