Buried steam locomotive

Well, i look at it this way; If the Navy can raise the turret off the Monitor Ironclad (the first turreted ship ever built; sunk around the same time as the 2-2-2s, if not earlier) and keep it intact enough for it to be preserved at a museum, then they can do the same with the Bicycles (the name for the 2-2-2 type engines). similarly, the Hunley (the first sucessful submarine in combat) was built from a loco boiler, and it was raised intact.

But then again, the turret is an inch and a half of iron body, with 1/2 inch iron framework, covered in 8 inches of iron armor. much more sturdily built than the engines i would suspect. but i don't know, maybe it would work. .
 
There are a pair of Heavy duty 2-2-2's sunk off the East Coast. They, as opposed to this crazy idea of digging up an old 4-4-0, would be worth bringing back. Only one 2-2-2 exists today, and its tiny compared to the ones that sunk off the ocean. They were not even known to exist until about 10 or 15 years ago, until then, everyone had figured the 2-2-2's never got very big.

The discovery of the two on the ocean floor changed that. That makes them a real piece of history. I believe about 6 or more were ordered, but only the two were ever built. Either way, none of the class were saved (except the two on the ocean floor) and only one 2-2-2 ever survived into preservation

Those are the things you look for in preservation. One of the reasons the SS United States should be preserved, one of a kind!

Whether these were going to the Cumberland Valley as some have speculated or not, the CVRR bought two used 2-2-2s of similar size shortly after these were lost.
 
The 36in narrowguage Alaska Railroad a loco witch was schuled to be scraped after the WWII. It sat in the back of a junk yard in Washington State under a pile of tires until 1962! Then i 1971 the Huckelberry Railroad bought it and used it in MI.
 
In 1925, didnt they used to call African American rail workers "Gandy Dancers" back then?
Look here on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=025QQwTwzdU


If what I've been reading here is credible "about the railroad digging down to the engine and finding the engineers hand still on the throttle", I would think it very feasible for the Railroad to at least dig all of the skeletal remains out and give them a decent burial.

Heres what I found out about this in Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Hill_Tunnel
 
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Somewhere in Cincy, there is a similar story. Though in this case the locomotive was purposefully walled up in the tunnel. I forget the details of it, but the railroad had been building a tunnel, only to run out of money. When everything was sold off, the old contractor's locomotive, an aging 4-4-0, and a handful of old cars, were simply pushed into the end of the incomplete tunnel and buried. People have tried to find that train for decades, but to this date no one is quite sure where it is.

In Mississippi, along the CAGY, there was an accident where a 2-8-2 Rolled over on her side and sunk in the mud. Three cranes, two of them heavy hooks from the Southern, tried to right the locomotive, but eventually gave up when they couldn't budge it. So the railroad cut the locomotive in half length wise, even with the ground. They scrapped the half they got out, and left the rest buried in the bank.
 
The engineer was killed when the boiler exploded. His body was recovered, but I doubt he was still holding the throttle. The fireman escaped, but died a few days later from his burns. More details at the Virginia Historical Society.
 
A really sad story that. Out of distant curiosity, I went into Google Earth to see what the landscape looks like now and found it difficult to find. The newspaper mentioned the Jefferson School which was at the bottom of the hill but couldn't see any actual hill. The area all seems to be built up now??
 
A really sad story that. Out of distant curiosity, I went into Google Earth to see what the landscape looks like now and found it difficult to find. The newspaper mentioned the Jefferson School which was at the bottom of the hill but couldn't see any actual hill. The area all seems to be built up now??

5f5d0778-8d64-4d57-8271-a050528b8929.jpg
 
That area is currently a very high crime district. When I lived in Richmond a few years back it was on the dubious top 10 places to get murdered in the US. Casual visiting of the site is discouraged trespassing charges aside. There have been attempts to dig out the locomotive, but these only resulted in further cave-ins which are generally a bad thing when a tunnel is under a residential area. It's been there for well over 3/4 of a century so they should just let it be. Should be treated the same as way old shipwrecks are when human remains are concerned. The only thing to be gained is disturbing a grave site for a probable unrestorable hulk of an old loco that has been under water for decades.
 
That area is currently a very high crime district. When I lived in Richmond a few years back it was on the dubious top 10 places to get murdered in the US. Casual visiting of the site is discouraged trespassing charges aside. ...

The state erected a historic marker at the site in April of 2012. I would assume that the purpose of erecting the marker was to encourage people to visit the site.

churchHillTunnelsign.jpg
 
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Those markers are everywhere in VA though. It doesn't necessarily mean it's attracting tourism, just marking the site. They're everywhere from behind bathrooms at rest areas to the side of a highway with nowhere to even pull off and look at it. I've never really seen anyone paying notice to one unless they're at a stoplight next to it. At any rate there's nothing to see there anyway except a sealed off tunnel wall.
 
Those markers are everywhere in VA though. It doesn't necessarily mean it's attracting tourism, just marking the site. They're everywhere from behind bathrooms at rest areas to the side of a highway with nowhere to even pull off and look at it. I've never really seen anyone paying notice to one unless they're at a stoplight next to it.

Maybe you don't pay them any attention, but working in the tourism business I regularly hear from visitors who do pay attention to the historic markers who often make a point to visit the sites simply because they "commemorate people, places, or events of regional, statewide or national significance." I suppose that's why they publish books listing the markers and there are websites that cover them.

At any rate there's nothing to see there anyway except a sealed off tunnel wall.

At a lot of old Civil War battlefields some might thing there's nothing to see except an empty grassy field. Yet people stop and spend a bit of time pondering what once took place there while they read the historic marker that provides a bit of brief insight into an event from the nation's history.

Others will stop and soon leave, after complaining there's nothing to see. Go figure.
 
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