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Stillkit,
I can't remember exactly where it was but I remember a real nasty grade somewhere around El Paso on the U.S. side. I was taking a "shortcut" when I found it.
GL2
That's probably El Capitan, coming down out of New Mexico into Texas on US-62/180, east of El Paso. It's very steep and somewhat curvy, but the biggest challenge is the wind which blows up there nearly all the time.
But, you could also be thinking of going over the Franklin Mountains on Transmountain Road (TX-375) which cuts across north of El Paso between I-10 and US-54. For traffic coming from the west, it's the most direct route to Ft. Bliss and the northern suburbs of El Paso. It's a long, steep SOB in either direction, ending up at a red light on both ends. In other words, if your brakes get hot (which they surely can) you're up a creek if that light is red when you get there!
Or, maybe you're thinking of Missle Pass on US-70 between Las Cruces and Alamagordo, NM, where it goes over the Organ Mountains. It's really not that far from El Paso. From the top, you're looking out over the White Sands Missle Range and the distance down is really quite deceptive. It doesn't look that far to the bottom, but it is, and after you've gotten about half way down you realize this thing is much longer than I thought and I'm going WAY too fast!
Old U.S. 40 from Hagerstown to Cumberland used to be one deadly road for truckers. It finally got fixed, especially when I-68 was built from Hancock to Cumberland, MD.
Another dreadful piece of road was over Backbone Mountain with its hairpin turns and grades.
Born in 1948, I recall some of those nasty old roads that were built just before and during the Great Depression timeframe. The science of roadbuilding has certainly come a long way.
Yes, I remember old US-40/48 across the Maryland Panhandle too! It wasn't a good road for making time, was it? LOL
But, I-68 didn't entirely fix it.
Coming into Cumberland (I think) from the west, you pass a sign which says "Steep downgrade next 12 miles." You think, "Holy s--t!" and slow down. But, the road just gently drops for a few miles, then levels out, so you get back in the pedal again. Suddenly, it drops off again so you slow down again. But, just as before, it levels off again so you think, "Aw heck. This is nothing!" and get back into the fuel again.
Then, without any warning about how long or how steep the final grade is, you suddenly find yourself careening down about 6 miles of 6% grade and way, way down there at the bottom (it's a perfectly straight shot), you can see a pretty hard left-hand curve in the interstate! But, by now, you've been convinced that the original sign really didn't mean what it said, so you're going much too fast for that kind of grade, but it's too late to slow down without heating up the brakes!
I made that mistake very late in my driving career pulling a set of doubles and with no Jake brake. By the time I realized I'd screwed myself, I had nothing else to do but ride the brakes to a full and complete stop about 2 or 3 miles from the bottom and sit there on the shoulder in a cloud of smoke until they cooled off. Naturally, rookies who knew the road better than I went by making fun of me!
They really need to mark not just the overall grade, but the specific sections of it as they do out west where you find signs telling you just how long the grade is, how steep it is and a recommended speed.
By the way, Tehachapi Pass in California is marked in a very similar manner to that one on I-68. The signs tell you that it's about 40 miles down to the bottom, and signs warn you about the length of certain grades, but they give you no indication about how steep they are and they're not all the same. I've seen more than one truck already leaving a smoke trail before they get to the final, steepest portion from the pull out just past Arvin Rd. down to Gen. Beale Rd. If they've gone past that pull-out without stopping to cool them off, they're in a world of hurt.
I saw one guy who was already smoking turn off at Arvin Rd and head down that road to the valley. I've run it before and it's winding, narrow, VERY steep grade which is much, much worse than the one on CA-58! It comes out at the town of Arvin, which is south of Bakersfield, and it's no laughing matter, even on the best of days. I started to just pull over on the final stretch of 58 and watch to see if he made it, but didn't. As hot as his brakes were when he started that downgrade, I seriously doubt if he ended up anywhere but off the side of it, which is a long way down in places.
