Expand<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI heard they wanted it restored for display and that\u2019s what we do, restore old mine equipment,\u201d said Chris Murley, founder of the nonprofit Underground Miners.<\/p>\n
So, Murley worked with borough Manager Dan Markey to get the project underway.<\/p>\n
The borough received a grant from the Lackawanna County Arts and Culture Department to pay for the project, which included a small piece of rail for the car to sit on when it\u2019s on display.<\/p>\n
Archbald\u2019s Department of Public Works helped load the relic into a borough truck in June 2024, and Markey dropped it off at the Underground Miners\u2019 workshop in Factoryville.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a hobby of ours. Most of us work in the mine industry,\u201d Murley said. \u201cRestoring old mine equipment is a fun project for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murley emphasized the importance of bringing mining history to the next generation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you come across something, no matter what kind of condition it\u2019s in, it\u2019s good to save it and try to restore it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A lot of mine equipment was built about 100 years ago and pretty fundamental, simplifying to some degree the process of restoring it, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was labor intensive but it wasn\u2019t difficult,\u201d Murley said. \u201cWe just had to cut a bunch of the steal out and purchase new steel, and cut it and weld it back together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The small mine car, also called a \u201cbogie car,\u201d was used to venture into smaller veins of coal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would fill it up in a lower vein and then roll it out on tracks and dump it into a bigger car,\u201d Murley said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It turned out great\u2019<\/p>\n
Joe Perugino, who did much of the restoration work on the mine car, said it was very rusty when he began working on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took all the original dimensions, cut it up, made some new plates for it and completely refabricated it to the exact specifications that it used to be when it was in the mines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Perugino also restored the car\u2019s dump gate \u2014 the movable panel that allows its contents to be transferred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bent some steel tubing and some chain link and made a completely functioning car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Perugino was able to use the car\u2019s original axles and wheels, but the entire body is all new.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to keep it almost identical and as original as possible,\u201d he said. \u201cIt turned out great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many members of Perugino\u2019s family worked in the mines, and now Perugino himself is working in the strip mining industry in Hazleton.<\/p>\n
Perugino is passionate about his work with the Underground Miners organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the fifth car that I restored,\u201d he said. \u201cI love what I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A piece of Archbald\u2019s coal mining industry has been restored and is now on display for the public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2117,201,182,139,28,178,180,179,289,181],"class_list":["post-88747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-archbald","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Underground](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/STT-L-MINECAR-0116-01.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Nineteen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/STT-L-RAILCAR-0115-01.jpg?w=620\")
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