Nostalgia & History > Holy smoke...hitting the brakes coming down Sand Patch

Train handling coming down a mountain has always been an area where engineers earn their money. The heaviest loads on B&O and later Chessie moved east with the exception of westbound ore trains for the rust belt mills. Over on the west end was the 17 mile grade dropping from Altamont Md. into Piedmont /Keyser West Virginia. On the Pittsburgh side is Sand Patch. While not as steep as its West Virginia cousin, it boasted a 20 mile drop down the east slope from the summit to Hyndman. These 3 shots are on Sand Patch in 1975, and show liberal application of train brakes to keep the tonnage from going bye bye. Bottom shot is even more spectacular because of a light drizzle that was falling.

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Your b&w photographs are really spectacular and every day I look forward to your postings here on TO. Did your ever travel north of the border and shoot some Canadian roads ?

Neil Compton
Calgary, AB

While all the pictures are great that first one is fantastic!

Many times. I'm still looking over my Canadian shots. I photographed in 5 provinces.You'll be seeing some images soon. I loved the CP and CN mainlines between Vancouver and Banff/Edmonton, and the mainlines between Toronto and Montreal. My best friend and the godfather of my son is from Toronto. Matter of fact, I love Canada!

Outstanding work, Roadjob, as usual. Understand east slope, but do you have the specific locations recorded?
-Ted

I've seen photo's like that on the D&RGW too; no surprise being a mountain road.

Cheers, Jim

top shot is about 2 miles west of Hyndman, middle shot is coming through Hyndman, and bottom shot is just west of town limits of Hyndman

That first shot shows back when freight trains really were "freight trains" vs today's unit trains.

Looks like maybe only 2 of the 3 units had Dynamic Brakes, leading to more reliance on air brakes?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/18 10:22 by Kimball.

Those guys didn’t have much to work with for dynamics compared to today. With the GP9 in the middle of the first shot would the hogger have dyno’s through to the third unit?

that smell was fantastic. great photos

Great work! IIRC! The first shot is a spot the railroad used to call Hoblitzel. Both times I went back there I got a flat tire, so I haven't gone back in 20 years, lol.

Mountain railroading with B-B units. What a time.

With smoke like that, what are the chances of hot-metal brake shoe fragments creating any fires?