OK, I haven't seen Waldorf and Statlers Photo of the Day in a while and some recent threads gave me an idea, how bout a thread specifically for sharing unique pieces of information about railroad infrastructure and equipment and also interesting stories.
So like in the "toy" train tunnel thread with the tunnel that was "daylighted" but a secton of its lining was left in place.
Or my thread about Tehachapis second main in 1912.
Just a thought.
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
NWP SWPSo like in the "toy" train tunnel thread with the tunnel that was "daylighted" but a secton of its lining was left in place.
I've been giving thought to tunnels lately, especially for inclusion in the "Diner" which is located in New England this month.
Case-in-point: The Hoosac Tunnel. (From Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosac_Tunnel
The Hoosac Tunnel (also called Hoosic or Hoosick Tunnel) is a 4.75-mile (7.64 km) active railroad tunnel in western Massachusetts that passes through the Hoosac Range, an extension of Vermont's Green Mountains. It runs in a straight line from its east portal, along the Deerfield River in the town of Florida, to its west portal in the city of North Adams.
Work began in 1851[1] under an estimated cost of $2 million and ended in 1875, having consumed $21 million. At its completion, the tunnel was the world's second-longest, after the 8.5-mile (13.7 km) Mont Cenis Tunnel through the French Alps. It was the longest tunnel in North America until the 1916 completion of the Connaught Tunnel under Rogers Pass in British Columbia,[3] and remains the longest active transportation tunnel east of the Rocky Mountains.
"Hoosac" is an Algonquian word meaning "place of stones".
One of the many engineering challenges posed by the project was getting the proper alignment between the four tunnel segments that were being dug: the east and west portal tunnels, and the two tunnels dug outward from the central shaft. Engineers cleared a path through the forest over the mountain, and strung a straight line from the east to west portals, through "sighting posts" on the east and west peaks of Hoosac Mountain. In 1866 Thomas Doane took over as chief engineer. He resurveyed the alignment of the tunnel by constructing six towers.
These alignment towers served to make sure the tunnel stayed true to its course. Grooved iron markers were originally used instead of these towers. Each tower, except the Rowe Neck tower, consisted of a transit scope, a sloped wooden roof on the top of the stone structure. Repeated surveys verified the line ran true between the posts, and steel bolts were installed at fixed intervals along the line. Only four of these towers remain today, in ruins. These can be found using old roads and some bushwhacking through the current forest overgrowth.[5]
The tunnel was dug on four faces, or segments, from each end and on two sides of a central shaft.
On December 12, 1872, workers opened the east portal tunnel to the Central Shaft-dug tunnel, which were aligned within 9⁄16 inch (1.4 cm), a tremendous engineering achievement at that time. On November 27, 1873, the remainder of the tunnel was opened to the west portal tunnel.
This fact fascinates me. Think about digging through rock and finding the alignment, inside a mountain, to be no less than .5625 inches out of alignment in 4 and 3/4 miles! It is still in use today:
The last regularly scheduled passenger train passed through the tunnel in 1958. As of 2012, the tunnel is part of Pan Am Railways, formerly the Guilford Rail System, with trains operated by subsidiary Springfield Terminal Railway, and the property and infrastructure owned by subsidiary Boston and Maine Corporation. The route is currently used to transport freight, but sees rare excursion trains for some special occasions. It was converted to single track in 1957. Clearances were increased in 1997 and 2007, the former by lowering the track, the latter by grinding 15 inches off the roof,[7] allowing trailer on flat car (TOFC) and tri-level automobile carriers to pass. In March 2012, the Federal Railroad Administrationawarded a $2 million grant to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for preliminary engineering on further increasing clearance in the tunnel to allow double stack container trains to use the tunnel.
Cheers, Ed
Golly gee, do you realize that if the History Channel glommed onto this tunnel, they'd claim us dumb ol' humans couldn't have done it? It was "Space Aliens!"
Deano
I'm not saying it was aliens, but, it was (we need an air quote emoji) aliens
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
My favorite example is how UP uses old 56’ flat cars as bridges around Echo Canyon. That’s how I saw my first “Route of the Streamliners“ car, in 2017 non the less.