The New Portage Branch was a rail line which ran between the

New Portage Tunnel The Gallitzin Tunnels in Gallitzin, Pennsylvania, are a set of three adjacent tunnels through the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. They were completed in 1854, 1855, and 1902 by the Pennsylvania Railroad as part of the cross-state ro ...

and

Duncansville, Pennsylvania Duncansville is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Altoona, Pennsylvania metropolitan statistical area. The population was 1,258 at the 2020 census. Geography According to the United States Census Burea ...

History

The line was opened between 1852 and 1856 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a bypass of a portion of their

Allegheny Portage Railroad The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania. It operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the gaps of the Allegheny that connecte ...

, itself a portion of the

Main Line of Public Works The Main Line of Public Works was a package of legislation passed by the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1826 to establish a means of transporting freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. It funded the construction of various lon ...

. In 1857, the line was purchased by the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

and was abandoned. In 1904, due to increasing traffic on Pennsylvania Railroad's main line in the area, the line was reopened. Together with the railroad's Petersburg Branch, it was used as a bypass, providing a second route around the railyards at Altoona and the

Horseshoe Curve A horseshoe curve is a class of climbing curve in a roadbed that reverses turn direction (inflection) twice on either side of a single tight curve that varies through an angle of about 180 degrees or more. Such curves are more commonly found ...

on the mainline. In 1981, the line was abandoned from the east portal of the New Portage Tunnel to Hollidaysburg.

Current status

As of 2019, the New Portage Tunnel is still in use as part of

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

Pittsburgh Line The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combine ...

. The section from

US 22 U.S. Route 22 (US 22) is a major east–west route and one of the original United States Numbered Highways, founded in 1926. It runs from Cincinnati, Ohio, at US 27, US 42, US 127, and US 52 to Newark, New Jers ...

south to the Muleshoe Curve bridge over Old US 22 is a

Pennsylvania State Game Lands The Pennsylvania State Game Lands (SGL) are lands managed by the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) for hunting, trapping, and fishing. These lands, often not usable for farming or development, are donated to the PGC or purchased by the PGC with ...

road; the section from the Muleshoe Curve bridge to

Foot of Ten, Pennsylvania Foot of Ten is a census-designated place in Allegheny and Juniata Townships in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located approximately one mile west of the small borough Duncansville on Foot of Ten Road, and about 2.5 miles ...

is part of the 6 to 10 Trail.

References

{{uS-rail-transport-stub Pennsylvania Railroad lines

History

Current status

See also

References