Seventeen Mile Grade is a steep section of track on the Mountain Subdivision of 17 miles in length, hence its name, between the summit at Altamont and the small town of Piedmont at the base of Backbone Mountain. As C.S. Roberts points out in his book the "West End", the hard part of mountain railroading is not going uphill because enough power can always be applied, but going downhill because most trains are terribly hard to slow down once they get moving. With most of the Mountain Subdivision's total tonnage moving east to Cumberland, it all has to be moved down Backbone Mountain which happens to rank among the top worst descending grades on the Eastern Seaboard. To illustrate how steep 17 Mile Grade is, once upon a time well into the CSX era an eastbound coal drag was descending the grade when it was forced to make an emergency application of its air brakes due to a mechanical failure. On most railroad lines an emergency application would immediately stop the train and prevent it from moving until the brakes were released, but Seventeen Mile is something entirely different. With both the airbrakes applied throughout the train's eighty cars and the locomotive brakes engaged, the coal drag was still slowly drifting down Backbone Mountain until the train's crew tied down enough handbrakes to completely stop it! Eastbound trains begin the journey down 17 Mile Grade to Piedmont just past the Maryland State Rt 135 Road Bridge at Altamont. To the north of the current two tracks was a large wye which was used to turn steam power until the 1950s, when dieselization made this practice unnecessary resulting in the removal of all but its western leg. The section of the Mountain Subdivision east of Altamont once had four tracks: two main tracks, the passing siding between AM Tower and Wilson, along with the six mile long third main track between "AM" Tower and the old "HX" Tower to the east at Strecker. Declining traffic levels ultimately resulted in the removal of the third main during the early 1970s while the passing siding survived well into the 1990s until the tower at Altamont closed leaving only the two mains.

The grade steepens quickly past the wye with the 2% mark reached almost immediately before the grade eases into a range hovering around 1.5% over the next mile to Wilson. As a result of this sudden dropoff from the summit, eastbound trains will begin to make their initial applications of the brakes as each tops the Deer Park Grade usually results in trains practically creeping over the top. East of Wilson Seventeen Mile Grade begins to contort into a series of almost never ending curves that will continue until Piedmont is reached at the bottom. After a very short section of near level track, the Mountain Subdivision begins to steepen further as the gradient increases to a range between 1.7% and 2.29% until just west of Swanton, Maryland, at a location known to crews as the "Swanton Flats". The "Flats" is a three fourth of a mile long section of near tangent track that contains grades ranging from almost level to .5%. As a consequence of this, eastbound trains which airbrakes have been applied too hard will often be forced to apply power to pull the train through Swanton so that it will not stop. However, the real trap is on the eastern side of Swanton where the grade immediately dips to over 2% forcing engineers to have a careful hand when bringing their train across the "Swanton Flats" - too much air and the train will stop, too little air and on the far side down the Mountain she'll go. As for the town of Swanton, it served an important role on the West End as an interlocking until the Era of Reconstruction forced the plant to be moved farther east to Strecker. The West End continues to follow the isolated Crabtree Creek valley from Swanton with the railroad crossing its namesake stream no less than four times on several small bridges. Approximately three miles east of Swanton is the timetable location of Stecker which at one time controlled the interlocking at the eastern end of the third main track from Altamont. Strecker's HX Tower was closed shortly after the end of the steam era, although during its day it helped weave trains and helpers over the three and a half miles of double track between there and "BD" Tower at Bond, the beginning of another triple track section of the West End. In 1997 a runaway coal drag destroyed the old CPL Strecker signals, resulting in new SBD style lights being installed several hundred feet further west near the old Number 37 Water Station. 17 Mile Grade's only tunnel, the short 399.2 ft long Hitchcock Tunnel, is located a short distance farther downhill which is actually more apt to be called a covered cut due to its original excavation.

The railroad remains high above Crabtree Creek as the stream's valley deepens over the next four miles with the railroad's grade ranging between just under 2% and 2.5% from the eastern end of the previously mentioned "Swanton Flats". Near Crabtree Crossing the Mountain Subdivision leaves the Crabtree valley and passes around the southern shore of the large Savage River Reservior before following the Savage River Valley downhill to Bloomington. Shortly to the east of the reservior's dam is the old location of "BD" Tower at Bond, which at one time controlled both ends of a triple track section between "BD" and Big Curve to the east. Bond was similar to Strecker in the respect that both maintained interlockings while also controlling a steep runaway track that was used by eastbounds descending Seventeen Mile if they were in danger of running away or if they were already out of control as determined by a timing mechanism between two set points. However, like Strecker, Bond was closed shortly into the steam era and the runaway track removed, although its triple track section lasted into the early 1980s. East of Bond the Mountain Subdivision continues its descent of Backbone Mountain passing through several large curves such as Big Curve, which remotelly controlled the eastern end of the triple track section from Bond, and Warnicks Curve which contains one of the steepest segments of 17 Mile Grade at 2.57%. Warnicks Curve was one of the locations where a runaway coal drag derailed in February of 2000 leading CSX to install a new defect detector inside the curve. From Warnicks the railroad continues down the mountain passing through the small town of Bloomington, Maryland, which contains the steepest gradient of 2.69% on the entire grade between Altamont and Piedmont. On the downhill side of Bloomington the railroad crosses over the Potomac River and the CSX Thomas Subdivision on a three arch viaduct at the West Virginia - Maryland state line. 17 Mile Grade begins to ease just past the WV State Rt 46 road bridge before swinging east around the Beryl Wood Yard and Westvaco Plant at Luke. For the first time in almost sixteen miles, the Mountain Subdivision enters a mile long section of track outside the Piedmont Yard Limits that has a grade of less than 1%. Although this section between the Yard Board and Milepost BA206 is still considered part of 17 Mile Grade, the maximum gradient is little more than .5% that allows westbound trains requiring helpers to pull past the Childs Avenue Xing in Piedmont so the helpers may couple on for the shove west. Piedmont served as the base of helper operations on 17 Mile Grade during the early years of the B&O, but the introduction of longer trains and better power resulted in this operattion moved farther east to Keyser midway through the steam era.