Cabbage Hill on I-84 West bound can be nasty and when a combination of errors happen at the wrong time it can be deadly. I witnessed the aftermath of an incident that resulted in a driver being killed. I'm not sure what kind of rig the driver was driving but he came off the hill a little bit too fast. If I remember correctly at that time there was only ONE runaway sand trap for trucks. The driver had been talking to other drivers on his CB letting them know he needed to go in to the sand trap. A car load of tourists had blocked off the entrance to the runaway truck ramp (clearly marked). The driver made the decision NOT to kill all the people in the car and continued on down the hill. Somewhere after that last curve he lost control of his rig and he died. I came by an hour or so after the accident happened and I pulled in to the truck stop to wait for the road to be open. The Highway Patrol was looking for the four wheeler that blocked the runaway ramp but I don't know if they ever found it. It is scary to think just how stupid you can be and still have a driver's license.
It was probably this one. I would have had a reason to take a shortcut to Hwy 54. . . ."Franklin Mountains on Transmountain Road (TX-375) which cuts across north of El Paso between I-10 and US-54"...
GL2
Cabbage Hill on I-84 West bound can be nasty and when a combination of errors happen at the wrong time it can be deadly. I witnessed the aftermath of an incident that resulted in a driver being killed. I'm not sure what kind of rig the driver was driving but he came off the hill a little bit too fast. If I remember correctly at that time there was only ONE runaway sand trap for trucks. The driver had been talking to other drivers on his CB letting them know he needed to go in to the sand trap. A car load of tourists had blocked off the entrance to the runaway truck ramp (clearly marked). The driver made the decision NOT to kill all the people in the car and continued on down the hill. Somewhere after that last curve he lost control of his rig and he died. I came by an hour or so after the accident happened and I pulled in to the truck stop to wait for the road to be open. The Highway Patrol was looking for the four wheeler that blocked the runaway ramp but I don't know if they ever found it. It is scary to think just how stupid you can be and still have a driver's license.
GL2
Cabbage fools a lot of people for some reason. It's not as bad as several others I can name, but wrecks and hot brakes are still common. The actual 6% part of the grade is only 4 miles long, from the scenic pullout to where you complete the last curve and can let it go, and the view from the top should be enough to make anyone slow down, but it doesn't. Overconfidence, I guess or maybe over-reliance on the Jake.
I followed one of our rookie drivers down it once whose partner was a great driver, but a guy prone to inflate his own abilities. Anyhow, he'd taught this kid some bad things, one of which was to fall off Cabbage in about 9th gear and ride the Jake. Of course, I geared down to where the Jake would hold me back with only a little, infrequent use of the brakes and by the time he got to the bottom, I was 2 or 3 miles behind him.
Naturally, he started ribbing me on the radio, calling me "Granny" and such, which didn't bother me but I did remind him that one day he'd go off that hill like that and the Jake would quit about half-way down (which really had happened to me on that very hill!) and he'd be up the creek. He's still out there on the road today, 25 years later, and he's become a pretty good truck driver, among the last of the old breed, high speed, gear jammers. I talked to him just the other day and he was out in Oklahoma somewhere doing about 90.
But, this conversation reminds me of something I read many, many years ago and I suspect it's still true. The CHP did a study of those who'd lost their brakes on California hills and either got killed or had to use the runaway ramps. In every instance, without exception, they were drivers from relatively "flat" states like Illinois or Indiana or Mississippi or Texas. They just weren't familiar with mountains and the skills it takes to drive them. While speed doesn't kill, inexperience surely does.
I'm also reminded of a wreck similar to the one you described in West Virginia, just east of Morgantown. A driver had come down 7-mile hill on I-68 and lost his brakes. According to the cop I talked to, they think he took the ramp at Rt-43 in an attempt to slow down, but there was a car there and he crawled up on top of it at God knows what speed.
When I came off 43 and tried to get on I-68 westbound, I couldn't because the on-ramp was just a mass of indistinguishable, twisted metal. It was hard to identify either a truck or a car in that mess. The cop told me they'd already found the drivers body and knew there were people in the car, which was entirely underneath what was left of the truck, and were waiting for a wrecker to pull them apart. I'd had to stop and ask him which way I needed to go and that's how I heard this story. (I had to go up that hill, then come back down to go west. Ugh!)
I can't recall when or under what circumstances I talked to that cop again a few weeks later, but he related that when they pulled the truck off the car, they were surprised to find all 4 people in it still alive!
