Heavy machinery cleaned and broke down coal into smaller pieces. Since the 80s, pieces of that equipment used by the Moffat Coal Company have sat in Taylor.
Now, the artifacts are moving to a new home at McDade Park in Scranton.
“Lackawanna County wants to bring it up to our coal mine tour and preserve the equipment ... for our visitors to see what what actually happened in a breaker," said Art Moran, the county’s director of parks and recreation.
Moran was standing on Fourth Street in Taylor, waiting for a flatbed truck to move the machinery to outside the coal mine tour.
Moffat was one of the largest coal companies in Lackawanna County. Their breaker was off Main Street in Taylor. It was built by the DL&W Railroad in the 1910s, then owned by Glen Alden. Moffat took it over in the 1940s until it closed in 1955.
"They were one of the last ... major mine operators in Lackawanna County," said John Fielding, curator at the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum. It’s run by the state but next to the coal mine tour at McDade Park.
Fielding said the breaker was revolutionary at its time.
"It was the first fully reinforced concrete breaker to be built … the breaker actually started to crack because of the ... the weight of the machinery," he said.
Some of that machinery is what’s being moved to McDade. There’s a rusted coal crusher and shaker. There’s also a small pillar — the last piece of concrete left from that experimental breaker.
"The coal mining industry in Lackawanna County built this entire area," said Moran. "So preserving some of that history is super important.”
For more details, visit https://coalminetournepa.com/
