CSX Paw Paw, WV
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was founded in 1830 to serve Baltimore merchants when other competing transportation options were turnpikes and canals. The B&O built the first American trunk line west from an eastern port generally following the ascending grade of the Potomac River reaching Cumberland, Maryland in 1842. The small trains and primitive construction methods of that time resulted in a route that hugged the east bank of the Potomac as it wound through the Sideling Hill Mountains approaching Cumberland. The Magnolia Cut-Off Improvement was begun in 1913 at a cost of more than $5 million to accommodate increasing traffic and reduce the cost of operations. To eliminate most of the curvature following the river, the new high line pierced four significant ridges with double track tunnels and crossed the Potomac twice at considerable height. The four tunnels were each named after B&O chief engineers. The western most tunnel, named after Daniel Dawson Carothers, was built on a gentle curve and completed in 1914.
110 years after completion, CSX I115-19 scatters the falling snow as it exits the west portal of the Carothers Tunnel carrying domestic intermodal from Pennsylvania to Chicago. Although Daniel Carothers could not have predicted the modern AC propulsion locomotives and 53' intermodal containers operating today, the investment B&O made in the improved route of the Magnolia Cut-Off has been paying back since 1914.
CSX Paw Paw, WV
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was founded in 1830 to serve Baltimore merchants when other competing transportation options were turnpikes and canals. The B&O built the first American trunk line west from an eastern port generally following the ascending grade of the Potomac River reaching Cumberland, Maryland in 1842. The small trains and primitive construction methods of that time resulted in a route that hugged the east bank of the Potomac as it wound through the Sideling Hill Mountains approaching Cumberland. The Magnolia Cut-Off Improvement was begun in 1913 at a cost of more than $5 million to accommodate increasing traffic and reduce the cost of operations. To eliminate most of the curvature following the river, the new high line pierced four significant ridges with double track tunnels and crossed the Potomac twice at considerable height. The four tunnels were each named after B&O chief engineers. The western most tunnel, named after Daniel Dawson Carothers, was built on a gentle curve and completed in 1914.
110 years after completion, CSX I115-19 scatters the falling snow as it exits the west portal of the Carothers Tunnel carrying domestic intermodal from Pennsylvania to Chicago. Although Daniel Carothers could not have predicted the modern AC propulsion locomotives and 53' intermodal containers operating today, the investment B&O made in the improved route of the Magnolia Cut-Off has been paying back since 1914.