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The Madison Incline is the steepest line-haul, standard gauge railroad track in North America. Opened in 1841, the incline has been in existence for nearly 180 years. At 5.89%, this incredible feat of engineering proved to be a challenge for its operators and was last used in 1992. Today, the incline has become a popular hiking trail and can be accessed from dawn until dusk. In this video, Roger Fuehring of the Madison Railroad explains the history of the incline and discusses the current status of the grade as being part of the Madison Heritage Trail.

The rest of the Madison Railroad is still active and is a very successful shortline. Seen in this video, the Madison Railroad no. 3, formerly owned by NASA and affectionally nicknamed "Little Lady", arrives in Madison, Indiana to switch-out MODRoto, a local industry. MODRoto designs and manufactures rotomolded plastic products for the laundry, recycling, material handling, lighting, pool/spa, event decor and other markets using the most sophisticated rotational molding system.

Thanks for posting DIB. Interesting history about this segment. Too bad they can’t operate an excursion train on it. It’d be cool on that grade.

AARR wrote:Thanks for posting DIB. Interesting history about this segment. Too bad they can’t operate an excursion train on it. It’d be cool on that grade.

It would really be something, that's for sure!

If memory serves me, the PRR ran SD-9s on that grade.

Your memory is pretty good. It was a pair of specially designed SD7's with extra weight and sanders (which was then an unique feature but later became standard)

Super Chief wrote:If memory serves me, the PRR ran SD-9s on that grade.

Thanks Don after I posted I thought about it more and should have posted SD7s. That must have been a sight to watch.

Those SD7s also had 360,000 lbs. of ballast, sanders and railwashers with heaters on the rear end of the engines. They put so much sand on they made the cars following the engine to ride so rough that they installed the railwashers. Those 2 SDs were the only ones to have that feature. Sander nozzles on each wheelset and railwashers on the rear of the unit to wash it off after the tractive effort was achieved. The sand and wet leaves on the line made it even more rough so the washers were installed.

Question for you guys. The video above that shows footage in North Vernon of the B&O/CSX east west trackage, I wonder if it is still in operation? Last year was over in Lebanon Illinois on Il-4 and the signals were turned 90° with "tracks out of service" signs posted. If you use Street View on Google Earth and look at said crossing signal you can see what I'm describing. Guess I'm surprised that something as important as a main line from St Louis to Cincinnati would be out of service? Track looks excellent! Anybody know anything?