It hasn’t operated for more than 150 years, but, believe it or not, you can still travel the Allegheny Portage Railroad.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad was one of America’s first rail systems.  When it was planned in the early 19^th century, there were approximately 23 miles of railroad in all of North America.  The 36-mile long Allegheny Portage more than doubled that total.

The railroad experience was new in the early 1800s.  Few people had ever seen a railroad, let alone build one.  But the engineers in Pennsylvania were motivated to find a route across the eastern continental divide, known as the Allegheny Front.  The Front prevented the construction of a canal system between Pennsylvania’s two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.  By 1830, more than 1,400 miles of canals, both publicly and privately owned, were planned, under construction, or completed in Pennsylvania, more than any other state.  A solution was needed quickly to get the canal traffic over the mountain.  As one Canal Commissioner noted:  “. . . the whole country, from the upper forks of the Juniata to the forks of the South Branch of the Conemaugh, is mountainous; mountain rising after mountain in quick succession . . .  Here nature has refused to make her usual kind advances to aid the exertions of man; mountains thrown together as if to defy human ingenuity, and baffle the skill of the engineer” (Charles Treziyulney, as quoted in The Evolution, Decadence, and Abandonment of the Allegheny Portage Railroad, Annual Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1898-99, Part IV:  Railroad, Canal, Navigation, Telegraph and Telephone Companies, by William Bender Wilson, 1900.

After many surveys and much debate, the final configuration of the “Pennsylvania Main Line” was determined.  It would consist of both canals and railroads.  Canal boats were to be carried from Philadelphia on horse-drawn railroad cars and an inclined plane, powered by a stationary steam engine, to Columbia, where they were transferred to the canal basin.  The boats then traveled by canal for 172 miles to Hollidaysburg, near the foot of the eastern slope of the Allegheny Front.  Here they were removed from the canal basin and loaded onto railroad cars for the 36-mile long trip over the ten inclines and levels of the Allegheny Portage Railroad to Johnstown, on the western side of the Allegheny Front.  At Johnstown, the boats were returned to the canal for the trip to Pittsburgh.

            Construction of the railroad began in 1831 and was completed by 1834.  The road consisted of ten inclined planes connected by relatively flat levels.  The track on the levels was lightweight T-rail mounted in cast iron chairs on stone blocks, or sleepers.  The sleepers rested on a bed of crushed rock overlying an intricate system of longitudinal stone-lined drains and beautifully arched culverts of varying sizes.  Cars on the levels were pulled by horses in the early years of the road’s operation, and then by locomotives.  On the planes, the track consisted of iron strap rail fastened to the top edge of long wooden stringers.  An engine house at the top of each plane housed two steam engines, boilers, and the large sheaves around which the “endless” rope wound.  At the foot of the plane, another large sheave returned the rope.  Cars were lashed to the rope to be raised or lowered.  Generally, equally weighted cars ascended and descended the plane simultaneously to reduce the load on the 30-horsepower steam engine.

The planes were identified by number:  Plane 1 was the westernmost, just above Johnstown.  Plane 10, the easternmost, was near the present community of Duncansville.  Planes 5 and 6 flanked the summit of the Allegheny Front, near Cresson.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad only operated during the months that the canal was open, generally from late March through late October.  The maintenance of the track, engines, machinery and structures was a constant problem.  Railroad construction in the 1830s was essentially experimental, and few engineers had any experience with this new transportation mode.  This lack of experience became apparent soon after the line opened.  Tracks spread, boilers exploded, chimneys collapsed, engine foundations cracked.  The road required constant and expensive attention. 

By 1851, engineers had learned much from the Allegheny Portage Railroad.  More powerful locomotives were now available which were capable of pulling heavier loads, even uphill.  The physics of track construction were better understood.  The spreading rails of the sleeper system could be avoided by using wooden beams to “tie” the rails together so that they could not move independently.  The Pennsylvania legislature voted to replace the planes with a new road that would take advantage of these, and dozens of other improvements in railroading technology.

Despite growing public demand to get out of the railroad business, the Commonwealth completed its New Portage Railroad by 1855.  It had cost more than $2 million to eliminate the planes of the original railroad.  At the same time, however, a privately chartered company, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), had also constructed its own railroad across the Allegheny Front.  While its Mountain Division was under construction in 1852, the PRR completed the first all rail line between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by paying the state to temporarily use the completed portions of the New Portage Railroad.  The PRR completed its Mountain Division months ahead of the state’s New Portage Railroad, offering the first year-round rail service across the state.

            As early as 1854, Pennsylvania Governor William Bigler, an adamant critic of the State Works, proposed that the state sell the Western Division of the Main Line for $20 million.  In 1855, he reduced the offer to $10 million.  It had cost more than $18 million to build the entire system of canals and railroads, and it had accumulated a debt of more than $40 million during its operation.  In January 1857, Bigler was succeeded by James Pollock, a Whig, who also opposed the participation of the Commonwealth in transportation and other utilities because of the alleged mismanagement of these public works.  Under his direction, the Commonwealth again offered the Western Division, including the Portage Railroad, for sale on May 16, 1857 for the bargain price of $7.5 million.  To make the deal even more attractive to its most likely buyer, the PRR, the Commonwealth offered their competitor an even sweeter deal.  For an additional $1.5 million, the PRR could buy the line and never again have to pay freight tonnage taxes to the state.

            The PRR bought the line on June 27, 1857 and took possession on August 1 of the same year.  The PRR continued to operate the New Portage Railroad until November 1, 1857, when it was shut down for good.  The sale of the Western Division to the PRR began the process of liquidating all the State Works and that ultimately retired most of the debt that had been incurred by the state’s canals and railroads.