Origin of Switchback

[NW Mailing List]

Switch in photo appears to go to the old grade is my thought

Larry Evans

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 20, 2021, at 7:10 AM, NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:
> 
> The origin of Switchback goes back to at least 1892, and presumably to
> the original construction of the Elkhorn Extension.  Before the
> Construction of the Ohio Extension, the branch down into Maybeury
> would have been a true switchback off a dead-end branch instead of
> just another branch off of a mainline track.
> 
> Archives drawing HS-H10236, N&W RR drawing 869, shows the word
> "Switchback" twice. It is applied to the track down to the bottomlands
> at Maybeury, in the same font as the words "Elkhorn Extension" and the
> names of various other branches, and also applied to the location
> between the switch diverges from the Elkhorn Extension main back up
> -hollow and down-hill to the mines.
> https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=146991
> A small excerpt of the full drawing is attached.
> 
> Archives photo DS00125 is the same photo from the 2Q2014 issue of the
> Arrow that Chris Dalton mentioned, for those not inclined to dig out
> their back issues.
> https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=91333
> My thinking is that the track probably only reached the substation
> level and not all the way up to the power plant.
> 
> I presume the power plant was directly fed by a nearby mine for its
> entire active lifetime?.
> 
> Joe Shaw
> <DetailFromHS-H10236.jpg>
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