Westmoreland County
Fifty-four people, working limestone underground
The operation at this borough goes down rather than out. The Torrance Mine works broken limestone underground with fifty-four people, which is a large crew for stone anywhere in this state and an unusual method for it.
Around it the ground is coal and sand. Ligonier St & Lm Co Dba Derry Stn & Lime works twelve people about 3 miles west-southwest, the Homer City Plant row is about 8 miles north, Knob Creek works twenty-one about 10 miles, and Brush Valley sixty-eight about 10 miles away.
Underground stone runs all winter
That method is what separates this borough from the surface pits around it. Weather does not reach an underground face, so production runs twelve months where a surface operation runs nine, and the trucks that serve it never get a season off.
So a Torrance Mine truck accumulates most of an extra year of work every five, and it shows in brakes and suspension long before it shows in the engine. Between the Homer City Plant about 8 miles north and Brush Valley about 10 miles away, the surface fleets keep the seasonal pattern instead.
Pennsylvania weight law
One general number, and a great many local ones
Those roads run under a single statutory ceiling. Under 75 Pa.C.S. § 4941 the maximum gross weight for a vehicle or combination on a Pennsylvania highway is 80,000 lb. The only allowance found in the section is 2,000 lb for vehicles fuelled primarily by compressed or liquefied natural gas or powered primarily by electric battery.
No commodity relief for stone, sand or natural resources was found in that section as consulted. That is not the same as establishing there is none — Pennsylvania runs a large permit apparatus under Title 67 — and it is written here as an open question rather than as an answer.
The penalty is a formula rather than a flat fine. A driver over the maximum or registered gross weight commits a summary offence and on conviction pays $75, plus $75 for each 500 lb or part of it beyond 3,000 lb over the limit. So the first 3,000 lb over is effectively a flat charge and everything past that climbs in steps.
75 Pa.C.S. § 4941; 67 Pa. Code ch. 189. Information, not legal advice, and only as current as the date the rule file was last verified.
A gap road carrying year-round loads
It is that constant running through a river gap that meets the posted network hardest. A cut through a ridge has one road, so a loaded truck has no alternative and a plate closes the lane outright.
In Pennsylvania the binding weight there is frequently a posted figure rather than the general one, and townships maintain 3,198 structures statewide against the counties’ 2,599. A permit brings an excess-maintenance agreement and posted security before the first load moves toward Knob Creek, about 10 miles north, or the Homer City Plant row about 8 miles up.
Pennsylvania paperwork
We need a title — unless it never had one
Beyond the weight rules, that is the whole of it in one sentence. Everything after it is a fix rather than a category. If the title is lost, there is a counter replacement. If the truck never had one, there is a bonded route. Both are ordinary and neither stops a sale.
Two Pennsylvania rules are worth knowing because they run the opposite way to most states. There is no fixed total-loss percentage in statute: under 75 Pa.C.S. § 1232 the test is whether repair cost plus salvage value equals or exceeds actual cash value. And PennDOT defines a salvage vehicle by comparing the cost of repairs to the value of the repaired vehicle — every other state on file compares it to the value before the damage.
The other one protects old equipment. The salvage definition does not include a vehicle that would qualify as antique or classic but for its lack of restoration or maintenance. So a truck old enough to be antique cannot be called salvage merely because nobody restored it.
75 Pa.C.S. § 1232; PennDOT salvage and reconstructed-vehicle definitions. Information, not legal advice.
What we buy here
All of it, and hard-worked equipment especially. Dump trucks and aggregate haulers first, because that is what the mine runs. Day cabs and road tractors, flatbeds, rollbacks, box trucks, service bodies and the pickups and work trucks that follow a crew.
Most of it works between the Torrance Mine, the Homer City Plant row and Brush Valley.
Whatever you drive, the offer doesn’t change. We buy all of them.
We buy complete trucks. If the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Small things — a missing bumper — are fine.
Straight answers
The questions we get asked in Blairsville
- Does it have to run?No. It does have to be complete — if the engine, transmission, doors, rear ends, drive shafts, wheels or anything under the hood have been removed, we can’t buy it. Rust is not the issue.
- It came out of an underground operation.Then it has probably worked every month of the year. Around the Torrance Mine that is normal and it does not put us off.
- What about the title?We need one unless the truck is old enough that it never had one. Lost has a counter replacement; a bonded route covers the rest.
- Can you collect from a mine site?Usually. Tell us how the ground is around the Knob Creek side and we will bring what suits.
- Do you have to come out?Not always. We can buy it remotely and arrange the tow, come and drive it away, or take it if you bring it in.
Why people call
Beyond a seam finishing, the reasons are the ordinary ones. A retirement. A back that has had enough. A truck left when somebody died and nobody in the family holds the licence.
Yards near Knob Creek and out toward Brush Valley, about 10 miles north, hold a few in that position.