Madison Incline

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
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Hello, all. Would any of you folks know when the Madison Incline went out of service, the 5.89 percent grade down into Madison, Indiana?

My dad and I visited there this past weekend, and much of the track is still in place and walkable, although the subroadbed has shifted dramatically in some places. Lots of big rocks have fallen in from the high walls of the cut, making that part pretty rough and thought-provoking hiking.

I searched the web and found some photos and articles, below, but haven’t run across good information on when the line actually went out of service.

(The lower photo was taken from the Main Street bridge at the foot of the incline, and the track remains intact and easily visible from that spot today. The downward-looking view in the photo camouflages some of the upward slope of the track–looking at it in person, it’s hard to believe a train could run on such a grade).

Thanks!

Dean Vinson

http://mjcpl.org/rivertorail/buildingtherailroad/constructing-the-incline

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We started visiting Madison, Indiana in the early 80s. At that time the track was in decent shape, but I think all the industries that used rail service had closed or no longer used the railroad. If I remember correctly, the city took over operation of the line, keeping a switcher at the top of the incline. Check out the local webpage http://www.oldmadison.com/ There is a link to information on the railroad.

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  1. The City of Madison Port Authority brought a power transformer down to the Indiana-Kentucky Electric plant. After that, it’s now heading into RailTrail territory. There is currently a Class 3 running from North Madison (A plastics plant at the top of the hill, on the site of the old Madison roundhouse) to North Vernon, where it interchanges with the CSX, former B&O. Jefferson Provign Grounds is still in service as a giant holding yard for private freight cars. There’s two plants in North Madison, a plastics plant in North Vernon, as well as a Team Track. They use an SW8 that came from JPG, and a GP10 (or 8, or 18, there’s no concesnus. It’s a former SP) that was leased for so long they bought it outright. CMPA is now also running passenger excusrions on Madison’s birthday, next weekend I believe. They bought a Diner and traded it to Kentucky Railawy Museum.

The CMPA: http://www.madisonrailroad.com/

-A guy who’s going to model Madison, eith a few additions from its past.

EDIT: HOLY CRAP! WHERE"D YOU FIND 8589 running COAL? I’ve been hunting for AGES to do it on my layout! Let me pull out some more pics. I found one of the above-mentioned transformer, and there’s a pic of the SW8 leading the military tanks out of JPG, taken at Dupont Indiana. If you go back to RivertoRail, click on the pictures, you’ll be taken to the Indiana Memory Archive, then search Railroad amd it will pull up EVERY pic they have of Madison, from the Cog engine plans to the 3 steamers that worked it before the diesels, to the last ride of 3634. I have a few stories I’ve learned from former PRR that worked Madison to tell ya too if you want to hear them,

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Thanks, gentlemen. I’m browsing those other photos now… what an engineering, construction, and railroading achievement!

I’ve been trying to re-find the source of that photo of 8559. I don’t remember the site but it was in an old thread in some other railroading forum that I’d run across by Googling “Madison Incline” or "Madison & Indianapolis. If I find it I’ll post the link.

Edit: Oops, forgot to mention: Yes, I’d be quite interested in any stories you may know from when that line was active! Thanks much.

Dean

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Stories eh. The River to Rail linked to one about a famous artist, I’d have to look him up, went down the Incline on a handcar in the 1800s. He said “That was the fastest ride of his life” I’ve also heard similar from a speeder: Only once.

The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis has the Reuben Wells, and does a light show, and a short radio drama of passengers heading up the Incline. There’s also an informative game that covers a story meantioned in that drama. The engines of the Incline are ALWAYS on the South end of the train. Otherwise, gravity rips the couplers out of the side of the freight car, and it comes SCREAMING down the Hill. There’s a collection of old freight cars somewhere in the Ohio, probably long since decimated by age, from when they learned how to do that the hard way.

Similarly, before locomotives, the Incline was cog railway. Madison got real familiar of the sound of the cog engine sliding down the hill out of control, usually accompanied by a shrill warning whistle, because gravity pulling stripped the teeth out of the flywheel that attached itself to the rack in the track.

