Gazing toward the hulking ruins of the original Huber Power Plant. Unlike the nearby Saint Nicholas Coal Breaker just outside of Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, which featured a relatively puny power plant in comparison to its much, much larger breaker structure. The Huber Breaker while indeed large was powered by a much larger power plant, which on its own could have probably powered the entire borough of Ashley. Water to generate steam for the power plant was piped in underground from a nearby waterfall along the Solomon Creek in Ashley, PA. The picture below taken in April 2020 details the waterfall along with the intact pipeline which ran beneath the town of Ashley popping up again within the Huber Breaker property where the creek water was most likely pumped into the tall water tower on site before being distributed by gravity into the power plant itself. The water (nor any energy) was taken/generated directly from the waterfall itself but rather from a large deep pool of standing water which accumulated just before the crest of the falls. Today, the only remnant remaining on the Huber Breaker property is the white smoke stack, which now overlooks a completely barren coal field.
Image Courtesy: Metrotrails |