One of the
major industries on the Montour was the coal cleaning plant at
Champion. This plant kept the Montour busy into it's last days. When
the plant was idled so was the Montour.
After shoving "coal to the hill" at Champion with Jack Harvard
& Jim Lane, Nick Jarina aim's his camera at the dump track where
"stop off" coal is being run through the one car rotary dump. The Dump
Track typically holds ten 70 ton hoppers to clearance.
The
P&LE SW-1500 is on the Shove-up track heading back down towards the
Montour R.R. Yard office. The top conveyor is for the Reclaim pile
which is used when the preparation plant is broke down or not running,
railroad car loads of stop of coal can still be emptied (dumped)
releasing the railroad cars from per diem. The lower all blue conveyor
is the long slate belt that went up the hill & crossed over route
980. Before the slate belt was built, the Montour R.R. operated a side
dump train that ran back & forth between where the current slate
belt is located, and Boggs where slate was shoved out and dumped. - Gene P. Schaeffer
Photo taken in 1950 by my grandfather who was a mining engineer. Perhaps
it's the earliest color photos of the plant. - Kenneth Caine
Another photo taken in 1950 by my grandfather who was a mining engineer. Perhaps
it's the earliest color photos of the plant. - Kenneth Caine
On close
inspection there are some old plant ruins.
Montour Railroad 
