On part of the railroad line that TMNY leases, there is a 400' tunnel built circa 1868 by the Ulster & Delaware Railroad. This part of the line isn't currently in use, but we do hope to open it up again. I am wondering if anyone is aware of any railroad tunnels listed on the National Register or that have state or local historic designations. Should try to persue this for our tunnel? What are the benefits? Does it make additional funding available?

The link below shows some photos from a special run on a different section of the same line.

(Oops, I see I spelled Delaware wrong, twice! I'll fix that next time I do a web upload.)

U&D Special
n2xjk@ulster.net

The below paragraph is quoted from the web site of the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.

"Located on 150 acres, the Museum is situated west of the city of St. Louis on the site of the first man-made railroad tunnels west of the Mississippi River. Visitors may walk up to one of these tunnels, which was used by the Missouri Pacific Railroad from 1853 until 1944 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978."

Regards,
John

St. Louis Museum of Transportation
cbqjohn@hotmail.com

Both Michigan international rail tunnels are on the National Register or are, at least, eligible for listing. The early-20th Century tunnel between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario is a National Historic Landmark, for its geographic importance and its cut-and-cover construction technique. (The two-tube tunnel was actually built of cast iron, largely from recycled car wheels, at a shipyard in Ecorse and floated upstream in segments and sunk into a trench.) The 1890's St. Clair Tunnel between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario is also certainly elegible for listing, and is probably listed.

Being eligible for listing confers the same partial protection from demolition at federal expense as does actual listing. Listing provides no actual funding, but is often a prerequisite for certain classes of public handouts and private grants.

At the time of its designation as a landmark, the Detroit-Windsor tunnel's owner's lawyers protested the desingation, in the belief that it would preclude modifications and restrict their rights. For projects at private expense, this is generally not the case.

However, as a condition of being granted various state and federal permits for construction of the new St. Clair Tunnel in the 1990's, the Canadian National was forced to accede to various demands of the Michigan Bureau of History. These included preservation of the tunnel portals and other features of the 1892 tunnel (I'm not sure offhand of its date.)

The builders intended that the new tunnel portals mimic the stonework of the adjacent, early tunnel, which might have been a nice architectural tribute to the first builders.

But it's said that this was nixed by the history bureaucrats, on the grounds that this would mislead future observers into thinking that the new tunnel was older than it really is, and CN was forced to adopt a more modern style. If true, this is a fabulous example of why property owners mistrust historic designation. It's also another example of how historic-preservation activists can get out of touch with reality, applying museum restoration theory to a working transportation facility. Apparently, the history bureaucrats didn't figure that people would realize that the portal with "1995" cast into it was new, and the one that said, "1892" was old.

Aarne H. Frobom

froboma@mdot.state.mi.us

One significant tunnel listed on the National Register of Historic Places is the Missionary Ridge Tunnel. It is one of only two horseshoe portal tunnels in the State of Tennessee and lies on the old Southern Railway Chattanooga- Knoxville-Atlanta main line. The segment with the tunnel was abandoned in 1953 when the railyard in Chattanooga was rebuilt and the main line relocated. Currently that line is operated by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. The tunnel is 979 feet long and was built using slave labor by the Chattanooga, Georgetown and Harrison Railroad (later the East Tennessee and Georgia Railway) between 1856 and 1858. Another tunnel in this area was built by the Western and Atlantic Railway at Tunnel Hill, Georgia completed in 1850. That tunnel was replaced in the 1940s by a larger bore and is on the National Register of Historic Places, Currently the tunnel is undergoing restoration and will reopen to pedistrian traffic and guided tours.

envlink@voyageronline.net

Greetings,

Isn't the old Portage tunnel near Altoona, PA listed? If not, there seems to be a lot of potential in doing so.

God Bless,
Gerald Kopiasz, President
Heartland Railroad Historical Society

hrrhs@aol.com

> Greetings,

> Isn't the old Portage tunnel near Altoona,
> PA listed? If not, there seems to be a lot
> of potential in doing so.

> God Bless,
> Gerald Kopiasz, President
> Heartland Railroad Historical Society

Staple Bend Tunnel of the Allegheny Portage Railroad is the first RR tunnel in the US, is listed on the National Register (it's actually a National Historic Landmark, a higher status)and is part of the Allegheny Portage RR National Historic Site.

Here's the NHL listing: http://www.nr.nps.gov/iwisapi/explorer. ... =100000044
And here's AlPo NHS: http://www.nps.gov/alpo/home.htm

Electric City Trolley Museum Associ