Southbound coal trains faced a 1.83 percent ruling grade from Osceola Yard, in the valley of the Moshannon Creek, up to the summit of the Allegheny Mountains near Sandy Ridge. From the summit they descended grades as steep as 2.86 percent into the Bald Eagle Valley at Vail, where a connection was made with the Bald Eagle Branch and ultimately the mainline at Tyrone. It was this horrendous, 16-mile operating headache on the Clearfield Secondary that led Penn Central to close the line from Osceola to Vail in 1969 in favor of routing Moshannon Valley coal north to Clearfield and then eastward over the ex-New York Central WBV Branch. Above, near Retort, the head end of a 50-some car train grinds upgrade in April 1969. Below, pushers on the same train have throttled back as they approach Summit. All locomotives will return to Osceola to bring up another 50 or so cars, then couple the two strings at Summit for the trip down the mountain. The Osceola-Summit segment of the PRR Clearfield Branch (begun in the 1850s as the Tyrone and Clearfield Railway) was double track until the passing of steam in the 1950s.
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