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| Norfolk Southern Corp posted
It’s Throwback Thursday! This January 1948 Norfolk and Western Magazine cover documents the building of a new 7,110 foot double-track tunnel through Flat Top Mountain, west of Bluefield, W.Va.
The huge mobile scaffold used to help with blasting and drilling was nicknamed “Jumbo.” The structure could hold 35 workers and was equipped with 15 power drills. Crews excavated about ten feet of the mountain daily, eventually moving 1,400,000 tons of earth and rock. N&W lined the tunnel with steel and concrete for safety.
The new Elkhorn Tunnel was placed in service on June 26, 1950, and replaced a single-track tunnel constructed in 1887.
Norfolk Southern has served the freight transportation needs of America for nearly two centuries. The railroad’s 19,500 route miles and 158 tunnels connect businesses and communities to the marketplaces of the world. [The comments agree that this is the west entrance.] |
RailPictures photo of N&W heritage locomotive helping to shove an eastbound coal drag into the tunnel. It appears N&W used the same color positional signal heads that I associate with the B&O.
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| Pinterest First train through Elkhorn Tunnel in West Virginia. 1950. |
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| Aaron Bryant posted 8085 along with 8103 N&W heritage, roll down the Elkhorn grade, as they exit the west portal of Elkhorn Tunnel. The power is leading a manifest train, toward Portsmouth, Ohio. The old fan that removed smoke from the tunnel can be seen beside of the lead unit. It's a bit of a hike, but access to this location can be obtained without trespassing, if you take a long walk through the woods and over the tunnel itself. |
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| Dennis DeBruler commented on Aaron's post It looks like the West Portal. 37°20'58.0"N 81°21'10.6"W Aaron Bryant: Dennis DeBruler Yes, that is it. |
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| Stanley Short posted A helper locomotive shoves an eastbound Norfolk Southern unit coal train through Elkhorn Tunnel near Maybeury, WV on May 14, 1994 with C30-7 No. 8062 and SD40-2's No's. 3327 and 1638. Fan houses on tunnels have always fascinated me and I would always have to check them out up close and personal. This was no exception. Photo by Stan Short. Mason Cooper: That is a Churchill-Wentworth tunnel clearance system. You will notice the bore is tapered in from the portal. Metal sheathing once extended into the tunnel along the edges and the air forced between the sheeting and the tunnel walls. This created a low pressure area ahead of the locomotive actually sucking the smoke ahead of the engine. Used on N&W and a few other systems. When the diesels came the motors were removed and the rest left behind. Randall Hampton shared |
Signal differences between B&O, N&W, and PRR.
ReplyDeleteB&O: https://www.railroadsignals.us/signals/cpl/index.htm
N&W: https://www.railroadsignals.us/signals/nwcpl/index.htm
PRR: https://www.railroadsignals.us/signals/pl/index.htm
It seems the N&W signals were closer to the PRR than the B&O, probably due to the PRR having owned the N&W for some time. The N&W signals were something like a colorized version of PRR signals, and didn't have all the fancy "aspect modifiers" that the B&O signals had.
The links have lots of geeky details (not my site).