Norris, you can rest assured that daylighting would be at least looked at, should the tunnel need to be enlarged in the future (think about the tunnels that recently disappeared on Cajon Pass).
Carl
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Technogy of the time, need at the time of building, What happens to the interity of the hill/mountain if daylighted? Or what happens to the environment if eliminated? Daylight for one train a day or ten trains an hour? Everything looks and sounds easy until all factors are weighed.
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I suspect you'd have to look at the technology available when the tunnel was built, not to mention the rock involved with the tunnelling. Since railroads rarely do things like that the expensive way (at least not on purpose) it's possible that the cost of removing and moving all that rock/overburden was higher than simply drilling through.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Page 73 of the January issue of Trains Magazine shows a Westbound BNSF Railway stack train fololwing the Flathead River through tunnel #4 in West Glacier, Montana. The tunnel appears to be as long as, say, 6 or 7 railcars. The amount of rock above the cars is perhaps 3 times the height of a loaded double stack car. The rock on the river side of the tunnel looks to be 2 to 3 times the width of the tunnel opening. Why would the builders have gone through all the work of building and maintaining a tunnel ,that looks like it could have easily been daylighteed?
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