Mountain Subdivision

For the railroad line in New England, see Mountain Division.

The Mountain Subdivision is a railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Maryland and West Virginia. The line runs from Cumberland, Maryland, west to Grafton, West Virginia,^[1] along the original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) main line. It was known as the West End Subdivision until the B&O's absorption into the Chessie System, and included the B&O's original crossing of the Allegheny Mountains. Through CSX traffic to the west from Cumberland now uses the Keystone Subdivision over Sand Patch Grade.^[2]

Mountain Subdivision
The yard in Grafton in November, 2009.
Overview
Status	Active
Owner	CSX Transportation
Locale	West Virginia, Maryland
Termini	Grafton Cumberland
Service
Type	Freight rail
System	CSX Transportation
Operator(s)	CSX Transportation
Technical
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Route map Legend MP.0 Bridgeport Subdivision to Clarksburg A&OR Cowen Subdivision 281.6 Berkley Run Junction Fairmont Subdivision 280.2 D Tower 280.1 Grafton 279.0 Grafton Yard 274.7 Thornton 267.4 Newburg 262.0 West End 261.1 Kingwood Tunnel 260.3 Tunnelton WV Northern RR 258.1 Tunnelton defect detector 254.5 Rowlesburg R&S RR M&K RR 253.6 M & K Junction 237.7 WV MD 233.4 Youghiogheny River 231.9 Oakland 229.5 Mountain Lake Park 216.2 Hitchcock Tunnel 208.5 Bloomington 208.26 Bloomington Viaduct over North Branch Potomac River MD WV 208.25 Thomas Subdivision 207.8 WV Central Junction 207.6 Thomas Subdivision 206.5 Piedmont 203.1 Keyser Yard 201.6 Keyser 200.5 Industrial Park 199.5 North Branch Potomac River WV MD WM Trussle Thomas Subdivision 198.9 Twenty First defect detector Dawson 194.9 Black Oak 191.5 Rawlings 189.9 Lowndes 187.0 McKenzie Patterson Creek Cutoff to Cumberland Subdivision 185.2 Brady 183.1 Allegany County Fairgrounds WM Thomas Subdivision to WM Scenic RR 179.6 Beall St. WM Scenic RR Wills Creek Keystone Subdivision 178.9 Viaduct Junction Cumberland Terminal Subdivision This diagram: view talk edit

At its east end, the Mountain Subdivision becomes the Cumberland Terminal Subdivision at Beall Street. It junctions the Thomas Subdivision twice – near Keyser, West Virginia, and near Piedmont, West Virginia – and meets the Fairmont Subdivision near its west end at Grafton. At its west end, it continues as the Bridgeport Subdivision. The Mountain Subdivision's summit is at Altamont, Maryland, at the west end of the Seventeen Mile Grade; the grade's east end is at Piedmont, West Virginia.^{[3] [4] [5]}

History

Bloomington Viaduct crossing the North Branch Potomac River

The Mountain Subdivision was opened in 1852 as part of the B&O's main line.^[6] In 1904 the B&O built the Patterson Creek Cutoff to alleviate congestion in its Cumberland rail yard. The cutoff line ran from McKenzie, Maryland to Patterson Creek, West Virginia, providing a bypass of the yard for coal trains moving between Keyser and Brunswick, Maryland.^[7]

During the 1970s ownership of the subdivision passed from the B&O to the Chessie System, which closed the Patterson Creek Cutoff.^[7] Chessie was merged into CSX in the early 1980s. The Western Maryland Thomas Subdivision was also connected to the Mountain Subdivision.

See also

• Cumberland Subdivision - CSX
• Old Main Line Subdivision - CSX

References

1. CSX Transportation, Huntington, WV. "Mountain Subdivision." Archived 2011-03-22 at the Wayback Machine Huntington East Division, Timetable No. 1. Effective 2005-01-01.
2. mtnsub.org. "The Mountain Subdivision." Railfanning the B&O Around Cumberland, MD. Accessed 2010-08-11.
3. "CSX's Mountain Subdivision." Archived 2006-04-30 at the Wayback Machine Northern West Virginia's Railroads. Accessed 2010-08-11.
4. "MT-Mountain Sub - the RadioReference Wiki".
5. http://www.multimodalways.org/docs/railroads/companies/CSX/CSX%20ETTs/CSX%20Huntington%20Div%20East%20ETT%20%231%201-1-2005.pdf CSX Huntington East Division Timetable
6. "PRR Chronology, 1852." March 2005 Edition.
7. "Mountain Subdivision: Eastern Approach." Archived 2008-05-15 at the Wayback Machine Northern West Virginia's Railroads. Accessed 2010-08-11.

• Dilts, James D. (1996). The Great Road: The Building of the Baltimore and Ohio, the Nation's First Railroad, 1828-1853. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8047-2629-0.

External links

• Media related to Mountain Subdivision at Wikimedia Commons