The C&P Railroad also connected with the B&O in Piedmont until 1924 when the connecting bridge over the Potomac River between Piedmont and Westernport was washed away, resulting in the Georges Creek line being worked via the Western Maryland side of the Potomac ever since. Across from the old B&O station and depot in Piedmont is the small three track Westvaco receiving yard that is most commonly used by Q316 to set off or pick up cars from the Luke Switcher that works the large Westvaco Plant on a daily basis. On the east side of the yard is a set of remotely controlled crossover switches which allows trains to be ran on either main track between West Keyser to the east and Mountain Lake Park. The 18480 ft long Eastbound Passing Siding between Piedmont and West Keyser also diverges at the interlocking, although currently the western end of the siding is out of service. The Mountain Subdivision's Interchange Track diverges on the south side of the Piedmont interlocking providing access to the Westvaco receiving yard along with a connection to the Thomas Subdivision at West Virginia Central Junction. This track is reguarly used by the Luke Switchers moving between Luke and Keyser, along with the less common Henry Turns destined for Bayard, West Virginia, or the Georges Creek Turns bound for the Georges Creek Subdivision at Westernport, Maryland. A short distance east of the Piedmont interlocking at Milepost BA206 is the official end of Seventeen Mile Grade after a drop of more than 1700 feet or 100 feet per mile from Altamont - in all, an outstanding segment of railroad. During this section the eastbound downgrade operations over 17 Mile Grade have received most of the attention, although the westbound uphill ops should be touched upon. Following the introduction of high powered diesel locomotives in the latter part of the 20th century, helper operations used to push westbounds from West Keyser / Piedmont up 17 Mile Grade to Altamont began to decline as freight traffic fell in the late 1970s. By the late 1990s, the Keyser Helper usually consisted of a single SD50 / 60 that was rarely used on trains climbing Seventeen Mile as a result of CSX opting to move westbound trains which were not heavy enough helpers - ie, restricting train length and tonnage. When a Keyser Helper is required, the helper set will usually tie on at either West Keyser or just west of the Childs Avenue Xing in Piedmont after the westbound train has stopped just short of the Woodyard signals where the grade begins to steepen.



[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Randy Strogen. In September of 1980, a lone B&O six axle is shoving westbound empties up 17 Mile grade at Swanton, MD. Even twenty years ago, a single unit helper had the power to shove empty hoppers back towards Grafton.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Rich Borkowski Jr. A westbound empty train has just knocked down the signal at No 37 Waterstation as it climbs Backbone Mountain. The seaboard style signals are a replacement for a pair of B&O CPLs which were destroyed in a runaway derailment in 1997.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Rich Borkowski Jr. Westbound CSX #43 bursts out of the west portal of Hitchcock Tunnel on a winter day as it moves empty hoppers up 17 Mile Grade.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Terry Moore. In this view from the top of the east portal of Hitchcock Tunnel, a fully powered Q317 with seven units on the front and the one unit Keyser Helper shoving on the rear is grinding up the Crabtree Creek Valley on the morning of May 22nd, 1992.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Rich Borkowski Jr. CSX CW44AC #402 has the point of westbound empty hoppers as the train approachs Hitchcock Tunnel. A steep embankment is directly to the left of the train, marking the deep Crabtree Creek Valley.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Chris Strogen. Chessie System unit #6845 is about to cross into "Wild Wonderful" West Virginia from the Maryland side of the Bloomington Viaduct in August of 1988. The town of Bloomington can barely be seen in the background.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Rich Borkowski. The Luke Switcher with the classic CSX Chessie Cat, #2111, is switching a string of Westvaco cars in the small Piedmont yard on a late summer day.

[Click to enlarge]
Photo by Chris Strogen. CSX #2111 is still in Chessie paint on December 29th, 1998, as the lead units of the Luke Switcher pull their train off of the Mountain Subdivision's main track and onto the Interchange at Piedmont, West Virginia.



An Eastbound drag releases two DTC blocks to the Dispatcher and receives an additional block and yard limit down 17 Mile Grade to Piedmont, WV. DTC Blocks on the Mountain

Original Web Page

http://www.wvrail.railfan.net/17mile_grade.html
Copyright 1998-2002 © Northern WV's Railroads