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Reviews
| The Mauch Chunk Switchback: America's Pioneer Railroad. By Vincent Hydro, Jr. Easton, Pa.: Canal History and Technology Press, 2002. x+358 pp., notes, tables, refs., index. $39.95 pb (ISBN 0-930973-27-5).
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Although I have not had much experience as a book reviewer, I must give the highest of plaudits to Vincent Hydro's The Mauch Chunk Switchback: America's Pioneer Railroad. This volume is quite literally the first and last words on America's first important railroad and its unique combined use of gravity and inclined planes to propel its cars. Hydro has interpreted the history and technology of the Mauch Chunk Switchback in many ways. He has set it within the context that its builders, the management of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, played in the American industrial revolution. He has also thoroughly examined the evolution of the unusual technology that enabled this railroad to operate. Hydro also interprets the evolution of the switchback from a vital coal carrier to a nationally famous tourist attraction. Finally, he explains how the advent of the automobile and the development of good roads doomed the railroad excursion trains that brought the switchback the majority of its riders.
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The switchback was the creation of Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, the founders of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N). Between 1816 and 1821 they created the first economically viable anthracite transportation system capable of carrying large volumes of hard coal from the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Some scholars believe this achievement made the Lehigh Valley a birthplace of the American industrial revolution.
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Although the primary component of this transportation system was a navigation system built in the Lehigh River, a wagon road was required to link the coal-loading facilities at Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe) with mines on Sharp Mountain (the present Summit Hill). This road was designed to serve as the base for a future railroad. The mine at Sharp Mountain was more than 9 miles west of Mauch Chunk and almost 900 feet higher in elevation. These geographic features made it possible for LC&N to construct and perfect in 1826–27 what was arguably America's first railroad capable of carrying substantial amounts of freight. So successful was this line that it soon attracted national attention and was visited by engineers who were about to begin construction of important regional lines and, eventually, interstate lines such as the Baltimore and Ohio.
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Equally important, the Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk railroad set the pattern for almost all of LC&N's railroads until the 1860s. In the process, the managers of the company developed a system of inclined planes to enable them to return empty coal cars to the mines. The development of these planes played a significant role in the creation of the wire-rope industry in America. The end result of these innovations was the creation of what might be termed America's first giant roller coaster, which soon attracted thousands of tourists to Mauch Chunk.
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The combined use of inclined planes and gravity created the model for the LC&N, which enabled an extensive network of railroads to be constructed, linking its Panther Valley anthracite mines to the Summit Hill-to-Mauch Chunk main line. The flexibility of this system greatly increased the company's anthracite production. These railroads would also serve as the prototypes for LC&N's Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad with its magnificent Ashley Planes, which allowed the firm to transport anthracite from the Susquehanna Valley over the 2,000-foot Penobscot Summit to White Haven on the Lehigh Navigation.
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The use of the switchback railroad as the primary means of bringing anthracite from the mines to the Lehigh navigation ended in 1872 when the company built a conventional locomotive-powered railroad to its anthracite deposits. Connecting with the Lehigh and Susquehanna line and Jersey Central, the Panther Valley railroad rendered the switchback redundant in its original function. However, the switchback entered a golden age as it was reincarnated as the primary tourist attraction of Mauch Chunk, a town that took advantage of its cool breezes and mountainous terrain to bill itself as the "Switzerland of America." During the last half of the 19th century, tens of thousands of tourists took rail excursions to Mauch Chunk to, as it was politely termed, "take the air." A ride on the switchback was an essential part of the tourist experience. Many of these riders, along with professional travel writers and reporters, penned accounts of the switchback. Hydro has ably mined this wealth of materials to compile a colorful chapter devoted to the switchback's glory days as America's premier amusement ride.
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It seems that all good things must come to an end, and such was the fate of the switchback. During the first three decades of the 20th century, the automobile replaced the passenger train as the primary means of transport. The growth of automobile sales increased the pressure on state, local, and federal governments to create a national network of paved, all-weather roads. Tourists could now travel farther for less money, and many traditional resorts with their dependence on passenger trains suffered a precipitous decline. Such was the fate of Mauch Chunk, and coupled with the onset of the Great Depression, the switchback was doomed. It closed forever on 29 October 1933. Despite valiant restorative efforts by civic boosters and enlightened individuals, the historic and once nationally famous switchback was sold for scrap in 1937. Today, much of the former route of the switchback is used as a hiking trail, and an active historical society works to preserve its memory.
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Although The Mauch Chunk Switchback is a well-written and attractive book, its chief virtue is the plethora of period illustrations and technical information. Almost every page contains a woodcut, line drawing, lithograph, or photograph. The sum total creates a comprehensive picture of how the switchback looked and changed during its many years of operation. More importantly, Hydro's book is packed with crisp, clear, and authoritative maps and measured drawings that carefully explain the inner workings of the switchback's fascinating inclined planes.
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Antique railroad technology is my primary personal interest, and for many years I have served as both a volunteer and paid engineer and mechanic on tourist railroads throughout the Middle Atlantic states. I had often wondered how the switchback railroad actually functioned. After reading Hydro's book, I gained a thorough understanding of the stationary steam engines, drive wheels, rollers, and barney cars that provided the motive power for this railroad. Above all else, Vincent Hydro's rare ability to make the complex appear to be simple is the outstanding achievement of this book.
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| The Mauch Chunk Switchback represents years of research and writing, and it probably will become the definitive text on this subject. I highly recommend it not only to rail fans and lovers of antique machinery but also to scholars who are studying the history of tourism. |
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