Origin of Switchback

[NW Mailing List]

I am under the impression that  Archives photo DS00125 shows a connection
that was created to a portion of the old main line (at the higher
elevation) during the 1950's re-alignment.  You can view what is left of
this if you zoom in on the substation area on Google Maps.  Can anyone
confirm or refute?
Jim Cochran

On Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 12:15 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
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