1. The Railroad Sights Of Gallitzin, Pennsylvania
Little more than a speck in Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountain region, Gallitzin provides a significant
draw to both railroad and history buffs. It is the very hills surrounding it, when conquered with monitor
, which sparked the particular engineering feats to be seen today.
Located half way between Altoona inside the east and Johnstown in the west off of the appropriately-
designated "Gallitzin" exit people Route 22, town itself, a borough bordered by Gallitzin Township and
Tunnelhill in Cambria region , was incorporated in 1872 and took its name in the prince who started
nearby Loretto.
Developing round coal as well as coke production, it ranks as the tenth-highest city in the state , its
topography mandating the very tunnels that it is now known, since prohibitive grade, then beyond
current architectural maturity, left little other option inside the railroads' quest for westward expansion.
Three region tunnels were ultimately bored through Gallitzin's peaks. The first, the brand new Portage
and situated under Tunnelhill with a 2,167-foot elevation , was completed about December 10, 1852
after E. Rutter and Sons, contracted for the $500,thousand project, manually bombarded dirt and
stone with shovels as well as picks with their 300-strong team. The second, the ,605-foot-long
Allegheny as well as located at Milepost 248, was carried out 1854, and first used on February six.
Coupled with the Gallitizin, it is considered one of many "twin tunnels."
The latter, constructed in between 1902 and 1904, was employed, together with its Allegheny sibling ,
by the Pennsylvania railroad. They were the highest as well as longest engineering achievements of
the time, enabling the particular railroad, after settling the Horseshoe contour , to continue its
westward travel from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh.
Its use, however, was no longer needed if the $25 million Conrail Pennsylvania Clearance
enhancement Project, initiated due to the progressive loss of state-circumventing rail traffic,
decreased its floor to supply clearance for double-stacked cars and increased it to accommodate
dual-and dual-direction-track. Employing more technologically-advanced construction means than its
19th-century crew counterpart, the particular 90-strong team completed the work in september of
1995, leaving behind the once-equal Gallitzin tunnel trackless as well as abandoned.
Gallitzin train line ownership paralleled the ownership modifications of the railroads on their own. The
very short-lived Penn Central, formed in 1968 as a result of the particular merger between the almost-
institutional Pennsylvania Railroad as well as New York Central, produced to Conrail by way of the
bankruptcy procedure , itself created by the particular amalgamation of several screwing up
northeastern lines, including the Erie Lackawanna, the particular LeHigh Valley, as well as the
Reading. A twin purchase of Conrail through Norfolk Southern as well as CSX Transportation in 1999
ensured that it is Pennsylvania routes, plying the tunnel through Gallitzin, were maintained by Norfolk
Southern's Pittsburgh line. NEarly all of its eastbound locomotives employ track a single through the
New Portage Tunnel, while the westbound ones make use of track three with the Allegheny Tunnel.
The particular latter's track a couple of can be used for both.
The tunnels facilitate both passenger as well as freight transport. Amtrak, for instance, routes 4 daily

2. trains through them. Coal cars , destined for powerplants, travel easterly as well as return empty for
more replenishment by Pennsylvania's coal mines, although half of its operations transfer intermodal
shipments to the Midwest, especially to Chicago, street. Louis, and might.
Gallitzin Tunnels playground and Museum:
The area's railroad traditions can be experienced-in motion-at the Gallitzin channels Park and
memorial. Its Community traditions Museum, sharing the middle with borough offices , the library, as
well as the police station, exhibits railroad memorabilia as well as model trains as well as shows the
"when Upon a mountain " film in its 24-seat theater room.
The park, located down the street , between the museum as well as the actual tunnels, comes with a
restored, 1942 pa Railroad NSC caboose. Originally built in Juniata Shops and obtained from Conrail,
the vehicle , bearing number CR23081, features a 36-foot size , ten-foot width, 15-foot height, and
40-inch wheel width, as well as was restored through Pennsylvania Railroad volunteers. Its interior, in
existence with radio transmissions from trains while using tunnels, sports transmission lights, an
atmosphere brake system, sleeping quarters, a rest region , a pot bellied stove for warmth and
cooking, as well as the caboose-characteristic cupola.
An observation platform overlooks the once-identical dual tunnels-the Gallitzin, on the left, sporting
the original height as well as width, but now trackless with only the dirt bed remaining , and the
Allegheny, on the right, displaying the higher and broader "mouth" and projecting two tracks.
Frequent operations, detailed by the Norfolk Southern teach schedule available in the particular
museum and listing times, origins as well as destinations, and forms of freight, ensure teach
identification, while the tunnel's almost-echoing effects boost their power, sending oscillations , via the
ground, to the observer's toes.
