BO Escape Track At Bond, WV

The B&O once had two escape tracks protecting eastbounds on its Seventeen Mile Grade located on the 100 miles of line between Cumberland, MD and Grafton, WV. One was at HX Tower at Strecker, WV and the other seen here at BD Tower at Bond, WV. This photo dates from 1951. The escape tracks survived until the end of steam.

I can't recall where I saw it, but I think I found an old B&O colored position light aspect chart from this era that included an indication for escape track use with every lamp lit in the circle.

PS: The thread title should read Bond, WV, not MD. (fixed)



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Not that I've read, but who knows. The SOU's at Melrose, NC at the base of Saluda definitely got use. I think the last wreck there was with a loaded coal train in the 1960s(?). There was another event at Melrose in the '80s I think where the timing circuit failed to move the escape track switch for a train that was fully under control. The engineer was able to stop the train, but some of the units were atop the switch and there was no way they could shove the train back. They solved the problem by tying down the train, pulling the units forward that fouled the switch onto the escape track, then throwing the switch for the main to allow the remaining power on the train to come forward and pass the switch. They were then able to get the power off the escape track and reunite everything. What a mess, right?

There was a second escape track on the grade just down from Saluda, that was very short and would have directed the train into the mountainside if it was ever used. For some stupid reason I never took a photo of that one. You can see it right at the open and again with a better shot at 3:40 in this terrible 1983 video I uploaded. Dig that beautiful SOU K5LLA air horn at 2:30.

 

Thank you Hemi. Perhaps ten years ago I was in the relocated Saluda depot and they had a 10 or 15 minute video playing to entertain visitors and educate them on the Grade. There in the video is my footage, a full minute or two of it. I was never contacted to ask permission, but I said nothing and am okay with it. Life's short and I'm blessed to have seen Saluda in operation over the years.

 

I feel certain that the track got used. While I have haven't been able to find any derailment reports about trains using it - that may be a testament that the track performed its purpose in stopping runaway trains without compounding the incident into a major derailment.

My question, since steam was before the use of radios was common - how was the switch lined to the runaway track when necessary vs. being lined for normal movement on #2 Main?

Having driven I-68 in the Western Maryland and West Virginia area, there are a number of runaway 'escape' paths for truckers that are having braking issues.

 

Santa Fe crews on Raton had to stop halfway down to let the brakes cool and build air pressure back up. If it was one of those grades, the crew could do it themselves.

 

My copies of B&O Employee Timetables only go back as far as 1963 when Grafton-Cumberland was fully dieselized and had been for a number of years, I was not able to find any reference in the TTSI about the runaway track at Bond or any other location.

I do have a B&O ETT from the Pittsburgh Division from 1955, when steam was still in use. The use of retainers was required to varying degrees on trains that did not have diesels. Eastward trains without Dynamic Braking were required to make a 'safety' stop at FO Tower (Foley) after stopping the train could then proceed. Eastward Trains with Dynamic Braking did not have to make the safety stop.

 

Just for the fun of it, here's FO Tower in an era before Colored PLs on Sand Patch. FO was located 8 miles up from the base of the grade at Hyndman and 12 miles down from the summit at Sand Patch. It's track layout provided flexibility on the long grade.

 

I pulled out my copy of Baltimore & Ohio Facilities Vol. 1 Eastern Region by Bob Withers, c. 2008. In it, I found a neat 1968 picture of a manned BD Tower and some interesting information, including a confirmation of @mmi16 's findings on eastbound trains and dynamic brakes.

BD was opened in 1912. The escape track was 62 carlengths long on a 12% grade.

As @BoxcabE50 suggested, the switch was indeed always lined for the escape track and as with Saluda, there was a timing circuit, but at Bond there was no automation. If all was well, the Op would be alerted and would then line the switch for the main.

The book reads that the escape track was used on occasion, including a rumored incursion by the National Limited which had to be pulled out and reassembled one car at a time.

 

So the escape track was used to get a train in trouble off the main? I am trying to understand a situation that would require it's use.

 

Train coming down the mountain - brakes are not slowing it - it gets routed UP the 'escape track' which is built with a 12% up grade (12 feet of increased elevation for every 100 feet of track length. Using basic GRAVITY as an assist to STOP the train. The following link is to a incident of a train that ran away coming down the mountain in 1966 - https://planeandtrainwrecks.com/Doc...ct+1+(byhits+(field+LOCATION+(phrase+BOND))))

 

Thanks mmi16.
I was just trying to figure this out. I read the report.

The best thing about TrainBoard is you can ask questions, get answers and become educated. I appreciate everyone here. Thank you.

 

I didn't know about that website @mmi16 . It's very interesting and the reports are all highly detailed. Found all sorts of events I never knew about in my region, some over 100 years ago. Thanks for posting this.

 

...

 

Hmm... Kiz left escape
tracks when he stole me
from the San Francisco
Zoo in 1984...

 

Before we get complacent and think runaways only happened in the past - they still happen in the 21st Century. PSR making trains longer and heavier than they have ever been in years gone by make it just that much harder for an Engineer to operate their trains down those grades SAFELY.

While railfans tend to think getting a train up a grade is the biggest test of a Engineer, it is not. The biggest test of a Engineer's skills is getting his train down the grades with all the curvature that grades have been constructed with to permit getting increased amounts of tonnage up the grade. I have read a number of accident reports, on grades much greater that 1% (one foot of elevation raise in 100 feet of track length) the normal single brake shoe per wheel on normal freight cars can only control the train at speeds of 15 MPH or less. At sustained speeds above 15 MPH the brakes will fade to the point they are no longer retarding the train's motion. Thus the necessity for using Dynamic Brakes to control the trains. Engineers have to use every tool that is made available to them to safely get trains down the mountains.