After a walk on the Montour Mainline between National and the National Tunnel, I decided to do a little "Mon-Touring" around some of the remains of #2. The remains are relatively easy to get to, as the roadway than connected them to Papp Road is still an easy walk. Once there, I found the remains of three structures. A brick building with structural steel, a concrete foundation and a building built out of terra-cotta tile block. Its easy to get to the remains, but getting up close and personal is a chore as they are now heavily guarded by blackberry and multi-flora rose. Wearing fleece sweat pants was not a good choice for this Mon-tour.

The walls of the large brick building were still intact a few years ago, but a logging operation took place to harvest numerous wild cherry trees that risen from the mine site, apparently knocked those walls down. The pictures are not great, as I only had my cell phone camera, but I am heading back soon with a better camera and better wearing apparel. The remains of this building are visible from the Trail by the bulletin board at the Kurnick (National) Access Area.



A concrete foundation, that could have been the shaft, now filled with household junk. The whole area appears to be a local junk yard with household appliances strewn about.



The terra cotta tile block building with some of the junk.


Proceeded back down the hill and walked around the yard area and found this sticking out of the ground. In fact, there were two of them. I wonder if  these could have been bumper stops for the end of the siding?? The base for a tipple?


This was only a scouting trip. Will head back on a day without snow cover, a better camera, and better clothing before things start leafing out in a few weeks.

Second Trip

Plunging into the woods behind the unsheltered picnic table, I quickly located the two bumpers. I had found on the previous visit. There is a light coating of snow on the ground which increased the contrast making it easy to find them.

Turned left found the concrete wall at the top of hill,

continued my counterclockwise turn and lo and behold, there is the remains of the tipple.

No more than 10 feet behind the tree line along the trail. I have been by there for 15 years and either there was too much foliage to see the concrete footers or I thought it was snow on fallen trees.  These concrete structures line up with the concrete wall on the hill and behind that concrete wall is what I think is the shaft for the mine, now filled with household junk.

So I walk up the hill to get a better view. In the background you can see the Trail garage and the port-a-john in the parking area for reference. Behind me is the concrete wall which is pictured below.

Behind this concrete wall is I believe the shaft filled with tires, dishwashers, refrigerators, etc.

Cut across the top of the hill to the old mine roadway, now an ATV path and visited the remains of one of the mine buildings. Anybody remember when marvel ice cream was last sold around here or delivered by truck?

After returning to the parking area, I plunged back into the woods, now knowing where my find was and took a couple of close ups of the more intriguing concrete structures. The sidings would be to the right.