The RIKER yard sits 1.51 miles from the centre of this borough, recorded under the Buffalo & Pittsburgh Railroad in the North American Rail Network maintained by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Working coal in most directions, at somebody else’s address
Those two disagreements aside, the working ground here is coal, and the crews are at other towns’ mines. The Cherry Tree Mine lies about 17.0 miles south-east with 64 people on the books, the Crooked Creek Mine about 23.3 miles south-west at Creekside with 57, and Heilwood about 23.0 miles south with 25.
Closer in they are small. The Stitt pit about 11.0 miles south at Glen Campbell runs three, the Clymer Prep Plant about 18.1 miles south runs twelve, and RES Houtzdale about 19.1 miles south-east runs 24.
The yards fill the gaps — Brookville about 15.1 miles north and DuBois about 16.6 miles north-east — and Russell Stone Products about 20.6 miles east at Curwensville works stone instead.
The mix follows that work: tri-axle dumps and coal haulers off the pits at Glen Campbell and Clymer, day cabs on the runs to the Brookville and DuBois yards, flatbeds and lowboys that moved plant between them, plus rollbacks, service bodies and pickups.
A truck that ran these roads did its miles on two-lane state routes and township roads rather than on interstate — the 15.1 miles to Brookville and the 16.6 miles to DuBois are typical of the runs. That shows up as brake and clutch wear ahead of engine hours, and often as a lower odometer than the age suggests.
- I am well outside town.
A job at Heilwood or Houtzdale ends, and the hauler who bought for it has more truck than the next one needs, which moves several vehicles at once rather than one.
Between the Stitt pit at Glen Campbell and Russell Stone Products about 20.6 miles east they turn up steadily.