Big Four (Egyptian) Tunnel or Tunnel Hill

Satellite

(Bridge Hunter)

(Update: my pictures from a trip report.)

Bart Hileman posted
southend of tunnel looking northbound

There are not a lot of tunnels in the Midwest. Of the 665 postings (530 published) that I have written, this is the first time I have needed a label for "tunnel."

Bart's comment:

Early 1990's Tunnel Hill Illinois on the old Big Four / NYC / Conrail / NS line. I knew they were going to be pulling the line up soon so I grabbed my camera and went to get these shots of it's last days.

I learned that it was near the town Tunnel Hill, IL. But the satellite images had trees, and I had a hard time following what is now the Tunnel Hill State Trail to find it.

1938 Aerial Photo from ILHAP

So I looked at an old aerial photo and saw the roads went over the hill the tunnel went through. There is an access parking lot about a third of a mile north. Since I need the exercise, that location goes on the field-trip list. Below are the rest of the pictures that Bart posted with his per-picture captions.

I also plan to stop in Vienna, IL, because I think it has the trail's headquarters. (Update: I did stop there, but it was closed.)

Looking north out of the tunnel

looking south into the tunnel

looking northbound

See the photo at the top of this posting.

No caption

Northend of tunnel looking southbond

Dave Cantrell shared a Matthew Lawler post
Big 4/NYC Tunnel at Tunnel Hill, not my photo but is unique.
John Rynd I see what they did. Clever!
[I'm sooooo glad that John figured it out. I haven't.]

Dave Cantrell shared a Matthew Lawler post
[Now I see what they did. The guy spinning the spark generator walked back into the tunnel to get the above spiral effect.]

Southernmost Illinois Tourism Bureau posted
A little cold weather never stops serious cyclists! The 47-mile Tunnel Hill State Trail snakes through rolling fields, strip mines, ravines, streams, wooded bluffs, and ghost towns. If that’s not enough to get your legs pedaling…!

Mike Chervinko posted
1929. Tunnel Hill.
Dennis DeBruler It is a state maintained trail, so I'm willing to get kicked out of the group for violating the Group's location rule:
https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m8!1m2!2m1...

Mark Chambers posted four photos with the comment: "I went down Bowman Bottoms road from Dutchman Lake so I couldn't exactly drive past Tunnel Hill without stopping now could I ?"

David Cantrell shared with the comment: "Cool winter photos of former Big 4 Railroad tunnel at Tunnel Hill."

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Some comments in this share taught me that there are copperhead snakes in the area. I thought they were a deep south snake. (Facebooked)