Growing up in a mining family, tales of the men and happenings at the Sutton mine were frequent, and continued long after the mine closed. My father, Gilbert, was last employed there as a hoisting engineer and mine examiner. Both of those positions required a state qualifying certificate, earned by
passing tests in Springfield.

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The shaft was approximately 16 by 8 feet, which allowed for two seven foot square cages. Mine photos show that the hoisting cables from the tipple down to the engine room were not parallel. One was wound around a large drum in one direction, the other in the opposite direction. When one cage was down, the other was up.

The hoisting cable was 1-1/8 inch wire rope, which weighs more than two pounds per foot. When a cage was at the bottom, the hanging weight of the cable alone was well over a half-ton. By having the cages travel oppositely
of each other, doubling this weight was avoided.

The steam engine that provided power to turn the hoisting drum was of Crawford-McCrimmon manufacture. Two horizontal, side-by-side cylinders turned an open-air crankshaft and flywheel. Cylinder bore was 22 inches, piston stroke was 36 inches. It was a reversible, double-acting engine -- steam pushed the pistons both ways. There was a head on both ends of each cylinder.

A straight piston rod, about four inches in diameter, exited the cylinder through a bushing and seal in the center of the head that faced the crank-shaft. A drip oiler provided lubrication at this point. A connecting rod connected the piston rod to a crankshaft journal to provide rotary motion. Steam cylinder oil was injected into the input steam line to lubricate the slide valves and pistons.

Applying 60 p.s.i. of steam pressure to a 22-inch piston produces a force of over 11 tons. Double that for the other cylinder, and the power of that engine becomes apparent.

The engineer could tell almost exactly where the cages were in the shafts by the turns of cable wound on the drum. He watched those cables constantly. It's interesting, that a shield was in place, so that he could see only the top edge of the drum. Watching cables wind and unwind for long periods can become hypnotizing.

The boiler house was the largest building at the mine, and the last one standing. Water was pumped there from a pond south of the mine, to be converted to steam. Hot water was furnished to a large shower room for the miners.

The cages had rails on the floor. The bottom cager would roll a coal car onto the cage and lock the wheels to the rails. He rang a signal bell in the engine room, to tell the engineer it was ready to hoist. The cage was hoisted to a level about 90 feet above ground, where a mechanism tilted the cage floor and car, dumping the coal into the scale chute. The scaleman weighed the coal, and credited it to the miner whose tag was on the car.

From this point the coal traveled through screeners to separate it into various sizes. It was stored in the overhead bunkers that are visible in mine photos. Trucks and railcars could be gravity filled underneath those bunkers.