The opening of the Mahanoy Plane in 1861 came at a most opportune time for those at the right place and right circumstances. The plane provided the transportation needed to develop the coal resources in the Mahanoy Valley at a time when the Civil War skyrocketed the demand for anthracite in the steel mills producing war armaments.
- Mahanoy Plane House
- (photo and history courtesy of Lorraine Stanton)
It was over the Mahanoy Plane that coal was moved in cars from coal operations in the Mahanoy City, Gilberton, and Girardville areas, hoisted up the mountainside to Frackville and sent down the other side to the extensive yards at St. Clair, where they were weighed, put into trains and sent to market.
The Mahanoy Plane was completed in 1861 and railroad repair shops and enginehouse had been erected. The Plane was made the headquarters of a division of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The principle employing interest in the area, aside from the collieries, was the railway. The number of men employed on the Mahanoy Plane, shops, and road was 200; and on the railway department, 75 men.
The Mahanoy Plane Engine House was considered one of the greatest sights of the Anthracite fields. It was visited every year by thousands of sightseers. Two engineers worked the Mahanoy Plane Engine House on an eight-hour shift, working one hour on and one hour off. With no breakdowns, they could hoist a two hundred ton, three-car trip every three minutes. Hoisting signals were given by electric bells, and it took ninety seconds to land a trip. The steam boiler plant used buckwheat, rice, and barley coal. The nine sets of boilers required 150,000 gallons of water and 125 tons of coal every working day. The first car of coal went up the plane on July 18, 1861, and the last car went up the plane on February 27, 1932. For a total of 71 years the Mahanoy Plane served the coal region.
