Blair County
A readiness centre carrying another town’s name
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics lists a National Guard readiness centre here that carries the name of Hollidaysburg, under a mile from the centre, in Blair County.
The North American Rail Network maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics lists the Samuel Rea Shops about 2 miles east, the Juniata Shops about 6 miles north, and the Altoona and Rose yards about 7 miles north. Four rail yards inside 7 miles, and this sits at the southern end of them.
A quarry on one side and a coalfield on the other
That rail concentration has two industries either side of it. The Roaring Spring Quarry about 6 miles south works limestone with 47 people. About 10 miles west the ground changes to coal: the Cresson mine works bituminous underground with 69 and a surface operation at the same place works with 20.
So the two largest workforces the Mine Safety and Health Administration lists within 15 miles are a coal mine at 69 and a limestone quarry at 47, and they load nothing alike. Further west the Portage Plant works with 19 and the Sonman Refuse Site with 4.
An unusual plant twelve miles south
That coal and limestone pattern has one exception in it. About 12 miles south the Mine Safety and Health Administration records the Penn Mag plant at Sproul, working chromite chromium ore with 5 people. It is the only metal mine it records within 15 miles.
So the mix here is wider than a coal district or a quarry district would be on its own. The Grannas Brothers quarry about 10 miles east works limestone with 10, and Robindale Energy works a surface mine about 15 miles west with 8.
Tri-axle dumps and aggregate haulers off the quarry, coal trucks and haulage bodies off the mines, flatbeds, day cabs and road tractors, rollbacks, service bodies and the pickups every small operation keeps beside its big truck.
Between the Roaring Spring Quarry about 6 miles south and the Portage Plant about 13 miles west the two sides turn over on separate cycles, and a body set up for stone is not what a coal operation is looking for.
- Maintenance and yard trucks are bought the same way as haulage.
- Can you collect from a depot or a pit?
- We only run one truck.Most of what we buy around here is a single truck from a small operation.
A contract at a mine ends or a quarry job finishes, and the truck that did the work has nowhere obvious to go next.