Daylighted/N&W/Pittsburgh & West Virginia Copeland Tunnel near Hopedale, OH

Tunnel: (Satellite)

Cut: (Satellite)

The tunnel is on the left and the cut that replaced it is on the right.

Street View, Oct 2018

Mark Farm posted 11 photos with the comment: "Hopedale, Ohio."

David Savick: Looks like narrow gauge rails

Steven Myers: They pulled the standard gage rails and left the guardrails. Tie plates still spiked to ties at standard gage width.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

Mark Svetlich commented on  his post
Copeland Tunnel

Mark Svetlich commented on  his post
[As part of a discussion as to how he gained access to the tunnel, Mark posted this photo of the other end.]

AJ DeJulius posted
A long US 22 between Casiz and Hopedale, Ohio, you'll see a closed off tunnel on the right side of the road(pictured here) always been curious of what the tunnel was for. Any information?

Thomas Kinney: The railroad track directly to the right used to go through it, but there were geologic instabilities, so they bypassed the tunnel and blocked it up. Fun Fact: I am actually on US 22, and just passed over the tunnel as I am writing this! [He explained in another comment that he was a passenger.]

Tommy Emery: I used to live in the area

They closed the tunnel and rerouted the line due to the tunnel having structural issues

Wm Pedly: Fun fact, President Lincoln passed through that tunnel on his bid for the presidency. He stopped in some small town nearby and talked to the residents. A buddy and I climbed the dirt pile used to close it off, and went through a hole in the top where the stacks would blow the coal smoke. inside you wouldn't believe the bats and the daddy long leg spiders. Still in incredible shape with old brick work and stone work. Very wet and somewhat dangerous and tricky to get to. Great piece of history.

Geoff Elliott: The tunnel was open when I was young. Don't think it was closed up until the 1990s.

I couldn't find the tunnel until it occurred to me that it must have been daylighted by the time this map was made. Then I read the above comments that confirmed that they dug a cut to bypass the tunnel.

I have never heard of the Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad. It was merged into the N&W in 1964. [Dennis DeBruler]

1960/62 Cadiz Quad @ 24,000

Nature had yet to invade the cut in 1994.

Google Earth, Mar 1994