Necessity is the mother of invention.

Many say it gave birth to greatness in Carbon County in 1827.

The necessity was a demand to haul coal from Summit Hill mines to then Mauch Chunk, now Jim Thorpe, to ship the black diamonds down the Lehigh Canal to Philadelphia.

The invention was an elaborate system of rails, cars, pulleys, steam engines and use of gravity itself. The 18-mile rail route was configured, approximately, like a figure eight, and was one of the most heralded engineering feats of the 19th century.

On Nov. 19, about 90 members and guests of the Nesquehoning Historical Society explored the workings of the legendary Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Gravity Railroad and Switchback, led by a PowerPoint presentation by history author Vince Hydro.

Hydro presented a chronology of the Switchback, along with related assets used in the coal transportation industry.

Innovation

“In June 1829, the Lehigh River’s descending-only navigation was replaced with the Lehigh Canal,” he explained.

Around that time, the Switchback Railroad was built by anthracite entrepreneurs Erskine Hazard and Josiah White, founders of Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.

Many say the genius of the Switchback was in its design, using the steep mountainsides and the force of gravity to move coal (and later passengers) via rail cars, applying the principle of constant descending.

To say the ride was thrilling would be an understatement. On return trip, the open-air cars ran downhill by gravity and reached speeds of over 50 miles an hour. Hand brakes slowed the cars at dangerous turns along the mountainside. The idea was the predecessor to the roller coaster.

“At the end of 1837, passenger services was discontinued because it was interfering with coal traffic,” said Hydro. “In 1846, a back track was completed and passenger service restored.”

How did it work?

Rail cars were hoisted uphill. For example, at the Summit Hill side, the Switchback was powered by steam fed by a water supply called the Spring Cistern at the village of Stoney Lonesome, about halfway down the Mount Jefferson Plane. The engineering feat included flexible steel cables that ran between the rails to the engine house where they wound around massive 28-foot drums.

According to historical accounts, the Switchback was important to Schuylkill County, too.

Just three years after it was built, it carried Tamaqua’s mail. The Tamaqua post office hired Isaac Hinkley to drive the stagecoach back and forth to Summit Hill, where the Switchback connected Tamaqua mail deliveries with the Lehigh Canal.

Popularity

By 1872, the Switchback became a major tourist draw when other means of getting coal to market allowed shipment directly from mines. In fact, a covered wooden platform, Highpoint Lookout, was constructed at the end of a trestle atop Mount Pisgah to let riders take advantage of the view, Hydro noted.

An estimated 7,000 to 10,000 visitors each week took the Switchback’s hair-raising 65-minute ride. It is said the Switchback became one of the nation’s top tourist destinations, second only to Niagara Falls.

Among many celebrities who rode: President Ulysses S. Grant, President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Dom Pedro II, Emperor of Brazil, and Thomas Edison.

End of the line

Good things don’t last forever, and “Oct. 29, 1933, the last car made its trip,” said Hydro.

Hard times hit. The Switchback was sold at auction on Sept. 2, 1937, in Carbon County Courthouse, to Isaac Weiner, a Pottsville scrap dealer. He paid $18,100 for 18 miles of track, 11 passenger cars, all of the machinery and buildings.

Some of the metal eventually was sold to Japan for munitions. This prompted many old-timers to cite the irony that the Switchback “came back to us several years later in the form of bullets.”

Interestingly, in August 1998, volunteer workers at Summit Hill and members of the Summit Hill Historical Society unearthed a large stone-lined Switchback barney pit at the bottom of the Mount Jefferson Plane at White Bear near Lentz Trail.

It was one of two underground storage areas that once housed the small train cars which pushed the larger cars 2,200 feet up the steep Mount Jefferson and Mount Pisgah planes at about 3 miles per hour. Uniquely designed, barney cars were spring-loaded and would expand to fit the track once they came out of the pit.

The discovery led to more talk about Switchback restoration. However, the cost, even 20 years ago, was projected at $20 million or more. In addition, much of the land that once hosted the return track is now privately owned.

“I never knew how much history was here until I moved to this area,” said attendee Bob Doerr, who relocated to West Penn Township from Philadelphia.

Another agreed.

“I learned a whole lot,” said Jim Rodick, who moved to Rush Township from the Reading area.

Both Doerr and Rodick are military veterans and history buffs.

The presentation included a welcome by Lois Corby Kuba, society president, who led attendees on a rousing rendition of the Nesquehoning High School fight song.