Madison also had a number of runaways even with the engine as teh anchor. One slid downhill ot of control, crashed, and had fatalities. The Wrecker they sent after it ALSO crashed, but no one died in that one. Nothing like having to send the breakdown train for the breakdown train…

That hill also claimed one steam engine to boiler failure. Because of the slope, water got away, and things began to be exposed to the raw heat fo the boiler. Water on the hot crown sheet makes steam. Steam expands, and ain’t no metal boiler is going to stop it.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to also look up “Brough’s Folly”. John Brough, one time governor of Ohio, was president of the Madison Railroad. He tried to bild switchbacks in what is now Clifty Falls. He ran WAY overbudget, but the tunnel bores are still there, part of Clifty’s walking trails.

I know a former PRR Conductor

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Thanks, Morgan–great stories. I would have loved to have seen some operations on that grade. And next time I’m in the area I’ll have to look for those tunnel bores from Brough’s attempted switchbacks–I did read about that history in one of the websites.

Have you walked the incline itself lately? There are several places where it seems the earth below the line has shifted dramatically, three or four feet or more, either vertically or horizontally or both, wrenching the tracks out of alignment. And of course the cut near the top of the hill is blocked with tons of rocks that have fallen in. Maintenance must have been a constant problem on that line.

Dean

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So too would’ve I. One of my first Time-machine trips.

I’ve not walked the line in about 8 years or more. Mom and I went 2/3s of the way up before turning around, she wanted to make sure we could get back down, I was 10 or so, and those little windows INSIDE the reail of that creek didn’t fill her wit warms anf fluffies. The Cut may have been filled in then tpp,b ut nopt as bad. I think we could see the top though. The sad news is that Madison is in the process of rail-trailing it and HAVE been doing work, so it sounds as if they are now in a losing battle.

I suspect, that when the hill was in regular service, it wasn’t in as bad a deterioation as it is now. It may have been tha it lasted for just as long as it was needed; which was nearly 200 years. Having sat since the 70s probably didn’t help. As I understnad it, the CMPA only made a handful of trips down that hill before the 1992 overhaul, maybe 3 at the most, and I’ll bet that the only MofW that any of those involved were weed-whacking excursions. I’m pretty sure the last of Madison’s downhill excursions were overwith IKE aside before the PRR had even given way to PC.

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Have you ever noticed that the most ineresting railroads have the least amount of train traffic?. Often modelers have to imagineer more trains to make an operating session. I think the Madison Incline is another one of those railroads…

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it really is. It can be argues though that what made those railroads so interesting also made them a pain-in-the-butt to run. (6% isn’t a cakewalk)

Though what I plan to do is largely pull the old industries back in. Madison had a lot of industry, mostly coming off the river. It was home to a railcar builder in the 1800s, barge transload until at least the 950s, several factories, at one time a booming cigar industry, several meatpackers and slaughter houses, breweries in triplicate, and that’s just below the Hill. PRR had 3 steamers in play, plus the primary hill climber, down there. Later those 4 were replaced by the pair of SD7s, but between Madison and Columbus, they kept pretty busy. what’s left is just the husk. Sadly, it’s either fudge the modern era a lot, or run the transition era. And mucha s I love the transition, I want to do a modern Madison RR, not a PRR.

When I model CMPA, which may be a while yet, but, the Hill will be back in service, and running RDC from North Madison to the Madison Station. Mostly tourist trap, but shuttlebusses may be in play for the stripmalls in North Madison, we’ll see.

Two crews can then be kept busy between 3634 on the main and 2014 in the Jefferson Proving Grounds.I’m moving the old railcar company up there (or ratherm a new one is opening with the old name) because I like Private Varnish. I may stick some warehousing up there, maybe some small transload,but those will be the major additions. A third can handle the RDCs, or it can be put on a bounce directional trolley system, but someone will have to