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World Famous Horseshoe Curve Altoona Pennsylvania Railroad Steam Locomotives of
World Famous Horseshoe Curve Altoona Pennsylvania Railroad Steam Locomotives of Yesteryear
Soft Cover stapled
Copyright 1973 reprinted by permission of the Altoona Chamber of Commerce
64 pages
Various engineers had been dreaming for two decades on how to conquer the Alleghenies, the biggest obstacle in the Westward March of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The first attempt was the Allegheny Portage Railroad, built by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and opened in 1834. This was a series of steep inclines which the cars were hauled up by ropes connected to a stationary hoisting engine.
Nobody was satisfied with this slow and cumbersome method. In 1839, the Commonwealth commissioned Col. Charles L. Schlatter, an engineer, to survey a direct route without inclined planes. He produced three plans-a northern, a southern, and a middle route, but the State took no action on his proposals. However, when J. Edgar Thompson was appointed chief engineer of the PRR in 1847, a year after the Company was founded, he re-surveyed and improved the middle route, following the valley of the Juniata River.
This provided a good, level route all the way to the foot of the Alleghenies. From here .. . what is now Altoona . . . Mr. Thomson's aides pushed out into the wilderness to find a route across the mountains that would not exceed a grade of l.8', . : . that is, a rise of 1.8 feet in 100 feet of distance. They crossed some low ridges southwest of Altoona, then came to a lovely valley that ran westward. They followed the ridge that paralleled this valley, and found they could lay rails there with 1.75% grade.
But 5 1/2 miles from Altoona they encountered trouble. The valley ran abruptly into a mountain side and split into two deep ravines.
Slightly to the left, southwest across the valley, they saw another mountain ridge which they later found would carry their rails at a satisfactory l.73% grade. It ran southward for a short distance and then westward again up the mountainside to a spot near Gallitizin, where they had determined to tunnel.
But how could they get the tracks to that ridge?To go directly across the valley would have meant building a bridge with a 4.37% grade. That was far too steep for practical rail operations.
Mr. Thomson and his aides then turned back to those twin ravines and devised what might be called a detour. They would route their tracks directly westward to the first ravine . . . Kittanning Run . . . and build a huge fill to take the tracks across it. Then they would slice off the face of the mountain so the tracks would make a big semi-circle, and, moving almost due east now, they would go across the second ravine ... Burgoon's Run ... by means of another great fill. That would put them on the ridge they wanted to reach. The big semicircle became, of course, Horseshoe Curve.
This suggests the answer to a question that has been asked by thousands of passengers on trains, visitors at the Curve, and rail fans. Why didn't the PRR cut directly across the valley and bypass Horseshoe Curve? In establishing the "round-about-way" . . . an additional 14/5 miles . . . they "stretched out" a steep grade until it became sufficiently flat for practical operation.
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