A photograph from 1922 of the double-track slope of the Boston Run Breaker.
From a series of articles that appeared in the Pottsville Republican and Herald in 1997:
The Boston Run Colliery was located east of Gilberton on the south side of Mahanoy Creek.
The colliery was opened by a water-level tunnel driven south 205 feet to the North Dip Mammoth and Buck Mountain veins by Focht & Althouse in 1863. The first shipment of 10, 764 tons of coal was made in 1864. The West Mammoth Gangway was driven 2,565 feet in 1866, when miners sank the slope 390 feet to the first level, from which they tunneled to the Seven Foot and Buck Mountain veins, which were extensively worked to 1873.
In 1873, the colliery was purchased by the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, which continued to operate it.
In 1878 and 1880, the company made many improvements, sinking the pump slope 700 feet and extending the hoisting slope 320 feet to the second level, a total length of 710 feet.
In 1897, the pump slope was extended to the third level, a length of 940 feet, and a new breaker was erected with the latest and most improved machinery.
In 1900, the gunboat slope was extended 300 feet to the third level and tunnels were driven to all veins.
During 1908, the underground slope on the Little Buck Mountain Vein was sunk 300 feet from the third to the fourth level and, in 1911, the pump slope was again extended 282 feet from the third to the fourth level.
During 1911 and 1912, the Little Buck Mountain gunboat slope was extended 1,304 feet to the fourth level.
In 1913, the old hoisting slope timbers were replaced with steel in concrete bases for a distance of 24 feet and a fireproof hospital was built in the bottom-split Mammoth Vein on the fourth level, 150 feet west of the pump slope.
During 1913, the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company shipped 188,688 tons of coal. The best shipment from this colliery was 331,114 tons of coal in 1899.
In 1921, the breaker was abandoned and the coal was transported to the Tunnel Ridge Breaker for preparation until May 14, 1928, when the colliery mining ceased. Pumping was discontinued March 16, 1939.
Total shipments from the Boston Run Colliery were 5,714,616 tons of coal as of 1928.
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Article by Frank Blase, Historian, Reading Anthracite Company Historical Library, Pottsville Republican & Herald, October 4, 1997. Obtained from Newspapers.com.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.