Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway

Mauch Chunk Railroad
Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad
Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Switchback Railroad
An aerial view of the Lehigh Canal in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, c. 1870
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway is located in Pennsylvania
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway is located in the United States
Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway
LocationBetween Ludlow St. in Summit Hill and F.A.P. 209 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates40°52′10″N 75°44′59″W / 40.86944°N 75.74972°W / 40.86944; -75.74972
Area47 acres (19 ha)
Built1827
Built byLehigh Coal & Navigation Co. (LC&N)
ArchitectJosiah White
NRHP reference No.76001616[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 3, 1976
Designated PHMCMay 25, 1971[2]
Josiah White and Erskine Hazard-founding partners of the Summit Hill & Mauch Chunk Railroad
Pisgah Mountain and the topography of the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad

The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, also known as the Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad and occasionally shortened to Mauch Chunk Railway, was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that was built in 1827 and operated until 1932. It was the second gravity railway constructed in the United States, which was used by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company to transport coal from Summit Hill downhill to the Lehigh canal.

The railway operated on 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge track, and it was not utilized as a common carrier that linked with other railroads. The rail line was laid on top of the company's earlier 9-mile (14 km)-constant-descent-graded wagon road. The railway operated for more than half a century as a tourist attraction after it ceased day-to-day operations as a freight railroad in 1872. The onset of the Great Depression resulted in its eventual closure.

Pennsylvania's first railroad and first anthracite carrier opened on Saturday, May 5th, 1827, when seven cars of coal passed from the Summit Hill mines of the L.C.&N. Company to their canal at Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, descending 936 feet (285 m) in the nine-mile (14 km) trip.[3]

— Earl J. Heydinger
  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. ^ "Switchback Railroad - PHMC Historical Markers". Historical Marker Database. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Heydinger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).