Origin of Switchback

[NW Mailing List]

Thanks to Cris Dalton and all who have responded to my question about 
the origin of the name Switchback.  It would be great if we knew how the 
material and equipment was transported up the hillside to construct the 
Switchback power station during the era when the railroad was obviously 
the carrier.

Gordon Hamilton

Attendee, Bluefield schools, Ramsey and Whitethorn.


On 4/20/2021 10:07 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:
>
> When Appalachian Power Company took over the power plant in 1911 it 
> intended to put the power plant in stand-by status. The last year the 
> power plant actually generated power was in 1914. In 1927 it was 
> rebuilt as a distribution center and the power generation plant was 
> removed.  The photograph is a tail track coming off of the relocated 
> Elkhorn Branch that was built about 1950 when the new Maybeury bridge 
> went into operation.
>
> Appalachian Power sold the Switchback Distribution facility back to 
> the Pocahontas Fuel Company in 1955 because it was on Pocahontas Fuel 
> property.
>
> Alex Schust
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NW-Mailing-List [mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On 
> Behalf Of NW Mailing List
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2021 3:11 AM
> To: NW Mailing List
> Subject: Origin of Switchback
>
> 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
>
>
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