Be careful where you leave...

[smash]

Be careful where you leave your old tunnels.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/07/11/100-year-old-railroad-tunnel-under-sinkhole/?hpt=us_bn10

Kenny

 

[cascaderailroad]

There was a RR tunnel collapse in England years ago ... several houses were sucked into the sinkhole, and several people were killed, when the tunnel collapsed without warning.

 

[wilh]

I don't ever recall there being an abandoned tunnel on the Tennessee Pass line (seeing as that line is in the area of this one). I think it may have been from some non-D&RGW line.

 

[sawyer811]

I just watched this (I was gonna post this story, but darn if Smash didn't beat me to it! ) and from the story I saw, it looks like the original tunnel was probably bypassed so they could build one that could accomodate higher cars (double stacks, TOFC "Piggy-Backs" etc.). I can say this Wilh, it is on D&RGW's Tennessee Pass line. the reporter mentions the line hasn't seen a train since '97.

 

[cascaderailroad]

http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/maps/gs250000/gs250 leadville.jpg
http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/maps/gs707/gs707 s4.jpg
http://www.ghostdepot.com/rg/maps/gs707/gs707 s3.jpg

 

[wilh]

Right, you know, it just didn't sound right for some reason, but I guess it does make sense.

 

[rjhowie]

I would take it most tunnels are of something stronger but are wooden tunels more frequent over the pond? Just seems an odd thing to do to use timber for tunnel supports.

 

[sawyer811]

Typically no, at least not modern ones. This one, though, would have been built around 1880-1890; it was a lot cheaper to blast the tunnel out of the rock and then line it with timber reinforcement since trees were (and are) plentiful in the region. Since the D&RGW bought the Denver & Salt Lake (AKA "the Moffat Route" that TrainzItalia modelled a while back) whose Moffat Tunnel line was much less of a pain to keep operating, it probably made better since to just replace the old wooden tunnel here with the new concrete one rather than rebuild it. After 1947, when the Rio Grande bought the D&SL, the tennessee pass became something of a backwater route...