Pioneer Tunnel - Ashland, PA

Website:Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine and Steam Train
Season: April-October
Cost: Coal Mine Tour $9/adults, $6.50/ages 2-11, Steam Train $7/adults. $5.50/ages 2-1, Combo $14.50/adults, $10.50/ages 2-11
Approximate Length of Visit: A couple of hours at least, we somehow spent 3 hours there
Recommended ages: Interesting for all ages. There is a playground that even the youngest kids can enjoy.

I heard about the Pioneer Tunnel Coal Mine and Steam Train through word of mouth. It turned out to be very interesting and enjoyable. Both my husband and I had ancestors who worked in coal mines around the time period this mine operated so it was particularly interesting to us.

It took us a little over an hour to get there from our home north of Harrisburg. It's not that far from Knoebel's Amusement Park, maybe about 20 minutes away. Take 81 to 901W, to 54E and you find yourself in the town of Ashland which reminded me a lot of the area I grew up in, in Northeast PA. You turn onto Twentieth Street, which is more like an alley, up past a cemetery and there it is.

There are two tours. The mine tour takes you 1800 feet into the side of the mountain and lasts about 30 minutes. I have to warn you the ride is ROUGH! If you are pregnant or have a serious case of hemorrhoids, this might not be the best choice for you. You don't spend the entire tour in the cars - the tour is mostly a walking tour within the mine. Wow! The conditions the old coal miners endured will make you appreciate your desk job a lot more.


It is 52 degrees in the mine and drippy (even on a dry day). Bring a coat. They have a rack of coats there that you can borrow but, well, trust me, bring your own coat. The person that borrowed a coat last may have had cooties.

The train ride is also a very rough ride (the roughest train ride that I ever experienced) but I this wasn't originally a passenger train. The coal-fired 'lokie' was rescued from a scrap yard when the mine tour started in the 60s. It was built in 1917.

It's not a very long ride (and your butt will be grateful) but there are stops so the entire train tour takes about 30 minutes.

The first stop, no one leaves the train. You can stand and take pictures and the guide talks about the town below (Ashland, PA) and the town just over the ridge (Centralia, PA) which has basically been dismantled due to an underground mine fire.

The second stop, the passengers can leave the train. There's an example of a bootleg mine (a mock-up, I believe but I'm not positive).

There's a strip mine in that area too.


My older son enjoyed both tours and the baby did very well also (except when he pooped on me the first time we tried to board the train tour - NOTE: There are no baby changing facilities in the restroom!) There's a great playground right there. One area is the old-style that I remember from my childhood, with a large merry-go-round (NOT a carousel!), teeter-totters, and larger swings.

The other side has some of the newer play structures they put in parks nowadays.

There are baby swings which the baby LOVED so this activity truly had something for everyone.

There's a home-style food concession stand. The Bar-B-Q sandwiches(sloppy joes) were very good. An 18.5 ounce bottle of lime-flavored Dasani was only $1.25. Some attractions soak you on the water but they don't which I appreciate.

There's a small gift shop. We had to buy the baby a new shirt since he pooped on the outfit he was wearing. I brought extra shorts along but I forgot his extra shirt. The infant shirt was around $6. They had great pieces of carved coal but I didn't price them.

Even though the tours only took up a bit more than an hour, we somehow managed to spend three hours there. There was about a 30-minute unexplained delay before the train tour. The guys ate something, we played on the playground, and we basically just weren't in a rush that day. We had a good time.

Please add your comments regarding this activity or let me know if you have any questions about it that I might be able to answer.