fredmcain wrote:Can anyone tell me the rationale behind the abandonment of the former B&O mainline across West Virginia? This has never made much sense to me. At first I didn't believe it believing instead that I must've misunderstood or something.
This post probably should have been made in the Fallen Flag section of this forum under the B&O/C&O/WM discussion area, but since it was made here, I'll go ahead and provide what might be the various factors to a possible answer.
If you're familiar with the physical plant of what the Parkersburg Branch used to be, you probably know that much of it was single-tracked and much of it had a string of 23 tunnels along its entire route. Only one of those tunnels was double-tracked and all the rest were single-tracked, with an average of one tunnel every four miles for its entire length between Clarksburg and Parkersburg. From the time of its opening until major renovation of the tunnels in the early 1960's, locomotives and rolling stock grew progressively larger not only in length, but also in height. During that time, repairs and modifications to the tunnels and to the route itself were made when needed.
When the C&O took control of the B&O in 1963, the major task of making major modifications to the string of tunnels and the route itself was undertaken. This resulted in the raising of tunnel clearances to 17'2" to enable transport of 13'6" piggyback trailers (the old B&O "Trailer Jets", if you recall them) at that time. This construction work included raising the clearances of four tunnels, five tunnels had their floors lowered, eight tunnels were daylighted into cuts by bypassing three tunnels and replacing one tunnel that had collapsed with an entirely new tunnel. All this work was completed in five months at a then-1963 cost of $8,500,000.
Meanwhile, not long after the completion of this work to the Branch, transportation of auto parts from Indianapolis to assembly plants in Baltimore and Wilmington, as well as appliances in much larger special cars intended for transport of these items eastward. Also, there was transport of completed automobiles in special railroad car racks that in many cases were unable to make it through the tunnel clearances of the Parkersburg Branch. Some auto transport cars were constructed such that the second level of these cars had to be open to be able to make it through the tunnels, but that presented a problem with security and pilferage of automobiles that were on the top level of these cars, so they had to be modified to be fully enclosed, thus dooming their ability to clear through the Parkersburg Branch tunnels. Over time, length and size of trains in their transport of finished goods increased considerably, rendering the physical plant of the Parkersburg Branch obsolete. As far as continued use of the Parkersburg Branch was concerned as a major east-west route, its single-track plant, small tunnels, and little business potential from any customers along its route, its days became numbered.
fredmcain wrote:How does CSX handle hot, intermodal freight from the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area to St Louis?
Note that with the breakup of Conrail's route assets in 1999, both CSX and NS benefited with gaining extra routes and mileage to enable their longer intermodal and auto transportation trains to take advantage of more level and greater routes, enabling passage of their lengthy and large-sized assets over routes that were constructed years later. I'm not sure exactly what routes inherited from Conrail helped in travel of intermodal freight from Baltimore/Washington to St. Louis. Earlier constructed routes such as the Parkersburg Branch and the winding eastward uphill route over the Appalachians from Grafton, WV, had been rendered obsolete, resulting in the movement of basically coal-only moves. The addition of the former Conrail routes provided some relief of traffic over Sand Patch Grade from Cumberland to Pittsburgh.
Hopefully, some of what I've provided here gives at least a partial answer, not actually having worked for CSX during any of this time.
Wade Rice
Member, B&O RR Historical Society
http://www.borhs.org
Daniel Willard (1860-1942) and Jervis Langdon, Jr. (1905-2004) - Two of B&O's best presidents and managers!
President Leonor Loree (1858-1940) brought the B&O into the 20th century!
