The tunnel is daylighted, what does it mean? My guess is that the tunnel does not exist anymore, correct?
One example is tunnel no. 9 on the Moffat tunnel district.
That basically means that the tunnel has become a cut. It more of less involves removing the “roof” of the tunnel and widening things a bit.
Thanks for the great answer.
One more question… Why do they daylight tunnels, any particular reason?
Clearance problems. Either the tunnel was too short so that autoracks, double stackes etc coudn’t fit thru or wide loads couldn’t make it becaus the tunnel was too narrow. Sometimes the were daylighted because they became unstable and it was cheaper and easier to just do away with the tunnel versus shoring it up.
Rick
Looks like I’m first rattle out of the box this A.M.
You are absolutely right, there Electrolove. The tunnel does not exist because the top has been removed and where tracks once ran in perpetual darkness they now run in daylight, hence the term daylighted. I don’t know about Tunnel #9 on the D&RGW but this is usually done for operational purposes (read: increasing clearances or [more rarely] multitracking) as NS has done on the rathole south of Cincinnati.
(I am sure I am going to be nailed to a crosstie for this explanation!!!)
Some years ago SP (does anyone remember the good-ole-perpetually-in-the-red SP?) was forced to daylight several (?) tunnels over Tehachapi in California because of earthquake damage.
[#ditto]
It’s the same as going bald.