The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1920-01-01
SEVENTEEN-MILE GRADE LIKE
AN EVIL THING TAKING TOLL
Every Crew that Makes a Trip Over
1t Fear Wreck and Disaster.

Every Crew that Makes a Trip Over
1t Fear Wreck and Disaster.
By Raymond S. Tompkins, in Balti-
more Sun of Oct. 2.
The following article, descriptive of
the great Seventeen-Mile Grade, every
foot of which with the except of the
first mile leading out of Piedmont
westward is located in Garrett county,
appeared in the Baltimore Sun of last
Thursday, and being of local interest
it is herewith reproduced for The
Republican readers:
There is a mountain 1928 feet high
that lies between the furnaces and
firesides of the East and the coal fields
of the West Virginia Alleganies Every
cargo of coal that comes out the $50
mines of that section must come up,
over and down that mountain.
Every train crew and engine crew
that makes that trip makes it in con-
slant fear of wreck and disaster. But
the industrial giant of the east must
be fed with coal, the world must have
food and clothes and fuel and work So
they make it and do not worry about
it. 1t is all in the days work of the
railroad man.
In a week l spent around the rail-
road l heard many stories about that
mountain. The towns about the foot
OF it, where the mems families stay,
seem to live in the shadow of evil-the
village of Piedmont, W. Va, takes on
the air of a Pompeii fearful of it's We
suvius-but one very quickly learns
that the wives and families of the road
men have pinned their faith upon the
safeguards of a railroads inventive
genius. AS between airbrakes and run
away switches on the one hand and
the Seventeen-Mile Grade on the other
the joke is on the Mile
Grade.
Nothing Empty Moves East.
That is the hills official railroad
name, the Seventeen Mile Grade. The
distance between Altamont at the
summit and Piedmont at the foot is
II miles. Freely translated from the
French, Altamont means stop of the
mountain" and Piedmont means "foot
of the mountain" The grade is little
more than per cent. and the hill rises
at the rate of lit feet to the mile. Be-
tween the edge of the track and the
mountains that parallel it across a
deep valley, the Little Savage river
purls along in peaceful ripples, until
at Bloomington it unites it's waters
with that of the Potomac, thus MAX
ing a powerful torrent that moves a
paper mill at Luke.
Like an immense winding high-wall-
ed corridor is this valley of the Saw
age river, with the trains of the Sew
enteen Mile Grade descending the wall
from the sky-blue ceiling at one cor
rer to the smoke grimed floor at the
other.
Nothing moves east empty" is the
slogan of the railroads these days.
Train after train of empties ascend
the hill bound westward, but nothing
comes down without a full load. 1t
is when they come down that the Sew
enteen Mile Grade takes its toll.
Giant engines wait in Piedmont to
push them up. The west end of the
Cumberland division, has the greatest
aggregation of locomotive power in
the world-90 Mallett engines. But
to bring them safely down there is
nothing but an air brake and a prayer.
The wreck trainmen at Keyser know
the Seventeen Mile Grade and knew it
well. The copper-plate reports of Bill
Broome, wreck inspector, are chapters
in the hills evil history. The brains
IF Tom Stanley, wreckmaster, and his
merry crew of wreckers, carry con-
slant pictures of derailed locomotives
and splintered heaps of junk that
were proud freight trains-pictures
that spring into life when the yard
whistle sounds four long blasts.
Division Car Foreman Bender and