Okay, folks. I have a geography question for you. According the the book Baltimore And Ohio Railroad In the Potomac Valley, by Martin J. McGuirk, Sand Patch is show on a map on pages 11,12, and 46 as being squarely between Harpers Ferry and Cumberland. However, on Fort Wayne Railfan, shown here....http://www.fwarailfan.net/community/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=481, halfway down the page, Sand Patch is shown on the other end of the line between Connellsville and Cumberland. So, did Kalmbach publishing make a typographical error (the book is from the ClassicTrains: The Golden Years Of Railroading series), or is Sand Patch so long that it overlaps both ends of the route? I would really like it if someone could enlighten me!
Both locations are correct. Sand Patch is over 100 miles long, the present CSX (ex B&O) crossing of the Alleghenies.
Sand Patch is important in American rail history for having set the maximum grade on the UP/CP transcon. In 1862, Congress adopted the B&O's 2.2% Sand Patch ruling grade as the maximum to be allowed on the Federally financed route to the Pacific.
Chuck
So, technically speaking, Sand Patch can be said to start after Harpers Ferry, WV. and then climbing through Cumberland and Northwest to Connellsville?
Officially, the grade starts at Hyndman, PA and continues to Confluence, PA. CSX attaches helpers, when required at Cumberland to shove West and at Connellsville to shove East.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The 1862 standard for railroad grades was based on B&O's Cranberry and Seventeen mile grades on what is now CSX's Mountain Subdivision. The route across Sand Patch was not opened until 1871; and Sand Patch Grade is not 2.2%. The only grades on CSX that average 2% or more are an 8.7-mile segment of Cranberry Grade (2.11%) and an 11.2-mile segment of Seventeen Mile Grade (2.21%).