Defeating The Grade

Sandpatch and Southern heavy Hudson number 165 slowly drags her train from the Lime Hollow Tunnel on a warm summer day in 1934. Usually the “Sandpatch Flyer” runs on the Streets Run line, but due to the wreck of a freight train, the 165 was diverted to the Lime Hollow grade. This section of the line is the steepest on the Pittsburgh division, measuring out at 3.5%.

Usually this piece of trackage is reserved for Southbound and Eastbound freight trains, helped by Bankers stationed on the Nadine Helper Pocket.

Engine 165 was the last of 5 Hudsons rebuilt from smaller Pacifics in 1924 to help combat the swelling passenger market for the Scenic line that the Sandpatch and Southern was built upon, and to service the resorts that are along the line. The Sandpatch Flyer runs from the Pittsburgh “ Schenley” Station, all the way over the line to its Southern terminus of Covington, Va. and then over the C&O to White Sulfur Springs.