NS/N&W Hatfield Tunnels, Bridge Replacement and a Terex Demag CC 8800

(Bridge Hunter: South Tunnel, North Tunnel, East Portal Bridges: South, North; Satellite)
Bridge Hunter doesn't have posts for the bridges at the west portal.

The Tug River is why the border between Kentucky and West Virginia is so ragged. The Pocahontas Division of NS follows the river on the West Virginia side. One claim to fame of the Hatfield Tunnels is that this is the only place where NS runs in Kentucky. The other claim, of course, is that this is the location where the Hatfields and McCoys shot at each other.

Ed Painter posted
NS Hatfield Tunnels, Matwan, WV (looking into Kentucky from WV) Oct 26, 2012
Brent A. Harrison: Only place on the Pokey where a train is in three states at one time....
Ed Painter: In that the tunnel is inKY they should have named it for the McCoy's of Kentucky, not the Hatfield's of WV! Love SWVA/WV/KY in the Appalachians...... truly God's Country
Randall Hampton shared

Pete Runyon posted

One of 58 photos posted by Ray Justice

Terex Demag CC 8800 Crane
1760 Ton Capacity
375' Boom
Weighs 3.5 Million Lbs
Requires 3 Operators
Norfork and Southern Tug Valley Bridge Replacement
Matewan, WV.

Today saw the removal of the two N&S Main 2 Northbound bridge spans built in 1910. Each bridge span weighs in at about 800,000 lbs. Of course the Terex Demag CC 8800 had no problem lifting either span.

My dad, Hugh Justice, probably traveled across these bridge spans thousands of times on his way to Bluefield, his home away from home.

[The comments include a time-lapse video of the lift of the first bridge. Note that it not only lifts the truss, it "walks" with it from the river to the staging area. I would guess one reason they do that is to keep the counterweights over land when they swing the truss away from the river.]

Below, the tunnel on the right is the North Tunnel, and it is obviously the first tunnel that was dug. We see it here after it was expanded to a 21' clearance to clear double-stack container trains that are 20'3" high. As with many libraries, a copyright has been slapped on this 1929 image that shows the size of the original bore for the north tunnel. The South Tunnel appears to have been dug with modern clearances. I can't find construction dates for either tunnel. The expansion of the North Tunnel was done during the Heartland Heritage Project between 2007 and 2010.

Calvin Sneed via Bridge Hunter
[Calvin uses the terms north and south portals. I would call this the east portal.]

The tunnels and bridges are rather popular railfan sites.

(new window) It is not until he pans at the very end that I realize I'm looking at these bridges on the east side of the tunnel.


(new window)   0:53 starts the view of the west portals. Note that the south bridge truss on this side has already been replaced by steel girders.



I knew Manitowoc has built a couple (literally) of 31000s and Liebherr builds the big LR13000; but, until I saw these photos, I didn't realize that Terex also builds a big crane. Then I learned this crane is also branded Demag CC 8800. I do recognize Demag as a builder of large cranes.

Several of the photos posted by Pete Runion.
[It is 373' to the top of the boom, and it took 130 truckloads to haul it in. (I've also seen the number 105 truckloads.) The comments included a video of it, but I could not make it work.]
Pete Runyon While I was there one of the men showed me a picture of the crane lifting a huge excavator and placing it on the opposite side of the river.
Trent Hulbert shared

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