Hot tunnel #7 appears to have cooled....

[Modelcar]

...It sounds like UP has tunnel #7 operating back in normal routine judging what I've been reading on News Wire. I wonder if we were correct in hearing of cribbing burning in the voids behind the concrete lining if now it is deemed it is not needed. It's pretty obvious that nothing of that magnatude in work was repaired since the fire was put out.
Sounds like appropriate track work was done and the tunnel was put back in operation. Amtrak is now running on regular schedule through it according to News Wire...and that's great....just so surprising that work wasn't required to repair the fire damage.

[Modelcar]

...I'm amazed at no interest in the aftermath of the tunnel fire in tunnel # 7....Figured some of us on here with interest of the engineering part of railroading would have a comment or two....Some of us figured this was going to be a major problem for at least a few weeks and maybe more....from the info at hand at that time.
I personally thought some repair work would be needed beside track work to put it back in operation safely.

[Anonymous]

Q [:)]

Since I have not been in the forums much lately I have missed much of what was going on. So fill me in please.

[Modelcar]

I suppose we can chock it off as being "old news now"....We'll move on to the next event.
Just thought there was going to be some concern where timbers most likely burnt away.
PS....I'm writing from the Detroit area in a hotel, pretty neat to keep up with what's going on.

[Anonymous]

Over the last two weeks there has been a lot of posts with ideas on how to handle a tunnel fire.

The other day it occured to me, nobody mentioned installed sprinkler systems. Do railroad tunnels in fact have them? If not why? Highway tunnels have installed sprinklers.

Compared to costs of a damaged tunnel and lost traffic, I would think installation and maintenance of a sprinkler system would be minimal.

If a crew becomes trapped in a tunnel what are they to do? are there escape trunks? Passenger trains use these same tunnels, doesn't that make it an issue of public safety?

[Anonymous]

If I remember, in Switzerland about a year ago, a train of tourists was trapped in a tunnel on fire and the resualts were catastrophic.

[Anonymous]

Years ago a convoy of Russian soldiers was traveling through a tunnel and rebels blew up the tunnel entrance and exit trapping the soldiers.


I am not sure about sprinkler systems for tunnels but I have heard the tunnels (some anyway) do have a ventilation system. I read or heard (don't ask me where) that the steam engine crews would use some sort of can with ice in it to help them breathe while going through a tunnel. Maybe someone can add more to this. I have always wondered about the crews in a caboose what they would do in a tunnel since they had no choice but to "follow" the train. I saw a picture a while back of a train waiting to enter a tunnel. You could see some smoke coming from the tunnel entrance. So how long do they have to wait before the next train can enter the tunnel?

[Modelcar]

All interesting stuff....Switzerland was in the news in the past few years...I'll bet they did some improvements to overcome what caused their problem.
PS...Nice and sunny in the Detroit area this morning....

[sebamat]

The Tunnel accident you hinted was not in Switzerland, but in Austria, with a cable car at Caprun (171 deads) http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/europe/11/11/austria.fire.03/ .
The problem there was then not fire but the smoke: being the tunnel very steep, it worked like a chimney, and the smoke was so thick and hot that it even killed peoples waiting at the station at the top of the tunnel. Only peoples that ran downhill from the burning car were able to survive. The ones running uphill were overtaken from the smoke even several hundreds of meters away from the wrack. As the fire developped in the car, only a sprinker inside the the car would have really helped. Experts spoke a lot about fans and the possibility to 'close' the tunnel.
A similar accident at the highway tunnel of Gotthard ended similarly: peoples close to the fire were chocked from the smoke (11 deads), even if their car did not burn.

sebastiano

[Modelcar]

Mark and Smattei: All good data and stuff to think about. I suppose thinking about all the traffic through tunnels througout the world it's a wonder we don't see more damage and deaths from their operation. I'm sure no quick fix can be in order or it would have been accomplished years ago...And thinking about years ago...Wonder how crews survived running steam engines through some of the longer ones and even some of the shorter ones but making just a few mph in speed which forced a longer stay inside the bore...All amazing...!
....PS....Sunny now in Muncie.

[Anonymous]

I have read several places that steamer crews had masks attached to the engines compressed air system that they used when going through tunnels.

Just in the US nearly 50,000 deaths a year on our highways. What's a few more in a couple of tunnels?

Same sort of reasoning as "We don't install stop lights until there have been more than xx deaths" you hear too often from the traffic "experts".

[Modelcar]

....When we might be able to do something about the "just a few more", perhaps we should or that figure of 50,000 will continue to climb.
10-4 on no stop lights until xx numbers are reached...I don't know what could, should be done about such thinking.....But somthing.