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The possible transfer of the name Sarn Athrad to the supposed Ford over Ascar I mention in post #26. And the more I think about it the more I am inclined to feel that this is the way to go.
As Aiwendil did in his post I will put forward my view of the textual development. This is clearly a subjektive view and can be in error in some places, but I hope it will give some insight into my arguments:
The situation that I start my lock with is represented in Q30:
The River Gelion had no falls or rapids.
The Ford named Sarn Athrad was directly south of the confluence of Ascar and Gelion.
The Battle took place at Sarn Athrad.
The gold was cast either actively by the Elves into Ascar (near at hand) or by the dwarves into the Ford over the joined waters of Ascar and Gelion. ( I think that Tolkien meant the second option and wrote Ascar here more figuratively.)
Now Tolkien "discovered" the story of the fight of the Folk of Haleth against the Orcs. This necessitated a change in the geography by which Sarn Athrad moved to a place somewhat north of the confluence of Ascar and Gelion. (I think that in these geographic development the falls of Gelion were introduced, but that can not be demonstrated.)
In view of this the casting of the Gold into Ascar as described in Q30 would become an active deed of the Elves.
That the pass south of the Dolmed led still into Ossirinad and therefore came down south of Ascar is seen by the fact that all the groups of Men that came over the mountains first came to Ossiriand and not to Thargelion. The House of Bëor removed to Estolad by the biding of Felagund and the House of Marach followed them, but the House of Haleth was driven out of Ossiriand by the Green-Elves.
When Tolkien now came to write TY he wanted to avoid the active role the Elves played in the drowning of the hoard. But he also still wanted the Gold to be cast into the River Ascar and not into Gelion, because Ascar was the River that would receive a new name in the course of that story. Thus he changed the place of the battle to be at a Ford over Ascar. (Such a Ford, as is demonstrated above, was anyway necessary.) This change underlies already the very compressed expression in TY A even if it is not made very explicit. That Ford over Ascar was named now Sarn Athrad as is more clearly seen in TY B, C and D in which Tolkien developed the story further by introducing Curufin and Celegrom. (I will not go into detail of that development since it is clearly rejected in Letter no. 247.)
The only further information we have is in the "Maeglin"-papers. There we are given the information that between the ford over Gelion and the confluence with Ascar is a Fall in the River of Gelion. The Name Sarn Athrad is found only three times in these papers: Once (uncorrected) in a note describing Eöls journey to Nogrod (label (ii) by Christopher Tolkien) and in two marginal notes to the unnamed Ford over Gelion in which we are told that the Ford should be renamed from Sarn Athrad to Athrad Daer, Harathrad or Athrad i-Negyth.
Since we see Tolkien here "thinking with the pen" I would interpret the mention of Sarn Athrad in note (ii) as a unconscious use of an long established but now outdated name for the Ford over Gelion. In the other places were he spoke about the Ford he did not name it and in the accompanying notes he developed a new name for the Ford over Gelion since Sarn Athrad, the Stony Ford, was possibly no longer fitting for that Ford and was now used for the Ford over Ascar.
In the above given interpretation of mine a "slip of the pen" is only once needed to make it work. I view that as a evidence that I am not to fare of track, since to supposed that the author is in error by writing about his own creation is a trick that only works for me as ultima ratio. But anyway it is an very subjective interpretation. I hope it will bring some clearness for you about my view on the subject at least.
Respectfully
Findegil
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