PA Parks: Allegheny Portage Railroad

In an earlier post I mentioned how I hadn’t visited many of the Pennsylvania parks.  I took a day of my vacation to visit the Flight 93 and Johnstown Flood Memorials. As I was researching in preparation for my trip I discovered another park close by that I had never heard of – The Allegheny Portage Railroad.

By the time I reached the Allegheny Portage Railroad I was exhausted. If you read the posts on the other two parks of the day you know that I had been given an emotional beating. Now it was 4:00 pm, the park closed in an hour, but I was determined to make discoveries. My first discovery was that when you get to a park that late in the day you don’t have to pay the entrance fee! So don’t let time stop you from visiting a nearby park. Even if you have less than an hour you can learn something.

The visitor center looks like an old train depot. I loved it, probably my favorite visitor center so far. I didn’t have time to look around or watch the introduction film like I usually do.  Instead I headed down the boardwalk to Engine House 6.

In 1826 Pennsylvania needed to develop a faster way to get people and goods from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and vice versa. The Erie Canal recently opened and the merchants of New York City were thriving as those in Philadelphia struggled with no efficient way to move their goods west. By 1831 most of the Main Line canal system was finished, but no one wanted to deal with the issue of the Allegheny Mountains. Tunneling a canal through the mountains was considered, but eventually a decision was made to go over them.

On March 18, 1834 a system of 10 inclined planes opened. People and goods were transferred from their canal boats to railroad cars, pulled up five inclines, then lowered back down the other side of the mountain via five more inclines. Soon someone developed sectional canal boats and now each section could be floated on to a rail car, pulled up the mountain, lowered down the other side, and floated back into the canal — eliminating the need for a transfer. People now rode their boats (as opposed to “rowed their boats”) on a train car up and down the mountain! How crazy is that?!

The inclines were too steep for the locomotives of the day so the cars were pulled with the power of stationary steam engines located on the planes between each incline – think of it like going up a hill on a roller coaster. The railcars/boats on one side of the mountain acted as a counter balance for the railcars/boats on the other side. Locomotives would pull the cars along the planes. Horses were always a backup – even on the inclines. If the engines failed, horses would pull the cargo up the mountain. I’m not sure what these railcars and boats looked like, but it’s hard to imagine horses pulling a train up a mountain! It was probably also exceptionally slow. When using the locomotives and steam engines it took 6 hours to travel 36 miles.

Engine House 6

Steam Engines in Engine House 6

At Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site you can visit an engine house to get a better understanding of how the process worked. You can also tour the Lemon House. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get a bit excited at the prospect of Liz’s ancestors living there. The Lemon House was a tavern built steps from the Portage Railroad to serve passengers. The first floor of the house is open for self guided tours and sections have been restored to what it probably looked like in the 1840s. It was interesting to see the accommodations serving the different classes of passengers.

Despite being a remarkable engineering feat, the Allegheny Portage Railroad was obsolete soon after completion – just like the canal system. The railroad was a much stronger, more efficient option and it quickly became the transportation method of choice. Unlike canals, railroads don’t freeze in winter (although according to Amtrak there is a problem when the tracks get cold). 23 years after the first train/boat climbed the Alleghenies, the portage was abandoned.

This has been my most fascinating park visit to date. I had never heard of floating boats on to train cars to take them over mountains! And it all happened a few hours from my house. What will you discover? Get out there, explore, and let me know what you learn. Tweet me: @valeriedperry

To learn more about the Allegheny Portage Railroad visit: http://www.nps.gov/alpo/index.htm