as to be easily and securely attached or disengaged, 

 and the building of open canal-boats with low-down 

 decks. On the arrival of the cars at Columbia the 

 box bodies were loosened from the trucks, and, to- 

 gether with their freight, hoisted by cranes, swung 

 over and deposited on the low-down decks of the 

 canal-boats; and again, in the same manner, trans- 

 ferred from the boats to trucks at Hollidaysburg, 

 and, after crossing the portage to Johnstown, again 

 into canal-boats. 



The system of the portage railroad consisted of ten 

 inclined planes and eleven levels — the height over- 

 come in the ten miles between Hollidaysburg and the 

 summit tunnel being 1,339 f eet > an ^ tne descent to 

 Johnstown, in 26% miles, 1,171 feet. This entire 

 work was constructed in the most permanent and 

 best possible manner known at the time. The 

 double-track incline planes were heavy wooden 

 stringers, secured to stone foundations, and laid with 

 flat bar rails. The levels between the incline planes 

 were laid with what was then called the Stevens 

 T-rail 194 of about 40 lbs. per yard, keyed into cast- 

 iron chairs, which were bolted to sandstone cross- 

 ties, alternating with sandstone blocks. These stone 

 blocks did not extend under both rails, as the cross- 

 tie stones did; they were about 12 inches deep, and 

 had a base equal to about 20 x 24 inches; the chairs 

 were set three feet apart. All the masonry of the 

 road was of the finest and most substantial character. 

 The Conemaugh Viaduct, which, I believe, is still in 

 use by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was a 

 great point of attraction to engineers as well as to 

 travelers. 



As to the steam engines and machinery of the 

 incline planes, the fact that they were in use for about 

 twenty years, and frequently taxed to their utmost 

 capacity without a serious accident, fully attests the 

 completeness of the plans, care in their construction, 

 and use. Hemp ropes were used on the inclines, it 

 being before the day of wire ropes. 195 The usual 

 number of cars drawn up the inclines, while the 

 same counterbalancing number was being let down, 

 was four of these small four-wheel box cars, which 

 were then taken from the head of one incline plane to 

 the foot of the next, or vice versa, by horse-power. 



194 Actually, edge rails of Clarence pattern. See note 183 

 above. 



its Wire rope, manufactured by John A. Roebling, was used 

 as early as 1839 (W. Milnor Roberts, cited in note 177 above, 

 pp. 2o6n, 2o8n). 



At the time the portage railroad was under con- 

 struction, it was a subject of much discussion among 

 all classes, and the general opinion was that it would 

 prove a failure. Sylvester Welch, the father of the 

 scheme and chief engineer in its location and con- 

 struction, was often sorely beset by influence brought 

 to bear on the canal commissioners, and even after 

 exhaustive surveys had been made and the route 

 located, still other surveys were ordered with a vain 

 hope of finding a practicable route without the 

 inclined planes, with gradients not to exceed 40 ft. 

 per mile, that being the extreme limit then thought 

 practical to work with safety even with horse-power 

 by doubling teams. In later years when Mr. Welch 

 was engaged on the Covington & Lexington Railroad, 

 of Kentucky, he used to relate the difficulty he had to 

 satisfy the canal commissioners that his system of 

 inclined planes and levels was no complication, as 

 they conceived it to be, to persuade them to allow 

 the work to go on. They admitted the simplicity and 

 effectiveness of the Peters Island incline plane on the 

 Columbia road, yet feared his on account of what 

 they termed its complication, when he insisted that 

 in fact it was but a repetition of simplicity. 



The fact that my schoolmates and most intimate 

 friends were the chief assistants of Mr. Welch, made 

 me take great interest in the progress of the surveys 

 and work, concerning which I was kept constantly 

 posted. William Milnor Roberts had charge of the 

 division from Hollidaysburg to the Summit, and the 

 work on the east end of the great Allegheny tunnel, 

 and Solomon W. Roberts of the west end, and the 

 work from there to Johnstown; and Edward Miller 

 had charge of the machinery of the incline plane. 

 No engineers are better known by their lifelong 

 works than S. W. and W. Milnor Roberts, who though 

 of the same name were of no blood relationship. W. 

 Milnor's life was sacrificed to his profession in South 

 America at so recent a date that most engineers must 

 be familiar with the circumstances of his undertaking 

 the great South American works at his advanced age, 

 under a binding contract for four years' service. 196 



Although most of my life has been devoted to 

 mechanical engineering, the intimacy with my early 

 civil engineer friends was always kept up; and at the 

 frequent meetings with both of the Roberts, the sub- 

 ject of their first work, the Old Portage was never 



i» e Both Solomon W. Roberts and VV. Milnor Roberts are 

 noticed in Dictionary of American Biography. 



154 