Allegheny Portage railroad :
Only a mile in the Gallitzin Tunnels playground and Museum is an additional important sight, the
particular Allegheny Portage railroad. Like the tunnels on their own , it was one of the nineteenth
century's major architectural feats.
Although the particular nascent United States provided significant opportunities, the sheer size as
well as lack of infrastructure equally offered significant road blocks , particularly to most of the
European immigrants which had entered the united states by means of its conventional New York-
Ellis tropical isle threshold and now wished to journey westward. Streets , of any form, tracked their
paths over the eastern seaboard, but were separated by the imposing Appalachian hills , whose
natural buffer was virtually impenetrable. A section of them in Pennsylvania, the Alleghenies, rose like
a roadblock between Philadelphia as well as Pittsburgh, and the couple of rudimentary trails more
than them-clogged, rough, as well as muddy-were often blocked by the foot, horse , and wagon traffic
laboriously inching them over.
Strung across the state and rising in order to thousands of feet, the lake challenged engineers to
overcome them. Technology, however--in little more of an sophisticated state than the nation itself--
was almost nonexistent.
But the Conestoga wagons braving the particular mountainous traverse, taking on dirt, rock, gravel ,

3. and overgrowth, took 23 days to close the gap between the east and the gulf under the most ideal,
dry-road conditions. Something was needed.
Waterway travel, offering faster, obstacle-free transport by canal watercraft , demonstrated a marked
enhancement in speed, ease , and comfort, nevertheless the method's integral element-the canals
themselves-were barely in abundance, and never inside the desired locations. The solution ,
therefore, remained in order to dredge them, inducing the optimum length as well as direction.
During the particular mid-1820s, New York state did just that, creating the Erie channel , and, by
1825, it exerted 4 effects:
1). It facilitated passenger as well as freight transport.
2). It reduced vacation times.
3). It sparked an increase in business , by means of its new route.
4). It caused a corresponding reduction in the traditionally strong trade associated with Philadelphia,
as it had been rerouted to western markets via the Erie Canal.
Transportation viability clearly signaled a lifeline, like an artery pumping blood, with a city, and not
enough it caused it to die.
Alarmingly awakened by this fact , the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the Mainline of Public
actively works to commence construction of your trans-Pennsylvania water artery, running in an
easterly-westerly direction and specified the "Main collection Canal," to connect the two major cities.
But the 36.65-mile stretch through the Allegheny Mountains, needed to close the gap between either
finish , proved an architectural obstacle.
An at first envisioned solution--a four-mile tunnel through the lower mountain--was costly, as well as
experience was regarded inadequate to also attempt it. Questions concerning a tunnel-contained
waterway also came into being. While its vision was advanced, technology was not.
Inspired by way of a hybrid, intermodal british transportation system, it ultimately decided to design its
combination network in order to link the Hollidaysburg Canal Basin inside the east with the Johnstown
one in the gulf by means of ten, mountain-negotiating, inclined planes as well as constant-elevation
canals in order to serve as the full principal Line Canal's core of connection. It absolutely was
designated the "Allegheny Portage Railroad."
Coupled with the already intricate , state-owned canal program , which encompassed aqueducts,
tunnels, reservoirs, dams , 82 miles of railroad track, as well as 276 miles of waterway, it would
significantly reduce the journey period of passengers as well as goods and restore the trade lost to
the competitive Erie Canal.
The three-year construction project, completed on March 20 , 1834, entailed the initial rail tunnel,
known as Staple Bend as well as routed through the ridge at the top of inclined plane number one,
reducing, through 2.5 kilometers , the distance the monitor would otherwise have had to pay for if it
had honored the valley's normal route, while the plane itself was one ,608 feet extended and had a
corresponding , 150-foot elevation obtain.
Project costs integrated $16.5 thousand for the public works system and $1.8 million for your railroad.
"Portage," defined as "overland transport between bodies of water," became the lacking link in the

4. waterway stretching almost four hundred miles between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Although feasible and highly successful, the water-and-rail, multiple-elevation system provided slow
passage. Passengers and cargo, originating in the east as well as traversing the Main collection
Canal in watercraft , were transferred in the Hollidaysburg Basin in order to rail cars, which were
horse-drawn to the first grade. Hitched with a continuous cable, which usually moved over wheels
between the rails, they were hoisted up the tend at a four-mph speed , propelled by one of two
stationary, 35-hp heavy steam engines installed beneath the engine shed's floor at the top of the
particular incline, often together with descending cars to attain a counterbalance between the two.
