A legislative act authorizing the incorporation of the Mill Creek and Mine Hill Navigation and Railroad Company was passed by the Pennsylvania legislature on February 7, 1828. This proposed horse-powered railroad was to extend from near the mouth of Mill Creek in
Port Carbon, Pennsylvania to a point on the
Center turnpike near the foot of
Broad mountain towards St. Clair, Pennsylvania, to transport coal from mines along its route to Port Carbon where the commodity could be transferred to the Schuylkill Navigation (Canal) system and ultimately transported to Philadelphia and beyond. In May, 1829, work began on the two-mile, 40-inch gauge railroad. By July 4, 1829, it was near completion and coal was being transported and passed to the canal in that same year, prior to its completion, making it the third commercial operational railroad in the United States. The railroad utilized English
strap rail which enabled a single horse to easily pull six tons in six cars, and the Mill Creek R. R. was the first line in operation in the Southern Anthracite Coal Field. From its opening date, between150 to 225 tons of mined coal were carried over the line daily. The finished railroad initially had a four-mile main line and three miles of laterals. Philadelphia rail advocate George W. Smith described the Mill Creek railroad in 1832, as quickly and cheaply built without direction of an engineer and in the infancy of railroads. Eventually it had nine lateral branches totaling five miles. It carried 30,300 tons of coal, in 1831, for an average haul of three miles. In 1849, the Mill Creek R. R. distribution to the Schuylkill Canal and the P&R was over 100,000 tons of coal to the canal and 140,000 tons to the railroad. An 1857 charter supplement authorized the Mill Creek R. R. to build branches to the Mahanoy Valley in the Second Coal Region, but an unassociated corporation, the Mahanoy & Broad Mountain Railroad, instead built that line, This expansion allowed coal from the Mahanoy Valley collieries to be transported south through
St. Clair, Pennsylvania to the markets. ==References and notes==