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MADISON, Ind. (January 2003) – In 1832 the Indiana state
legislature, recognizing the need for transportation to carry
crops from Indiana’s fertile central farmlands to market,
chartered eight possible routes for rail lines in the state.
“Without economic transportation to move crops to market,
the rich lands of the Indiana interior were valueless,”
according to the book, “Railroads of Indiana,” by
Richard S. Simons and Francis H. Parker.
While many towns competed for a line, Madison, Ind., leaders
successfully lobbied for government funding of a route from
Madison to Indianapolis. In his book, “The Pennsylvania
Railroad in Indiana,” William J. Watt wrote that supporters
of a line from Madison to Indianapolis contended that the
route would be the shortest distance from Indianapolis, the
potential state capital, to the Ohio River. The General Assembly
agreed, and in 1836 construction began on Indiana’s first
railroad, the Madison and Indianapolis.
Besides being Indiana’s first railroad, the M&I held
the distinction of having the nation’s steepest grade
on a line-haul railroad: the Madison incline. Climbing for
a little more than a mile from the Ohio River up the Madison
hill, the incline’s precipitous 5.89 percent average
grade became known as one of the steepest in the country.
Although Indiana was recognized for its level farm fields,
the steep cliffs abutting the Ohio River in Madison posed
a quandary to railroad engineers. Steam locomotives of the
time were unable to ascend extremely steep grades or make
sharp curves, narrowing options for traversing the hill.
After researching various alternatives, an inclined plane
model was adopted for construction. A costly and difficult
task, work began on the Madison incline in 1837. Cuts, some
as deep as 100 feet, were blasted through the stone hillsides.
Ron Grimes, archivist for the Jefferson County Historical
Society and a railroad aficionado, recently walked the incline
with his son. “When you actually get into the cut, you
get a perspective of what a difficult project it was —
to do all that with black powder and horses and wagons,”
said Grimes.
The incline construction project took more than four years
to complete and cost much more than anticipated. When it was
finally finished in 1841, the Madison incline was opened to
rail traffic with the use of horse teams to pull cars up the
hill and simple gravity for taking them down. Wooden hand
brakes were used to slow cars upon descent and had to be frequently
doused with water to prevent combustion from friction.
According to records of the American Society of Civil Engineers,
for a short time in 1845 a steam locomotive called the Dewitt
Clinton, built by M.W. Baldwin of Philadelphia, was used.
But because the engine could barely pull up one car at a time,
and slowly at that, it proved unsatisfactory, and horses were
once again employed. Seeking a more efficient mode of transport
up the incline, Andrew Cathcart, Master Mechanic for the M&I,
designed a cog wheel system that was put into use in 1847.
According to Grimes, Cathcart took a basic locomotive and
added a mechanism for a cog wheel, which engaged a rack rail
running down the center of the track. Grimes said that far
from being a perfect solution, the cog wheel would sometimes
disengage, sending the engine hurtling down the hill at breakneck
speed. The distinctive sound of the disengaged cog wheel banging
down the rail was well recognized by nearby residents, who
quickly gathered at the bottom of the hill to witness the
spectacle and provide assistance if needed, said Grimes. Despite
shortcomings and for lack of a better option, the cog wheel
system remained in use for many years.
In the same year that the cog wheel was introduced, the last
rail was laid to complete the line from Madison to Indianapolis.
At the time Indianapolis was a small settlement when compared
to Madison, which at the time was Indiana’s second largest
city. The arrival of the railroad in Indianapolis is credited
with an explosion of business, population and industry in
the city, which is now the largest in the state.
Despite the use of cog wheel locomotives, which somewhat eased
the burden of traveling the hill, the idea of an alternative
route to the Madison incline was proposed in the early 1850s.
Between 1853 and 1856, an attempt was made to construct a
new route through what is now Clifty Falls State Park. The
project, under the direction of M&I President John Brough,
was overtaken with financial difficulties and eventually abandoned.
It became known as “Brough’s Folly.” Some progress
was made on the route, however, and two tunnels, one of which
can still be seen, were started.
In 1868, the incline was converted to adhesion working with
the use of the powerful locomotive, the “Reuben Wells.”
Named after its designer and the master mechanic of the expanded
Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad, the steam-powered
Reuben Wells was the heaviest locomotive of its day. The adhesion-type
steam locomotive remained in use until it was replaced by
coal-burning engines in the late 1800s.
In the early 1950s, diesel locomotives became standard. The
original Reuben Wells locomotive can now be viewed as a permanent
exhibit at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.
Although the incline made transportation up the Madison hill
possible, it was far from being an ideal solution. Costly
to maintain and dangerous, the incline would prove a vexation
to railroad operators until more powerful locomotives were
invented. In recent decades, lack of industry on the river
front and the existence of alternative transportation methods
has minimized the need for a rail line leading to the river,
thus leaving the incline, which is owned by the Madison Railroad,
in a state of disrepair.
The most recent use of the incline was in 1992 when the railroad,
with financial assistance from Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corp,
refurbished the track and used it to transport equipment from
the hilltop to the power plant, located near its base on the
Ohio River.
Today, the incline is once again overgrown with weeds and
blocked by large boulders and rocks. Cathy Hale, chief executive
officer of Madison Railroad, said that although the railroad
does not currently use the incline for freight service, it
will continue to preserve it in case the need arises. Hale
said railroad officials have investigated sources of funding
to create a walking right-of-way beside the track that could
be used in conjunction with the Heritage Trail, a portion
of which runs adjacent to the incline.
Currently, the railroad has “No Trespassing” signs
posted and discourages individuals from walking the incline
because of danger from falling rocks. Some have suggested
that the incline be refurbished and used as a tourist attraction,
with railroad cars taking visitors up and down the hill. But
the idea has been thwarted because of the projected high cost
of maintenance and insurance.
For now, the incline exists mainly as a sentimental reminder
of what was once a major transportation corridor from the
Madison riverfront to the hilltop.
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