The second heavy steam engine served being a backup.
Descent speeds , aided by the law of gravity , were minimized through pulley-installed water brakes.
As many because six hourly locomotives could surmount the particular inclined plane.
Of the ten of which , the number three had been the shortest, from 1,480 toes and with a
corresponding 131-foot elevation obtain , while the number eight was the longest , at 3,117 and 308
toes , respectively.
Threading their way through the Allegheny Portage Railroad's 36.65-mile mountainous part , canal
boats climbed 1,398 toes and descended one ,172 feet, before being refloated inside the Johnstown
Basin for your western portion of the key Line Canal quest to Pittsburgh.
Several improvements, incorporating advancing technology, were steadily introduced.
Traditional, early on locomotives lacked adequate power to propel the particular freight-laden rail cars
up the inclines, necessitating the stationary heavy steam engines instead. But , a year after the
Allegheny Portage Railroad had become operational, the particular horses were swapped out by
locomotives for level propulsion. The initial , the "Boston," carried out the equivalent work of 18
horses, as well as 16 others eventually joined the fleet.
The "intermodal" character of the operation took on new meaning when sectional box boats, each
evaluating about 7,thousand pounds, were launched , splitting, like massive cargo containers, as well
as floating on to the tend plane-ascending railroad cars in either the Hollidaysburg or Johnstown
basins, three hitched to the continuous cable at a time in the lower get rid of. The tri-section
arrangement , fitted with a spring-loaded friction brake powering it to preclude runaway conditions,
greatly reduced the inconvenience as well as transfer times natural in the initial, repacking method,
and triggerred continuous, cohesive transport from origin in order to destination, regardless of the
water or rail function intermittently negotiated.
The 3.5-inch hemp rope originally used for towing, subjected to prolonged wear and splitting , was
replaced by way of a stronger line made of wire.
Indeed, through 1840, the previous overland, trans-Pennsylvania journey had been reduced from
twenty three days to just 4.
The pace of technology, soon showing itself faster compared to the railroad, ultimately outran it and
generated its demise, because ever-more powerful engines and advanced, topography-taming
construction techniques triggerred more comfortable, rapid, continuous-track competition, which
avoided the slower interchange system.

5. Attempting in order to plug the gap-of inefficiency-between the Hollidaysburg and Johnstown channel
basins, the state of pa began to replace the particular inclined plane together with continuous, bed-
bound monitor routed through a Gallitzin-proximity tunnel, designated the particular "New Portage
railroad ," thus relegating the first system and notion , in name, to the "Old Portage railroad."
Victim, itself, in order to technologically-outpacing competition, it absolutely was purchased on
summer 15, 1857 for $7.5 thousand by the Pennsylvania railroad after legislature had approved the
purchase of its Public works Main Line channel , and was incorporated into its own monitor network.
Having completed its all-rail link between Philadelphia as well as Pittsburgh by means of the brand
new Horseshoe Curve as well as Gallitzin tunnels on february 15, it steadily siphoned off enterprise
from the slower, less-convenient, and now-antiquated program , which operated at a loss. And, after
2 full decades , it was discontinued-a fairly short span of time, but a long one for advancement-and
dismantled.
The Allegheny Portage Railroad's success could be argued. Utilizing then-current technology, it
absolutely was innovative for its serious amounts of based upon contemporary architectural
techniques to surmount the particular topographical obstacles lying down between the state's a
couple of major cities. Although it failed to capture the particular envisioned western areas , it
significantly decreased travel times, provided increased comfort, triggerred trade between the coal-
producing towns in the west as well as the larger cities inside the east, fostered westward population
expansion, rekindled business temporarily lost to the Erie channel route, provided a living laboratory
for emerging transportation technologies, as well as aided Pennsylvania in the development as an
industrial state characterized by fossil fuel , iron, steel, as well as rail.
A tiny slice of this once-innovative, intermodal, mountain-hurdling transportation system can be
knowledgeable at the Allegheny Portage Railroad National historical Site.
Allegheny Portage Railroad National historical Site:
Like all the country's national historical landmarks, that of the particular Allegheny Portage railroad is
a preserved wallet of history, situated in present time and not necessarily between the covers of your
book. When it had served the purpose, it was tucked into the annals of memory, having served as
one of the steps person needed to climb during his earthly excursion.
Its Visitor center , featuring artifacts, exhibits , and the appropriately-named "Allegheny Portage
Railroad" movie , displays a full-size locomotive model of the particular "Lafayette," built through
engineer Joseph york and having earlier appeared at the Baltimore and Ohio exhibit in Chicago in
1893 and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904.
