Why two separate bores?

Paul, were it not for my nearly eight years (1988-1996) living in northern New Jersey, when I was associate editor of Railfan & Railroad, I might never have learned much about nor gained an appreciation for Eastern railroads. Well, I did get an early taste when we flew from California to Buffalo in the late 1970s to visit my mother’s parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in Attica, NY. (None of them residing in the infamous prison there, though one uncle did work there.) Still have some nice color negs of D&H, EL, LV and other power working the hills on either side of town, including helpers. Some articles published around that period, Bill Rettburg’s Sand Patch piece in Trains and just about anything Nelligan, Hartley, or Bachman did from New England, really captivated me when I was living less than an hour from places like the Surf Line, Cajon, or Beaumont Hill. As for those Hudson River tunnels, you listed them pretty well. I should have framed them with the State Line Tunnels under a heading that emphasizes their noteworthiness for combining BOTH of the tunnel styles this thread is talking about: side-by-side AND double-tracked tunnels.

…Don’t forget the Allegheny tunnel…{one of twin tunnels}, on the ex. Pennsylvania RR at Gallitzin, Pa. It has been modified to accept higher double stack consists and double tracked at the same time. This occured back about 1995.

2nd “double tunnel” {Gallitizin}, is now out of service since Allegheny was enlarged to double track. Tunnel lengths are about 3600’. Location at just above 2,100’ elevation to slice thru the upper portion of the Alleghenies above Horseshoe Curve…westbound.

Quentin, thanks for that. I hadn’t forgotten the Gallitzin Summit tunnels, but as you know there have been so many changes there over the years that I wasn’t sure of my recollection of the facts, and didn’t want to mis-state them. You’ve obviously got them handy to fill that omission.

[#offtopic] and “stupid-teenager-tricks” warning: Somewhat off-thread, but this most of this NorthEastern U.S. railfan audience will appreciate it: Someday soon (maybe later this summer ?) I’ll scare you guys to death when I dig out, scan, and post my one-of-a-kind Kodacolor 620 (?) print from about April 1967 of Ken Wolfgang* broad-jumping between a pair of those parallel concrete arches of/ under the Tunkhannock/ Nicholson Viaduct. It was at the northernmost full span - and for those of you who don’t know - about 240 ft. above the ground below. Each arch is basically directly under 1 of the tracks, and there is a gap of - what, ? say, about 8 ft. apart - between each arch. I still get shivers when I think about it.

  • Ken did that as a sport in track in high school and college, so he claimed to know what he was doing. Evidently he did, because he was successful. He didn’t jump back, though, because he wanted to prove to the skeptics and those of our club who were too afraid to go out to witness it that he had actually done it by coming back on a different arch than the one he went out on. [:-^] )
  • Paul North.

…Wow…what is the value of life to some people…!

ERRRRAAAAAHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEE! I know those arches and I haven’t even seen the pictures yet!

I second erikem’s recommendation of the chapter in the Middleton book.

Also, the definitive book on it, “A Pinpoint of Light”, though I don’t recall if that is limited to the drilling of the tunnel or goes on to include the electrification. It should be available from:

North Adams Historical Society/ North Adams Museum of History and Science at: http://www.geocities.com/northadamshistory/index.html

Perhaps a Boston & Maine Historical Society (if there is such a thing) would know of some other references.

Finally, from a search of the “Index of Magazines” at the bottom of this page for KeyWord “Hoosac” - although I’ve not seen any of these, so I can’t say if they cover the electric operation or not:

Hoosac Tunnel

PDN: Bremer Austria is going to let a contract very soon for building two new separate (lower) tunnels. One thing about the contract that Mudchicken and RWM will like is the pilot tunnel will be built about 10 meters lower than the operating tunnels and be used for drainage. Water in tunnels - be gone. Tunnels will have the usual predestrian cross over passages and two interlockings in tunnels.

Thanks erikem and Paul.

The article in the June 1960 Trains has very little on the electrification - only about 2 short paragraphs - not worth pursuing, in my opinion.

The 1947 article by F. H. Cramer may be the same Forman H. Cramer, who wrote the nice article about the DL&W tri-power “Kiddie Kar” locomotives in the 1960s or 1970s. He was a GE engineer, and so that article would likely be worth looking for.

My 1974 copy of Middleton’s book has the segment on the Hoosac Tunnel electrification in the “Taming the Tunnels” chapter, pp. 148 - 153 inclusive, plus a short summary paragraph and location sketch on pg. 428. He does not cite any specific references for any of it - only journals and books generally in the introduction.

  • Paul North.

That design sounds effective…I have wondered how much effort is required to keep the Chunnel {double tunnels}, free of leaking water…

One would assume it has to be pumped out, and that means pumping water for miles and miles in distance, and up grade too…

I understand that the Channel Tunnel was bored through a layer of chalk which (if unbroken by fissures, which occurred on the English side) is almost watertight. To stay within this layer, the tunnel doesn’t just go “down and out” under the Channel but undulates a bit.

Also, wasn’t the Severn Tunnel provided with drainage tunnels below the main bore to drain water away (though I don’t recall that they were pilot tunnels)?

…And maybe the Cascade 8 mi. tunnel…I seem to remember of a pilot tunnel worked first and maybe a mention of it becoming a drainage tunnel…??

Two different railroads use these tunnels. The second tunnel was built to accomodate the traffic of the second railroad which had/has operating rights in perpetuity over the first railroad. Utah Railway was incorporated January 24, 1912. Utah Railway first operated in October 1914. This first operation was by the Denver and Rio Grande Western RR for a period of three years after which time the Utah Railway took over direct operation of its property.

Both railways use both tracks, always have.

Utah Railway started to build and upon completion by D&RGW owned the #2 (eastward) main track from Provo to Thistle. On November 1, 1913, Utah Railway gained trackage rights on D&RGW on the #1 (westward) main track from Provo to Thistle, and on both main tracks Thistle to Utah Railway Junction, and D&RGW on the Utah Railway track Provo to Thistle. Utah Railway never owned either main track between Thistle and Utah Railway Junction and did not build any of the tunnels on the D&RGW main track.

See http://utahrails.net/utah-ry/utah-ry-history.php

RWM