A picture said to be of the Inclined Plane Railroad at Short Mountain Colliery, Wiconisco, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. While this has been identified in at least two places as of the operation at Bear Gap, there is what appears to be an unidentified 3-arch stone arch bridge (top center) which is not consistent with the area near Wiconisco. The artist may have taken liberty with the terrain or the picture may be of a generic inclined plane railroad.
The following information was compiled from information in the Souvenir Book for the Wiconisco Sesquicentennial, 1839-1989:
INCLINED PLANE RAILROAD
The Inclined Plane Railroad was utilized in transporting coal from the colliery yards located on the upper portion of Short Mountain down through the green to the Pennsylvania Railroad yards at the bottom where coal cars awaited loading.
The plane consisted of two parallel sets of tracks running in a north-south direction.
Note: Plane Street in Wiconisco which follows the same general direction was most likely named in memory of this operation.
The system would operate as follows: A set of empty cars would be situated at the bottom of the incline on one set of tracks. A cable, which was attached to the empty cars, ran to the top of the plane, through a mechanical system which would act as a brake, and down the other tracks with the cable’s end fastened to loaded coal cars. When ready to operate, the loaded cars were released, the weight drawing them downwards, which, through the pulley action, would draw the empty cars on the other set of tracks upwards to the colliery yards.
The Inclined Plane Railroad provided a vital role in the initial transport of coal from the mine to the railroad yards and operated until the year 1885.
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Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.