Adapted, in 1832, from edward Bury's British train locomotive design, the 30 ,630-pound "Lafayette,"
with a 12.5-inch canister diameter, 20-inch heart stroke , and 13-inch collection diameter, had a 4-2-
0-wheel configuration and had been ideally suited to the particular Allegheny Portage railroad. By
1840, the sort pulled almost two-thirds of all US locomotives.
A boardwalk qualified prospects from the Visitor center to inclined plane number six by way of a
chipmunk-inhabited forest along with a stone quarry. Despite the fact that no bonafide pit was ever
identified , archaeologists uncovered both abundant broken rock and stone-cutting required for the

6. railroad's culverts, bridges, viaducts, engine house foundations, as well as stone sleepers. Openings
created by hand-held drills ensured that the burglary the stone would be straight.
The boardwalk terminates at the likely plane, which was 2 ,713 feet extended and had a
corresponding , 267-foot elevation obtain , resulting in a 9.7-percent grade. A renovation , it features
the particular hill-ascending tracks, whoever ropes were sustained by idler pulleys set up at 24-foot
time periods , leading to the mountain's summit and therefore served as either the past plane during
excursion or the first a single during descent, dependant on the direction of travel.
At the particular foot of the tend , a "hitcher" appendaged the westbound train cars to the principal
rope while another one disconnected these at the top in the engine house, after the brief climb,
allowing them to end up being horse-pulled across the peak level. The plane's hemp rope had been
2.23 inches thick here, even if this had later recently been replaced with the line type.
Despite the fact the engine residence exhibit itself is a reconstruction, it even so serves to protect the
particular original's foundation and represents one of ten such structures located over the intermodal
rail collection. With the exception of the central heating boilers , most of the machinery accustomed to
raise and lower the particular trains was situated below the ground stage , the hauling string itself just
previously mentioned the surface so that they might pass over it in the engine residence.
The machinery alone included the weight pit , a two-cylinder heavy steam engine located on either
side of the drive sheaves, three brick-encased central heating boilers originally installed on the
particular engine house's side , and the sheaves, ropes , and gear, rogues of which actually drawn
the train-connected string. Fired boilers provided the two engines' heavy steam.
Attendants hitched as well as unhitched the train cars, tended the particular engines and their boilers,
and moisturized the gear and the bearings.
Also within the creating is a full-size heavy steam engine model.
Cresson Summit marks the point where trains first crossed the Allegheny Portage Railroad in 1834.
The stone, two-story Lemon House, situated along the level monitor , represents one of many such
inns established due to the railroad in order to satisfy enroute passenger need for beverages, meals,
as well as overnight accommodation.
Born in 1793 in Huntingdon County, pa , Samuel Lemon themselves purchased his first 268 acres of
land in 1826, constructing a two-story log tavern east of the Allegheny mountains' summit on upper
Turnpike and succeeded it with the present stone structure in 1832. One of many business people
who had the particular foresight to anticipate passengers' needs and utilize his business experienced
to meet them, he or she also used the particular tavern and motel as his own home.
Subjected to several corrections , including south as well as east porch makeovers , the removal of
the storage area , reinforced framing, front entrance restoration, as well as repointed exterior wall
space , the Lemon residence , reopened in 1997 , sports a furnished first floor, which usually
represents its summer 1840 appearance.
Following the provided piste or the grassed tend in the opposite direction, today's visitor can access
the Skew mid-foot Bridge. The only path bridge purposefully built for the Allegheny Portage Railroad,
it was agreed as "a rock bridge which will be necessary for the passage of the turnpike over the train

7. Way on part number 36 for your Portage" by the original contract, despite the fact that its
specifications have been modified in 1833 to facilitate a bend in the Huntington, Cambria, and
indianapolis Turnpike.
Rising with a 22.2-foot elevation and constructed of busted stone and rock sleepers from a area of
the actual railroad--hand-laid inside a diagonal pattern with out mortar adhesion--it features arches
whose imposts were offset as well as installed directly around form one another, creating ,
respectively, its 54.11- and 60.5-foot long n. And south elevations. Contrary to its name , it does not
have a tilted top.
The 901-foot-long Staple Bend canal , also within the playground and created by Irish and Welsh
employees between 1831 as well as 1833, is the place's oldest such railroad tunnel, and was used
until 1854, if the Pennsylvania Railroad routed its track somewhere else. Today, it invites hikers
through the detailed stonework entry and features sandstone arched lines.
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