Allegheny Portage Railroad

Altoona, PA - August 21, 2008

 

The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave the merchants of New York City a great competitive advantage over their counterparts in Philadelphia in reaching western markets. As a result, in 1826 the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the construction of the Main Line Canal between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. By 1831 much of the 276 miles of canal and its aqueducts, tunnels, dams and reservoirs had been completed, but in between the two cities stood the Allegheny Mountains. Water didn't flow uphill in 1831 much better than it does nowadays, and no one had yet put on paper a plausible scheme for overcoming that obstacle.

 

 

In 1831 the legislature approved the construction of a system by which canal boat passengers and freight would be transferred to railroad cars and hauled by stationary steam engines up a series of five inclined planes. On the other side of the summit, the cars would descend a similar series of inclined planes and passengers and freight would be transferred back to canal boats to continue their journey. By the mid-1830s sectional packet boats had been developed that could be separated and loaded onto the railroad cars, eliminating the time-consuming transfers.

 

 

At first, horses pulled the cars over the level stretches between inclines. They proved to be too slow and were replaced by steam locomotives that could travel at speeds up to 15mph. By 1840 the trip between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had been reduced to four days from a pre-canal time of 23 days. The physical comfort of traveling had been improved substantially, too.

 

 

 

 

Rail on the level portions was supported in iron chairs anchored to stone sleepers

 

 

The machinery was arranged so that the hoisting cable ran in a continuous loop and there were two parallel tracks, one ascending and the other descending. Whenever possible descending cars were used to counterbalance the weight of ascending cars, reducing the strain on the machinery.

 

 

 

In peak periods cars were hauled over the inclines every ten minutes, resulting in considerable wear on the 3 1/2-inch hemp rope, and frequent breakage. Although the cars were equipped with devices to help prevent runaways in such situations, and although the devices sometimes worked, the recoiling rope could main or kill anyone who got in its way and the delays had a serious impact on the busy system. Because the rope ran in a continuous loop, a break stopped traffic in both directions. John Roebling suggested they try the wire rope he was developing, and by 1849 all the planes were using Roebling's cable.

 

 

The inclines averaged a half-mile in length, some with grades approaching ten percent. Cars averaged about 7,000 pounds each, and the hoisting engines could pull them in sets of three up the grade at about 4mph. At six trains per hour during busiest times, and considering how little exposure most people then had to technology and heavy machinery, that must have been a thrilling sight. I'd venture that I'd get chills seeing it even now.

 

 

 

About 1832 Samuel Lemon built the structure that served as his house and business office and tavern serving meals to travelers in well-appointed, spacious, well-lighted dining rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early 1850s the state started construction on a new continuous portage railroad that would eliminate the slow, costly-to-operate inclines. Before it was ever finished, the Pennsylvania Railroad completed its line through the Alleghenies in 1854, establishing continuous rail service between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The canal and portage railroad shut down after being purchased by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1857, only 23 years after opening.

I was going to add that anecdote about Roebling but you beat me to it.  Definitely one of the most fascinating parts of the canal era.  Is this the same canal ROW that is now the Pennsylvania Turnpike? 

It's amazing to realize just how much money and labor went into developing the canal network, only to have it all abandoned or neglected just a few decades after their openings.

 

Great write up and photographs Rob!

^----True, but the canals facilitated their own demise by providing the infrastructure upon which to build the railroads.

 

 

Neat!

I was going to add that anecdote about Roebling but you beat me to it.  Definitely one of the most fascinating parts of the canal era.  Is this the same canal ROW that is now the Pennsylvania Turnpike? 

 

I don't know about the turnpike, but it seems likely. Considering the terrain, there probably wasn't much duplication of effort to build canals across the state. The railway system spanned the distance between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown.

 

It's amazing to realize just how much money and labor went into developing the canal network, only to have it all abandoned or neglected just a few decades after their openings.

^----True, but the canals facilitated their own demise by providing the infrastructure upon which to build the railroads.

 

Even in the 1800s new technology advanced very rapidly. Advances in metallurgical science led to the ability to produce larger quantities of higher-quality iron, and later, steel, than had been possible with early charcoal furnaces and hand methods. That led to stronger, safer boilers and more powerful, rugged engines to move longer, heavier trains on steeper grades.

 

The advancement of steam power technology led to machines that could move earth and drill through rock much faster than large work gangs had been able to with hand tools and animal power. Once the railroads got a foothold, they were able to expand rapidly. They moved freight and passengers much more rapidly than canal boats and could operate year-around, whereas northern canals froze over for months at a time.

 

And yes, the canal builders created water-level grades that were ideally suited for railroad construction. The line that is now the Whitewater Valley Railroad in Indiana was built on a canal towpath, and the Nickel Plate Railroad, now Norfolk Southern,  traverses Fort Wayne on the former route of the Wabash-Erie Canal. There were many such instances. Some canal companies, like the Chesapeake and Ohio, saw the writing in the mud and transformed themselves into railroad companies.

 

Some canal companies continued to operate as "hydraulic" companies after the loss of freight and passenger traffic. They sold water to run turbines that powered factories and mills along their routes. That business died off as the industries grew and installed steam engines to meet increased power demands, and the final blow to some canals came in the form of flood damage that they couldn't afford to repair.

Yes, the Pennsylvania Turnpike uses right of way from the old Portage Railroad. I also recall reading that the turnpike used (still uses?) one of the railroad tunnels. I don't know if that's still the case because at least a couple of the turnpike's original (1940) tunnels are no longer used.

 

P.S. cool pictures. I need to visit this area someday.

neat!

Fascinating history.  Is that rail actually split in half I see?  That's not actually made of iron is it?  That seem to be brittle.

Fascinating history.  Is that rail actually split in half I see?  That's not actually made of iron is it?  That seem to be brittle.

I think that lengthwise mark is probably a rolling seam. I doubt if that is salvaged authentic old rail, more likely reproduction. The original rail almost certainly would have been iron, and from charcoal furnaces, at that. It would have been high in carbon and brittle indeed.

 

Higher grades of iron in that era were made in small quantities with high labor content, by highly skilled artisans. Only in the late 19th century was it possible for relatively low-skilled workers to efficiently produce large quantities of good quality iron via the Bessemer process. By the 1920s, open-hearth furnaces had replaced many of the Bessemer Converters.

 

The very high quality and authenticity of the replica hoisting engine and locomotive at Allegheny Portage make we wonder if the National Park Service was working on recreating an operational demonstration site when someone pulled the plug on financing, possibly in the aftermath of the Contract on America. Of course, no NPS staffer who values his/her job would ever want to discuss anything like that.

 

As nearly as I could tell, that machinery isn't a mockup. It looks like real castings and forgings, machined and assembled to work like the originals.

 

Notice on the incline, there's strap rail -- iron straps fastened to timbers. That stuff was wicked as hell. There are accounts of snakeheads; the rolling pressure of iron wheels over the rail, deforming the wood beneath, eventually would cause the rail to break loose from the wood timbers and curl upward, and often the end would go up through the wood floor of a coach, impaling or beheading or otherwise maiming passengers. On the comparatively slow-moving application of an incline, where the car could be stopped very quickly, it was probably less of a hazard.

This is absolutely fascinating.  Rob, thanks a bunch for posting this.  I recall reading about these inclines and cool to see this is being interpreted.