The Elkhorn Grade Electrification was a project undertaken by Westinghouse in 1913–1915 to electrify a section of the

Norfolk and Western Railway The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisio ...

's Bluefield Division in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

. Electrification would be extended further in the 1920s and the length of the electrified line would reach before the N&W abandoned it in 1950.

Background

In the early twentieth century the Bluefield Division of the Norfolk and Western Railway featured a forbidding two percent average

grade Grade most commonly refers to: * Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance * Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage * Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope Grade or grading may also ref ...

. Multiple

2-6-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a is a locomotive with one pair of unpowered leading wheels, followed by two sets of three pairs of powered driving wheels and one pair of trailing wheels. ...

Class Z1 "Mallet"

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s labored hauling coal trains up and down the grade. Although most of the route was double track, it narrowed to a single track at the Elkhorn Tunnel, which was long and itself on a % grade. Steam-powered trains were limited to in the tunnel, and delays were common.

History

Working with Westinghouse, the Norfolk and Western electrified a segment between

Bluefield, Virginia Bluefield is a town in Tazewell County, Virginia, United States, located along the Bluestone River. The population was 5,096 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bluefield WV-VA micropolitan area which has a population of 106,363 in 2020. G ...

and

Vivian, West Virginia Vivian is a census-designated place (CDP) in McDowell County, West Virginia, United States. Vivian is located along U.S. Route 52, southeast of Kimball. As of the 2010 census, its population was 82. An old variant name was Clausen. The Peerl ...

. The N&W constructed a power plant at Bluestone, West Virginia, along with maintenance shops for the electric locomotives. Substations were located at Bluefield, Vivian, Maybeury, and North Fork. The electrification system was 11 kV at 25 Hz. Aside from the Elkhorn Tunnel the entire system was

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

or triple track. Including sidings, yard trackage, and branches to

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

s, were under

catenary In physics and geometry, a catenary (, ) is the curve that an idealized hanging chain or cable assumes under its own weight when supported only at its ends in a uniform gravitational field. The catenary curve has a U-like shape, superficia ...

. The effect of the electric operation was immediate and measurable. In June 1914 the electrified district handled 272 trains averaging of coal. Each train required three Class Z1 locomotives. In June 1915, with electric operation only partially implemented, this rose to 397 trains averaging , a 60 percent increase. In normal operation two LC-1 boxcabs could handle each train. Pleased with the results, in 1915–1916 the N&W electrified another , from Bluestone Junction to Clift Yard and to Pocahontas. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

several more extensions followed on the west end, raising the mileage to . * Vivian– Iaeger * Welch– Wilcoe After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the N&W decided to abandon electrification on the Bluefield Division. The railroad constructed a $11.9 million double-track bypass of the Elkhorn Tunnel. The reduced grade eliminated the need for electric traction. The bypass was dedicated on June 26, 1950.

Rolling stock

To operate under the wires the N&W ordered twelve twin-unit LC-1 boxcab locomotives from Baldwin-Westinghouse. Each twin unit weighed and was long, making it both the largest and heaviest electric locomotive in the United States at the time of its introduction. The N&W supplemented these in 1925 with four LC-2 locomotives. The N&W scrapped all sixteen when electrification ended in 1950.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Norfolk and Western Historical Society
{{coord missing, Virginia Electric railways in Virginia Electric railways in West Virginia Norfolk and Western Railway Rail infrastructure in Virginia Rail infrastructure in West Virginia