94 miles.
54 years
of silence.
The Bracken Valley & Northern Railroad operated from 1889 to 1971. The last freight run was October 14, 1971. The track was pulled in 1973.
The track it ran on.
Before the locomotives, the freight, the grade, and the mystery: the track itself. 56.5 inches between the rails. Standard gauge, held from the first survey in 1888 to the last run in 1971. Drag the handle to find it.
The fleet that ran the valley line.
14 locomotives over 82 years. Steam until 1962, then diesel. 2 survive. Click a row to open the record and run the grade test at Morrow's Gap.
| No. | Class & builder | Name | Service | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2-6-0 Mogul · Baldwin 1896 | Old Three | 1896 to 1934 | |
| 7 | 2-8-0 Consolidation · ALCO 1911 | The Hill Climber | 1911 to 1952 | |
| 9 | 2-8-2 Mikado · Lima 1924 | Number Nine | 1924 to 1968 · location known | |
| 12 | EMD GP7 · General Motors 1951 | The Last Run | sold 1972 · location unknown |
Crestfall Junction to Hartshorn.
94 miles through Bracken Valley, climbing 2,200 feet from the valley floor. The grade at Morrow's Gap restricted loaded trains to 14 miles per hour on the ascent. Select a station.
Drag the locomotive along the elevation profile. Morrow's Gap is at MP 78. The speed restriction applied to every loaded train that ever ran this line.
The railroad is gone. Some of it is not.
Manifests, nearly complete.
82 years of freight records. Digitized and held here. The collection is nearly complete. One manifest from October 1971 is not present. B. Merritt kept the ledger from 1933 to 1971 without missing a single entry. He noted the gap himself. He did not speculate about it.
How information left the valley.
The freight office ran a telegraph line to Crestfall Junction from 1889 until the line's closure. Every dispatch was reduced to what the record required. Operators worked in shorthand by convention. Type anything below. The wire compresses it the way Merritt compressed it.
The caboose that was never collected.
BV&N C-11 · Hartshorn freight lot · in situ since 1972
Unresolved equipment
C-11 was never collected.
When the equipment was liquidated in 1972, C-11 was not in the manifest. Ownership was disputed between the railroad's creditors and a private party. The note does not name the private party. The dispute was not resolved.
C-11 has been in the freight lot behind Milepost 47 since 1973. The lot is now used by Trestle Coffee Co. The sign on the side door has read "Out of Service" since at least 1974. We have not been inside.