Dec 9, 2002 By Angie Santello 6 min read

While driving on Route 51 near Smock, many people glance over to the right and wonder exactly what that towering piece of equipment is and why it continues to stay in the same spot year after year. Covered in graffiti and sitting in the same location for 31 years, the 1951 Koehring 1005 was revived nearly three weeks ago by owner Ronald Piccolomini of Connellsville and friends who assisted him. The Koehring is now deemed operational after an extensive tune-up.

“We checked the oil, put a battery in, got the motor running, moved the bucket up and down a little and I adjusted a few parts on it,” said 72-year-old Piccolomini. “It surprised me because it has been sitting for so long, but I didn’t want to stop it until I got it against that hillside that it ran. The cable broke once, but we put a new on. After that, it was running like when we first got it. It was like brand new.”

Many onlookers driving past the site noticed the machine running and moving. Several motorists even took the time to stop, inquire about the machine and tell their stories, according to Piccolomini.

“A state policeman told me that this is a landmark for the area,” Piccolomini said. “This policeman pulled in. He said he was born in 1970, and he lived in Belle Vernon. At the age of 5 or 6, he would drive past the machine, staring out the window of his parent’s car in awe at the machine.”

An 81-year-old man told Piccolomini and his friends, who were working on the Koehring at the site, that he ran the shovel when it was new. The man was awestruck that the machine he once operated so many years ago was up and running again.

“Everybody was in awe,” Piccolomini said.

The decision to attempt the revitalization was prompted after a former employee of Piccolomini Coal, Kevin Vensek, inquired about the Koehring.

After this suggestion to start the machine with Vensek’s tools, Piccolomini and Vensek traveled to Route 51 and successfully started the ancient Koehring. Before this start-up, the Koehring sat without being run since 1976.

Behind its rough exterior, the Koehring has a rich history of coal stripping in surrounding communities.

Piccolomini’s now-deceased father William Piccolomini purchased the “power shovel” – the name for such pieces of equipment after steam-power became extinct – in 1951 for the family company of Piccolomini Coal, a business Piccolomini worked at until retirement.

Performing coal stripping in York Run, Crossland, Greensburg and other local communities, the Koehring placed at the top of the list for the job. According to Piccolomini, the machine can build a 50-foot high wall or stripping front during the coal removal process. The rough landscape that makes up the Koehring’s backdrop is an example of the work the machine can perform.

“It is an oddity nowadays,” Piccolomini said. “Now machines with rubber tires – high lifts – are used for the job. However, in 1951, it was considered a top-notch machine.”

Piccolomini, who was 20 years old at the time the Koehring was purchased for $89,000, admits that he always enjoyed the noise and the feeling that accompanied operating and running heavy equipment.

“My dad said, ‘You’re going to college,'” Piccolomini said. “I said, ‘No daddy, I want to work with you running the equipment.’ Everything he bought, I learned to run. It was exciting to me.”

During Piccolomini’s employment, the coal company unexpectedly remained in Greensburg for 22 years stripping the coal supply. Because of this, the Koehring was forced to sit along the side of Route 51, deemed not worth the expense of transportation for the jobs in Greensburg where a similar machine was used and still sits.

In 1974, after one periodic visitation to the machine where the family would look it over for a couple of hours, Piccolomini told his father that the machine was growing very rusty. His father suggested that they paint the aging machine, and Piccolomini and his family rushed into the project.

“We put the boom down and we sanded and cleaned it, sanded and cleaned it. We then painted it Omaha Orange and Marlin Blue,” recalled Piccolomini. “We had an artist paint ‘Piccolomini Coal’ and ‘Koehring 1005’ on it. Six months later, the graffiti started.”

When they began seeing the spray painted words and pictures, the Piccolomini family decided to call the police to attempt to put a stop to the graffiti. But there was no way for police to stop people from spray painting the machine unless they actually caught them doing it, he said.

At first, Piccolomini said he was angry when vandals began ruining the then recent paint job that involved hours of hard work on his part. But he now holds the opinion that “kids will be kids,” and that there is nothing much that he can do about it.

Currently, the Koehring acts as a display for the graffiti that covers nearly every visible foot of its exterior surface. Piccolomini said that he has not noticed much more spray painting activity during his recent visits to the site, although he remembers the plans his father once had for the machine.

“My father had plans on working near where the machine sits and using the machine for the jobs once again when we got older, but once Piccolomini Coal shut down in 1995, we just never got around to it,” said Piccolomini. “I guess we got old too fast.”

Now, with the machine up and running, Piccolomini remains unsure of what the future holds for the aged Koehring 1005. He considered suggestions to donate or showcase the machine, but Piccolomini said he realized that the expense of tearing down, shipping and rebuilding the machine remains too costly. But, if anyone is interested in paying the disassembling, shipping and reassembling expenses, Piccolomini noted that he would be anxious to sell.

Piccolomini credits that aging vitality of the machine to a strong engine and the good care his father provided to it when he was living.

“I hate to tear it down,” said Piccolmini. “As soon as I open it and sit down, memories come back. Memories of the different operator and kids who ran it and when I look up at the 50-foot long boom I remember the tough time we had greasing its wheels and all the hard work that went into caring for it.”

Now knowing that the Koehring is operational again, Piccolomini said he is satisfied to merely leave it sit at its 31-year-old location along Route 51, while those traveling past continue to become captivated with the size, look and presence the machine casts.