Northumberland County
Ten miles south the ground turns to anthracite
The North American Rail Network maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics lists a rail yard here operated by Norfolk Southern, 0.44 miles from the Census centre of the place.
Ten miles south of it, around Trevorton, the record is almost entirely hard coal. The Trevorton Breaker is 10.5 miles off, the Trevorton Strip 11.4 miles, a coal washery 11.8 miles, the Zerbe 10 Mine 12.3 miles, a slope mine 12.5 miles and the Big Mountain Anthracite pit 12.7 miles.
Most of those are very small — several carry payrolls of one or two people, and the largest of the group has 18. Across the county the Mine Safety and Health Administration lists 23 coal mines.
Small operations do not run large fleets. They run a few trucks hard, for a long time, and replace them one at a time.
North of the yard it is sand and limestone instead
Turn the other way from those pits and the cargo changes completely. The Winfield Quarry works limestone 3.6 miles off in Union County and the Lewisburg Quarry 6.0 miles, while construction sand loads 4.1 miles away and again 7.1 miles out at the Montandon Sand Plant.
Past those, the Milton Plant works limestone 10.3 miles away in Montour County and the Watsontown Brick quarry works slate 12.2 miles out.
Four counties, then, inside about twelve miles, and four quite different loads. Anthracite, sand, limestone and slate do not ride the same way and do not leave the same body behind them.
Tandem and tri-axle dumps, flatbeds and day cabs, rollbacks, box trucks, service bodies and pickups.
A truck that ran coal off the Trevorton Strip 11.4 miles south and later hauled sand off the Montandon Sand Plant 7.1 miles north is an ordinary history here, and it leaves two different residues in one body.
- Ordinary on a truck that worked the Trevorton Strip or the Big Mountain Anthracite pit.
Where operations carry one or two people, a truck is retired when the person is, and there is often nobody in the family who wants it. That is the commonest reason a sound truck stands still around Trevorton.
The other reason is a change of load. A body set up for the Winfield Quarry does not suit the coal work, and swapping the work is easier than swapping the body.