1903 Mountain Rail/Western Maryland Kelly (Cheat Mountain) and Glady Tunnel

Kelly: (Satellite, label is west portal. East Portal)

Glady: (Satellite, label is east portal. I could not find the west portal)

I had a hard time finding what Linda's reel below called the Cheat Mountain Tunnel. I've decided it is called Kelly Tunnel on Google Maps. While looking for the Cheat Mountain Tunnel, I found the Glady Tunnel.

Kelly (Cheat Mountain) Tunnel

They had to add a lot of rock anchors in this area. And here we see one of the curves.

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The tunnel is 1,800' (549m) long with an S-shaped curve. She heard that it has the sharpest mainline curves in the US.

One reason why I had a hard time finding the tunnel is that those curves are not very sharp. But I can believe that they are the sharpest mainline tunnel curves. The hairpin road on this topo map is now Old Rte 33 on Google Maps.

1969/71 Elkins Quad @ 24,000

Glady Tunnel

The W Fork Trail ends at this east portal. That trail goes south along the West Fork Glady Fork and intersects with the High Falls Trail. The High Falls Trail goes to the High Falls, which is where the New Tygart Flyer terminates. The New Tygart Flyer is the tourist train that goes through the Kelly Tunnel. The round trip, 46-mile, 4-hour train ride originates in Elkins, WV, 

Amy McLaughlin-Hitt, Sep 2024

The New Tygart Flyer Uses a Western Maryland Branch

The reason I found Glady Tunnel is that I originally followed the mainline from Elk River Junction when I should have taken the WM branch along Shavers Fork to Fall Run.

1969 Beverly East and 1968 Glady Quads @ 24,000

It is worth noting that the labels for the Fall and Red Runs are reversed on the 1909 map. And this map shows that the branch was built after 1909. Originally, I had looked on the mainline route all the way south past Burner, WV, for the Cheat Mountain Tunnel and found just frustration.

1909 Elkins and 1924 Horton Quads @ 62,400