Riding the Pioneer Tunnel mine train | July 19, 2025

Take a dark, bumpy ride into the Pioneer Tunnel coal mine in Ashland, PA.

This anthracite coal mine used to feed the Bancroft Colliery on the east end of Ashland, but it ceased mining operations in 1931 during the Great Depression.

On Labor Day weekend 1962 it reopened as a tourist attraction providing educational and entertaining tours. In those early years, guests walked into the mine as there was no operating mine train.

Nowadays passengers ride 1,800 feet into the side of Mahanoy Mountain in authentic mine cars pushed and pulled by a battery-electric mine motor. The tracks end about 400 below the ground level in this drift mine.

Passengers get out and walk through the mine for a guided tour lasting approximately 20 minutes before riding the return trip.

I filmed this during Pioneer Day on July 19, 2025, but am posting it on Labor Day to commemorate 63 years of mine tours in Ashland.

www.pioneertunnel.com

0:00 ride into the mine tunnel
4:53 ride out of the mine tunnel
8:55 end screen

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"I'll See You Down the Tracks" outro music created by Jamie Makin with Suno.