It was probably this one. I would have had a reason to take a shortcut to Hwy 54. . . ."Franklin Mountains on Transmountain Road (TX-375) which cuts across north of El Paso between I-10 and US-54"...
GL2
Yeah, I found it the same way. Some short cut!
But, later, there were times when I'd go that way on purpose to avoid a traffic backup or if I was going out US-180.
I remember seeing a copy of OverDrive Magazine, about 40 years ago now, and some fellow was referring to PA as "PennSloMania" as at that time PA may have had some zealous enforcement.
Thanks for the "Blast from the Past", Mike!!! Back when you used to read Overdrive, it was a rather inflammatory rag owned by Mike Parkhurst and, as I've heard, he stirred up quite a bit of stuff. I don't think I've seen but a couple of issues from his era, so I'll defer to the more senior drivers who may know more about parkhurst and his efforts. I believe Overdrive is still published, albeit in a VERY tame industry punblication heavy on supplier press releases. I don't know if Parkhurst is sill kicking around; he made a series of spoken-word tapes about the trucking industry that flopped some 10 years ago or so.
Best that I could find with a google search is that he was still around in 2008, but the web trail is rather cold on him.
Seems that Overdrive Magazine is now owned by Randall Publishing and is still published.
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I can't say I was NEVER passed, but it wasn't all that often....and I've got the drivin' record to prove it!
One night, I was coming out of Van Horn, TX on my way to Houston, just minding my business, when a bunch of fast chicken trucks blew by me. I was driving a chicken truck too, which was painted red and orange. They started making fun of me and calling my ride a "circus truck."
So....I couldn't have that, could I?
I shired down on it and passed the whole string of them before they got to the Plateau exit, about 10 miles out of town. They had a fit and started in to catch me. But, one by one, I heard something like this, "I can't touch him. You go get 'im, (so and so). The fuggin' circus truck is too fast."
Finally, there was one left about 2 miles back and slowly gaining ground. You'd have thought it was Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty the way we both cut the corners and never let out of it. Every inch of highway was used by both of us to gain adavantage and slower traffic just got left in the dust. Not a word was said on the radio and those other also rans had fallen almost out of range. I could barely hear them back there runnin' their mouths.
The race went on for about 35 or 40 miles and he just kept creeping up on me. Now, he's a mile back. Then, half a mile. A quarter mile. 100 YARDS! He's gonna catch me and there's nothing I can do about it!
Now, we're at the I-10/20 split and I've got to swing off to Houston, so I came up on the radio:
"Big truck. Which way are you going?"
"Dallas."
"Well, I've got to toward Houston. You caught me, but you didn't pass me."
"No, but I would have."
"Yeah, you would."
"That was fun, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, it was. Have a good trip!" We parted friends, but I don't know who he was or if I ever ran into him again.
The next day, after unloading my produce in Houston, I was back out on I-10 and heard some drivers talking about a race last night out at Van Horn. It seems that one of those also rans blew his engine trying to catch me!
Ahhhhh....there's nothing like satisfaction, is there?
I live along Interstate 80 in Nebraska. In the late 1970 's and early 1980's the really fast trucks were the guys that hauled fresh produce from California to Chicago and points East. Most of the Western states allowed 80,000 # gross but Illinois was still 73,280#. On Interstate 80 there were two scales on I-80 that were a real ***** to get around and both were in Illinois. However Illinois USUALLY closed their scales on Saturdays and Sundays and opened up first thing Monday morning.. All of the produce haulers that loaded on Friday in California would be coming across I-80 in Nebraska late Sunday night. I never attempted to run with them because like I stated earlier I never had a truck that would go over 100 mph. However there were a lot of times when I would be on I-80 either riding my bored & stroked Harley Sportster or in my 68 Vette with the big 427 Rat motor. The only vehicles I owned that could keep up with them. I knew almost all of the Nebraska law enforcement officers on I-80 from N. Platte to Lincoln. One of my friends was a Deputy Sheriff in a County West of Lincoln and when he worked late Saturdays he would park on top of an overpass and turn on his radar gun at times. The fastest reading he ever got from a big truck was 128 MPH. He would just get on the CB and tell them to be careful. Now that is definitely haulin' as*.
GL2
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Michael Parkhurst of Overdrive Magazine
