The Moffat Breaker, or New Taylor Breaker, was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company in 1915-16. At the time, it was described as an experiment in revolutionary breaker design and construction. It came at a time when the DL&W was heavy into using concrete for it structures, for example the Concrete City housing development for the Truesdale Colliery and concrete base of the Great Loomis Breaker, both located near Nanticoke. The Moffat, however, was the first all reinforced-concrete breaker, containing 500,000 feet of lumber for machinery bedding and other fittings.
The concrete structure was unable to fully support the heavy machinery, and much cracking occurred from this and the settling of the footings. In 1920, the W. Y. Moffat Coal Company acquired the Taylor Breaker. In the 1970s Pagnotti Enterprises owned the breaker and it was torn down around 1980. Rubble, some machinery and a few ancillary buildings remain at the site today.
Contributors: Tony Wilson
Photos showing the old Taylor breaker, and construction of the new breaker, which eventually became Moffat, Bunnell Photos.
Office of Surface Mining Photos excavating a mine fire in the 1960s.
Moffat Shaft reclamation, 1990s.
Our photos from the early 2000s.
