I posted the tune from the Korson Pennsylvania Songs and Legends book (lyrics posted by rich r above). There seem to be some typographical errors in the Korson text (elg., "what's phat he told me at any rate"). rich r corrected most of them, but it's hard to tell what "shuit" is supposed to be in the chorus. I think I'd accept "suite," which is what Jim Dixon found in the Joe Glazer text.

-Joe-

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Here are the notes form the Rounder CD, Songs and Ballads of the Anthracite Miners:

The coal breaker, a straggling hulk of a building, is the most characteristic feature of the anthracite landscape. It is there that the amorphous lumps which the miner had extracted from the seam are cleansed and cracked into standard sizes for the market. Standing close to the mouth of a mine slope or shaft, it frequently may be found hugging a hillside.
Almost from the time that the first breaker cast its shadow, miners have invested it with symbolical significance. "When the Breaker Starts Up Full Time" catches the mining folk in a happy mood. After the prolonged unemployment the miners hear a rumor that their breaker is to resume production. All the good things sung of in the ballad represent so much wishful thinking because in the 1880's when the ballad appeared, luxuries were beyond reach even when the mines were working full time.

On the Rounder CD, the song is sung by Jerry Byrne, recorded at Buck Run, Pennsylvania, 1946 (see post from the Korson book, above, for Byrne's lyrics). Byrne sings it like an old-time Irish tenor.

-Joe-