Does anyone know the story of how Hagans Switchback came to be and is there still any traffic that uses it? Was it the result of L&N abandoning to Cumberland Gap or was it always there? Why did L&N abandon the simple through route in exchange for the circuitous route at Hagans and to the west?
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The switchback has been there for at least a hundred years and is the only mainline switchback still in use in North America. As for the Cumberland Gap line the weak spot was always a long and high steel trestle at Rose Hill,Va which was restricted to only one four axle diesel locomotive crossing it at a time. As trains got longer and heavier more traffic left the Cumberland Gap line until it handled local traffic only by the 1970s.The line was abandoned in 1987 and much of the right of way sold to the state for widening the parallel highway to four lanes,hardly a trace of the railroad exists today. The switchback was built as a temporary set up,but L&N elected to never finance a more direct connection.
Get a copy of the August 1985 issue of TRAINS. "The CC&O connection" by Ron Flanary, will tell you everything you need to know about this line.
BTW, the connection (the switchback and adjacent Hagans Tunnel), opened 12/1/1930.
Thanks for the info and reference. Lets hope coal in that area doesn't dry up completely...as there certainly isn't other traffic to my knowledge.
Thanks for the info and reference. Lets hope coal in that area doesn't dry up completely...as there certainly isn't other traffic to my knowledge.
With NS and CSX shutting down lines in the Appalachian coal fields left and right, the UP's coal business revenues off by 31% and the government's hostility to coal use of any kind, I wouldn't think the Hagans tunnel and switchback is long for this world.
Of course some rose-colored glasses railfans will tell you that the loss of coal traffic can be made up by other commodities.
I think the next gut punch the railroads are going to have to adapt to are the changing intermodal traffic patterns occasioned by the eventual opening of the new supersized locks on the Panama Canal scheduled sometime in 2016.
The containers will still have to go inland. Some will still traverse the US on rail. I think it will just spread the freight across more ports.