# Inside the Moffet Tunnel



## KmH (Apr 19, 2015)

Who, if anyone, has tried to take photos of the walls rushing by inside the Moffat Tunnel as their train was going through it?


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## Trainmans daughter (Apr 19, 2015)

Actual photo taken in the Moffet tunnel 12/27/14. Awesome, eh?


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## TinCan782 (Apr 19, 2015)

Not Moffet but inside a tunnel in the Cascades from the Coast Starlight. Manual focus estimated about 5 or 6 feet with flash. Camera is a Canon Powershot Pro 1


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## KmH (Apr 20, 2015)

Your shot of the Cascades tunnel is encouraging.

I'm going to try using an off camera, hot shoe flash unit with a Nikon D300s.

I will manually focus on something in my roomette, and I'll start with the camera set to ISO 400, 1/250, f/5.6.

What would be nice to know is the approximate speed of the CZ while it is in the Moffat Tunnel.

It looks like the Moffat Tunnel is 18 feet wide.

Amtrak Superliner cars are 10.2 feet wide, so I'll need to focus at a bit less than 4 feet.

With the flash unit manually set to 1/8 power and a wide angle beam, I should get a flash duration of about 1/6000.

If I can use 1/16 power, the flash duration will shorten to about 1/10,000 which should be plenty to 'stop' the tunnel wall.

I'll chimp the first shot on the rear LCD and adjust from there.

I wonder too how dark the walls are inside the Moffat after 86 years of train engine smoke.


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## the_traveler (Apr 20, 2015)

KmH said:


> I wonder too how dark the walls are inside the Moffat after 86 years of train engine smoke.


Your answer is in the photo above! :giggle:


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## oldtimer (Apr 21, 2015)

Trainmans daughter said:


> Actual photo taken in the Moffet tunnel 12/27/14. Awesome, eh?


And all the time I thought it was a blackout in the coal mine!


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## AmtrakBlue (Apr 21, 2015)

Here's a picture just as the last cars were leaving the east side tunnel. (Tom, can you flip this for me? Thanks.)


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## PerRock (Apr 21, 2015)

I took a train from Interlaken to Zurich a few years back. It was a 'regular' service, although on the longer, more senic route. However the windows on the train were openable, which allowed for some decent photos of tunnel interiors. I only had my point & shoot; so they could have been better.












peter


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## KmH (Apr 21, 2015)

I hadn't even considered trying to get shots out the back of the train at the railfan window.

That would be way better than shots out the side of the train from a roomette.

I wouldn't need as short a flash duration, so I could use more flash power and a narrower beam.

Motion parallel to the plane of the imaging medium requires faster shutter speed or shorter flash duration than motion perpendicular to the imaging medium.

I just tried and I can rig a window seal around the flash unit head using a soda/beer can slip-on foam insulator.

That will contain light reflected from the inside surface of the window.

Are the Moffat Tunnel walls finished with concrete for all 6.2 miles, just the 2 end portals, or is a majority of the inside of the tunnel walls/ceiling bare rock?


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## Ryan (Apr 21, 2015)

You tell us after photographing it. 

That's a seriously great idea.


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## TinCan782 (Apr 21, 2015)

KmH said:


> Your shot of the Cascades tunnel is encouraging.
> 
> I'm going to try using an off camera, hot shoe flash unit with a Nikon D300s.
> 
> ...


With flash and it's effective shutter speed, you might want to opt for a smaller (higher number) f/stop for depth of field...you are guesstimating the distance!


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## MrFSS (Apr 22, 2015)

This better, Betty?


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## AmtrakBlue (Apr 22, 2015)

MrFSS said:


> This better, Betty?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yes, thanks!


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## KmH (Apr 22, 2015)

FrensicPic said:


> With flash and it's effective shutter speed, you might want to opt for a smaller (higher number) f/stop for depth of field...you are guesstimating the distance!


I shouldn't have to make the aperture much smaller to have an acceptably deep depth-of-field, even though I will likely use a longer focal length lens than the 18 mm I was planning to use out the side of a roomette.I'm kind of a math geek, so with f/stop being fractions, to me f/8 is a smaller/lower number than f/5.6.

