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| Larry Joe Jenkel posted Old Ben 24 |
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| Bill Hammond III posted One of the best shots of Old Ben#24 I've seen yet.. It appears Idled in the picture. At this Point It doesn't have a Prep plant or the second coal stacker tube.. Also the Hoist tower has yet to be Painted white.. I remember all that stuff as a Child because it had so many lights it looked like a city. No Idea who shot the picture but I take no Credit. |
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| Larry Joe Jenkel posted Old Ben 24 Gary O Mcdaniel: 24 was one of the nicest mines I inspected with MSHA. Good Miners & Mgt. AT one time during the 70s and 80s six large mines operated along Rend Lake. 1000s of good jobs. ( long wall subsidence helped the Lake also.) Gary Gray: I worked there before the prep plant was built. The coal mined and sold was 2x0 ROM coal. Ash content was supposed to be 14% or less. When I left in 1978 it was getting to be in the 18% range. |
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| ISGS Directory |
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| ISGS Map |
Note that it is labeled on this map. That is rather rare for topo maps. But a coal mine operating this late is also rather rare.
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| 1795/77 Rend Lake Dam and 1978/78 West Frankfort Quads @ 24,000 |
My usual late 1930s aerial photos for Illinois are worthless for a mine that started in 1965. Fortunately, I've learned how to find aerials from the 1970s.
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| Apr 17, 1972 @ 24,000; AR1SWFO00010014 |
The topo map shows that the industrial spur for the mine went west to join the CB&Q mainline. It is still easy to trace that route on a satellite image. But the ISGS map shows that the spur also went south to join an IC branch. I've noticed with other mines in the area that many of them had connections to two different railroads. I got this excerpt to show that the topo map is correct. There was no spur to the south to the IC.
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