Buried steam locomotive

U

UP5521

Tidewater Western owner
Believe it or not there is a steam locomotive and some flat cars buried in a abandoned railroad tunnel that has been there since I think 1925 and the locomotive concerned is a C&O 4-4-0 american that was hauling a work train that fateful day and they tried to extract the train out but the ground was very unstable and to this day the train is still there and the location is at church hill in Richmond Va the engine #is 231!:(
 
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I assume it still contains the bodies of the driver and fireman, so it will probably stay there as an official grave.
 
If it is the one that I am thinking of, they dug out the locomotive to get the bodies for a proper burial. This was, of course, decades after the tunnel collapse. Anyway, they had to cut up the cab of the locomotive to get the engineer out, as he was still holding the trottle.
 
They tried it again a few years back but again the earth inside was unstable and so they left it alone!:(
 
It may be weird but I am still amazed that for a steam locomotive with ten flat cars to survive this long while trapped in a abandoned railroad tunnel is unbelievable!:cool:
 
jadebullet said:
If it is the one that I am thinking of, they dug out the locomotive to get the bodies for a proper burial. This was, of course, decades after the tunnel collapse. Anyway, they had to cut up the cab of the locomotive to get the engineer out, as he was still holding the trottle.
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Yes you are exactly right he did have his hand on the throttle,but the railroad workers involved are African Americans who was on that train the year the accident occured!:cool:
 
An idea to recover it.

If it is still under I say get a CSX diesel and a winch. Put the main winch on the knuckle coupler of the CSX diesel, preferably an EMD GP38-2 and have the other on the flat car's end and carefully with the diesel slowly pull it out. Don't take the throttle past notch 1 in reverse.
 
Alex99al said:
If it is still under I say get a CSX diesel and a winch. Put the main winch on the knuckle coupler of the CSX diesel, preferably an EMD GP38-2 and have the other on the flat car's end and carefully with the diesel slowly pull it out. Don't take the throttle past notch 1 in reverse.
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Now that is what I call Waffle!
 
It sounds like a good idea, I would like for the train to be un earthed however who knows of the condition the locomotive and flat cars and the very possibilty of the ground giving away therefore collapsing the tunnel again?:o
 
nice catch,now I hope they can get that steam locomotive out of there soon and display it as a tribute not only for the railroad but as part of Virginia's history as well!:(
 
Very interesting aardvark1. newspaper reporting was quite colourful in those days. Although the rescue effort was commendable, I doubt that the entombed crew would have lasted a few minutes with the sulphur fumes, smoke, steam and heat from the firebox filling the small air space if any.

Not a pleasant way to go, me thinks.
 
Steam locomotives in the water after working on the canal? who knows on how many of them have been dumped in there after their service? :cool:
 
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Johnk said:
Very interesting aardvark1. newspaper reporting was quite colourful in those days. Although the rescue effort was commendable, I doubt that the entombed crew would have lasted a few minutes with the sulphur fumes, smoke, steam and heat from the firebox filling the small air space if any.

Not a pleasant way to go, me thinks.
Click to expand...

that and the chances of choking on all of those things already makes a bad situation worse if you are a railroad worker that is trying to recover a train that has been lost since 1925!:eek:
 
Alex99al said:
If it is still under I say get a CSX diesel and a winch. Put the main winch on the knuckle coupler of the CSX diesel, preferably an EMD GP38-2 and have the other on the flat car's end and carefully with the diesel slowly pull it out. Don't take the throttle past notch 1 in reverse.
Click to expand...
Notch One?
More like notch 3 give and release 15 pounds then crank her up to 5 and 6 put in another 35 pounds, crank her down to notch 2, release brakes tug at a good and very quick 8 throttle down and put more pressure.
Sort of a tug, stop, tug effect.

Still wouldn't work though.
Highly illogical.


Cheers,
Woody
 
UP5521 said:
It may be weird but I am still amazed that for a steam locomotive with ten flat cars to survive this long while trapped in a abandoned railroad tunnel is unbelievable!:cool:
Click to expand...

..if the tunnel collapsed, then the tunnel collapsed. It's behind several thousand tons of unstable rocks.

Any method to get it out would be either unreasonably expensive or put many lives in danger. Most likely both.

I'm not seeing a recovery happening.
 
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