With the train moving perpendicular to the camera I won't need as fast a shutter speed/short flash duration.

So I can crank up the flash power some, though that won't mitigate the depth of field needed.

Shooting out the railfan window I will likely use a 35 mm focal length @ f/5.6, and a point of focus distance about 30 feet behind the train.

That will give me a nice field of view.

Acceptably sharp focus will start about 17 feet in front of the camera and will extend to about 130 feet behind the train (about 1.5 Superliner car lengths).

I doubt my hot shoe flash unit has sufficient power to light the tunnel 130 behind the train, even if I were to put a snoot on the flash unit head.


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## caravanman (Apr 22, 2015)

Hi,

I was prompted to have a look at my pics, and found this one... not Moffat, but I think on the Sierra Nevada range... Zephyr route for sure.




This is the adjacent pic, not too clear as to location, but wintertime I guess!




Remember that you need to remain in whichever coach or sleeper you are in for the whole duration of the Moffat Tunnel, they like to keep vestibule doors shut to keep out fumes!

Ed


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## AmtrakBlue (Apr 22, 2015)

MrFSS said:


> This better, Betty?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


BTW, this was taken with an iPhone 4s


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## KmH (Apr 23, 2015)

caravanman said:


> Remember that you need to remain in whichever coach or sleeper you are in for the whole duration of the Moffat Tunnel, they like to keep vestibule doors shut to keep out fumes!
> 
> Ed


Thanks for posting the photos.

So if I am at the railfan window before we enter the Moffat Tunnel I'll be able to stay put there for the 6 to 10 minutes we are in the tunnel?


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## SarahZ (Apr 23, 2015)

KmH said:


> caravanman said:
> 
> 
> > Remember that you need to remain in whichever coach or sleeper you are in for the whole duration of the Moffat Tunnel, they like to keep vestibule doors shut to keep out fumes!
> ...


Yes.


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## willem (Apr 23, 2015)

> So if I am at the railfan window before we enter the Moffat Tunnel I'll be able to stay put there for the 6 to 10 minutes we are in the tunnel?


Well, yes, but it would be polite to share it. While you are in the tunnel, the only candidates for sharing are the occupants of the last car, since no one should be entering.


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## AmtrakBlue (Apr 23, 2015)

The fumes did not bother me at the rail fan window but I was told that some at the front of the last car felt a little ill from them.


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## KmH (Apr 24, 2015)

willem said:


> > So if I am at the railfan window before we enter the Moffat Tunnel I'll be able to stay put there for the 6 to 10 minutes we are in the tunnel?
> 
> 
> Well, yes, but it would be polite to share it.


No sweat. I am always polite, and would be very amenable to sharing the window.

If someone else is there before me, I hope they do the same.


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## chakk (Apr 24, 2015)

the sierra tunnel photo looks to me like the tunnel at the summit of the original line over Donner Pass -- now out of service with the tracks pulled up.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Apr 25, 2015)

KmH said:


> willem said:
> 
> 
> > > So if I am at the railfan window before we enter the Moffat Tunnel I'll be able to stay put there for the 6 to 10 minutes we are in the tunnel?
> ...


I have been on the railfan window going through Moffet Tunnel with 2 other shooters and we had plenty of room to get our cameras up and all get decent shots as we came out of the Denver side of the hole. If everyone positions right, you can probably get up to 5 people comfortably on the window.


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## KmH (Apr 25, 2015)

I am wanting shots right after going in, several mid-tunnel, and just before exiting.

Was everyone everyone shooting hand-held, tripod, mounted to the door or window ?

I'm planning on using a monopod.


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## Pooh2 (Jun 24, 2015)

We went through the Moffat tunnel last week.

From our bedroom, it was too dark too see anything!

Not to mention, the fumes were bothering me so I had my tshirt over my face instead of camera..


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## siberianmo (Jul 3, 2015)

A topic of interest to me in that I have been taking the California Zephyr from Chicago to Sacramento for several consecutive years. My albums contain fotos of every tunnel portal (both ways) taken through the rear vestibule windows from my bedroom car (when Amtrak consists placed them at the rear).

In checking my albums, I came across these from a 2011 trip - date imprinted on foto.

Enjoy the journey through one long tunnel . . . The Moffat!


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