railroad ruins outside of Brockway

[dja]

Yesterday I took the dog for a walk out behind my house.  I came across some type of railroad platform out in the woods.  Can anyone tell me what railroad this was and what it was?  It appeared to be something built up off the ground because there were towers.

 

In Jefferson county, south of Brockway, west of US 219, and south of Granville Road.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Daryl Adams

[klsm54]

I am quite certain it would have been a coal tipple, or loading platform of sorts.

 

That area, the hill behind the old Brockway Ford, was strip mined in the late 70's, maybe early 80's. If it is older than that it could be from earlier deep mines. I'm not sure if any shafts came out on that side of the hill, but most likely.

[Guest JenMc32]

There were several railroads between Brockway, Westville, Coal Glen, Lanes Mills, etc....areas.  If you drive that road (Lanes Mills - to Stevenson Hill Rd) you can see different areas where the old railroad beds still lie.

 

The entire area was stripped, there are old mines everywhere, we've found a couple up behind our house that look like old entrances.

 

Here are a couple links I found.....may help a little - I just did a google on "Brockway, PA mining history":

 

http://pittsburgh.about.com/library/bljefferson.htm

 

http://www.psnrrhs.org/psnrrabout.html

 

http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/jefbrock1.html

[Ed]

My Dad and I used to go up to Blue Rock north of Brockway Bear hunting, there was a very large stone quarry at one time, there In the woods there was a steam tractor of sorts with a big winch on it, it was complete except for some bullet holes in the boiler and was used to lower tram cars of stone down the hill.