In addition to the stiff grades up the cuesta west of the Capital, the heavy duty tortuous line down Pine Creek to Jersey Shore/ Lock Haven Pa. ran stiff grades. Today, the track is gone but you can follow the highway that paralleled it through the "Grand Canyon of the East", (per the blurbs from Commonwealth tourism and at the scenic overlooks). This was a heck of a railroad with severe curvature that was run with doubleheaded mikes, and Mohawks on the freight trains. It would have been a terrific place to have rode a passenger train down, but they were cut back to a night run in the DE era. The Central's long coal branch into West Virginia that connected with the Virginian, among other southern carriers there in the Appalachians, was also no slouch for grades and curvatures. This is where the articulateds , which were only hump and transfer locos elsewhere on the Central, did mine and traditional sorts of mainline freighting. Good-Luck, PJB
WOW...never heard of that area. What more do you have on it? I'm beginning to realize that I led a very sheltered life with only the Hudson and Harlem Divisions.......:sad: :teeth:
I guess I'm a sorry mod for the New York Central as I never heard of that branch. Tell us more. :sad:
Actually two branches. The one into Pennsylvania, to Jersey Shores and Lock Haven, then went west to Andover, OH, evidently strictly a freight line. The one into West Virginia actually still had passenger service in 1944, 35 miles from Charleston to Hitop. Hmm, it still shows on a 1952TT. There is a nickname for one of these branches that I can't recall, but will go find out. :teeth:
