This uniquely steep grade on the former West Virginia Central and Pittsburg Railroad, later the Western Maryland Railway, is located just past the location of a rail bridge and demonstrates the obstacles faced in transporting coal and other goods in this part of West Virginia. Few rail routes required more machinery or personnel to keep coal moving up the Blackwater Canyon grade. To get a loaded, 90-car coal train up to Douglas and into Thomas, it took nine locomotives to pull the coal hopper cars up the 3% grade of the Blackwater Canyon. Downhill trips were also difficult: in the 19th century, brakemen walked the car tops to set each car’s brakes by hand. Later, air brakes could stop an entire train from a valve in the engine cab, but still required great skill for safe use. source
From the sign: "Living near the train track was noisy, and dirty because of all the cinders and smoke coming from the locomotives. Passenger trains would go by 4 times a day...and coal freights...twice a day. It took 40 minutes for a steam engine to get from Hendricks to Douglas. You could hear them blow the whistle at the Handrics crossing, and then time them coming up the grade.
Kids would put soap on the rail, which would make the trains get temporarily stuck as the wheels slipped and spun in place. This generated a lot of smoke which was bad if it was a Monday and everyone had laundry hanging out on the line..." Richard Crawford, recalling childhood in Douglas in the 1940s.
W's note: I bet they got a switch to their behinds!!
