Transcontinental Nailway 

The vintage photos that are posted on this page as of 3/9/06 are really entertaining. My opinion - although getting past the overhang is reasonably hard, I think that the crux is actually not too far off the ground, where my memory is that you have to do a thin face move in order to make your way up and right to establish a position underneath the overhang. This is a great route.

The move onto the slab on the bottom is only 5.9, but scary, since the gear is mediocre and at your foot as you high step onto the slab using a one fingertip pocket. Someone had a bad accident cratering from this move about a year ago. That one-finger pocket didn't exist originally--there was a pebble where the pocket now is. The pebble loosened over time and eventually fell out or was pulled out (hopefully just with fingers).

A similar thing happened on the ceiling crux. There is now a nice 2 or 3 fingertip slot that you layback to reach the jug. That slot didn't exist originally. My good friend and regular partner Jeff Pofit excavated the debris from the slot in 1974 with his fingers as he was scrabbling for a decent hold.

A nice variation at about 10a with decent pro goes left from the top of the corner above the crux and then straight up to the anchors. This avoids the scary 8 face move at the end of the regular route (which steps right out of the corner and then back left across an unprotected face).

We went to the top in 1 pitch but the 2nd two thirds was all gardening and corn flacks. Is there a good finish to this climb?

There's a "direct" John Bragg 5.10 P2 that goes, I think, more or less straight up after the P1 anchors. I know it's up there somewhere, but I can't picture it. It's been a while...