Crescent Route Tunnels

[twa904]

Are there any tunnels along the route of the Crescent?

 

[niemi24s]

I'll offer the easy one - the tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey, under the Hudson River. Don't know if there are any others. If nobody chimes in, following along the route using Google Earth will show any others. There might also be something about any others in the Route Guide: http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/680/728/Amtrak-Crescent-Train-Route-Guide,0.pdf

 

[Eric S]

Other easy ones would be in Baltimore. As far as off the NEC, though, not sure.

 

[twa904]

Mainly interested in south of DC. Know about the Hudson and Baltimore tunnels.

 

[KmH]

Yep.

Follow the route using Google Maps Satellite view.

 

[StriderGDM]

Well, there's sort of the fairly critical one leaving Washington Union Station that basically goes under the Capitol.

I don't know of any more south of there off-hand.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

One in Alabama

 

[ribbon 50]

Very short one just S of Lynchburg station.

 

[SouthernServesTheSouth]

There are two tunnels in Lynchburg the first if heading south, is just after crossing the James River. It is the longest of the two. The second is 100 feet past the station in Lynchburg. It is a short tunnel going under Park Ave.

 

[cassie225]

I don't like tunnels and I counted about 6,all are short except the one around Washington. I either try to go to the diner or turn on the light in my sleeper and close the curtains. Sometimes I just shut my eyes. I was talking on the phone this time and my daughter talked me thru it. If I can make it thru, anyone can.lol

 

[twa904]

One in Alabama

Can you tell me where in Alabama. I've followed Google Maps looking at the track from Tuscaloosa to the Georgia state line and can't see what looks like it might be a tunnel entrance.

 

[niemi24s]

Sometimes when there are lots of trees close to the tracks, it can be easier to spot features like tunnels on scrollable topographical maps: http://www.mytopo.com/maps/index.cfm Using this I located a short RR tunnel just outside Cooks Springs AL but I don't know this is on the route of the Crescent and the track heads East to the Anniston Amtrak Station. Here's a view of on this other topo map website that can be copied directly: https://www.topoquest.com/map.php?lat=33.59177&lon=-86.39581&datum=nad83&zoom=4&map=auto&coord=d&mode=zoomin&size=xl

I like using topo maps (along with Google Earth) because they contain much more information - like the name of that tunnel, for instance.

 

[Palmetto]

I don't like tunnels and I counted about 6,all are short except the one around Washington. I either try to go to the diner or turn on the light in my sleeper and close the curtains. Sometimes I just shut my eyes. I was talking on the phone this time and my daughter talked me thru it. If I can make it thru, anyone can.lol

Cassie,

Stay away from the Empire Builder [seattle Section] and the California Zephyr. You'd have to deal with some loooooong tunnels on those routes!

 

[niemi24s]

Oh fiddlesticks. The Cascade tunnel's only a bit longer than 7 miles - with only as much as 3,000 feet of mountain above the track. If she got through that 800+ foot long Cooks Springs Tunnel in Alabama and survived she'll be OK on the Empire Builder. Just don't let her know there's a big steel door on the East portal that opens up just before the train gets to it:

That might tend to freak her out!

 

[JayPea]

There's also the seven mile long Flathead Tunnel in western Montana. But you go through it for the majority of the time while it's dark anyway, so you won't know the difference. :lol:

 

[cassie225]

I don't like tunnels and I counted about 6,all are short except the one around Washington. I either try to go to the diner or turn on the light in my sleeper and close the curtains. Sometimes I just shut my eyes. I was talking on the phone this time and my daughter talked me thru it. If I can make it thru, anyone can.lol

Cassie,

Stay away from the Empire Builder [seattle Section] and the California Zephyr. You'd have to deal with some loooooong tunnels on those routes!

Somebody better have some xanax for me and that Cascade tunnel would freak me out. No tunnels going to Chicago on the CONO,please say no!!! lol

 

[niemi24s]

There's also the seven mile long Flathead Tunnel in western Montana.

Gadzooks! I'd forgotten all about that one. Probably because I got so engrossed over the history of Stevens Pass, its original tortuous switchback route, the first Cascade tunnel, the Wellington avalanche, etc. prior to my first trip on the Empire Builder. So much so that the last time out that way I rented a car, drove to the East Portal and video'd a BNSF freight emerging from the tunnel. The sound of those two 800hp electric motors spooling up to drive the exhaust fans after the doors closed was a sound to behold.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

I have a notion that the stretch Atlanta-Birmingham needs more tunnels. Isn't it extremely curvy going thru the tail end of the Appalachians, and so extremely slow? Meaning, the Crescent wouldn't lose so much money on its southern leg if it didn't take 4 hours to crawl 162 miles from Birmingham to Atlanta. Am I right about this? Maybe I'm getting the time zones backwards or something.

 

[SarahZ]

There's also the seven mile long Flathead Tunnel in western Montana. But you go through it for the majority of the time while it's dark anyway, so you won't know the difference. :lol:

I can tell by the sound and the diesel smell.

After traveling on the EB and CZ recently, though, I'm sort of "meh" about tunnels. They used to make me a little twitchy, but after going through all of those snow sheds and little tunnels, the only one that kind of got to me after a while was the Moffat Tunnel, and that was only because of the smell. (Closing my roomette door helped quite a bit.)

 

[manchacrr]

One in Alabama

Can you tell me where in Alabama. I've followed Google Maps looking at the track from Tuscaloosa to the Georgia state line and can't see what looks like it might be a tunnel entrance.

The tunnel in Alabama is between the stations at Birmingham and Anniston. Specifically, it is about half way between the towns of Leeds and Pell City near I-20 Exit 152.

 

[manchacrr]

I don't like tunnels and I counted about 6,all are short except the one around Washington. I either try to go to the diner or turn on the light in my sleeper and close the curtains. Sometimes I just shut my eyes. I was talking on the phone this time and my daughter talked me thru it. If I can make it thru, anyone can.lol

Cassie,

Stay away from the Empire Builder [seattle Section] and the California Zephyr. You'd have to deal with some loooooong tunnels on those routes!

Somebody better have some xanax for me and that Cascade tunnel would freak me out. No tunnels going to Chicago on the CONO,please say no!!! lol

The only tunnel on the entire route of the CONO is at Union Station in Chicago.

 

[chakk]

If you skip the CZ because of tunnels, driving between Denver and San Francisco will still get you. Besides the 2-mile-long Eisenhower Tunnel at the Continental Divide in Colorado, there's one in Idaho Springs and several in Glenwood Canyon, plus the curved tunnel near DeBeque; and the one on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. But the freakiest is the longish one near Elko, Nevada which you drive through at 75 mph!

 

[xyzzy]

I have a notion that the stretch Atlanta-Birmingham needs more tunnels. Isn't it extremely curvy going thru the tail end of the Appalachians, and so extremely slow? Meaning, the Crescent wouldn't lose so much money on its southern leg if it didn't take 4 hours to crawl 162 miles from Birmingham to Atlanta. Am I right about this? Maybe I'm getting the time zones backwards or something.

The joke has always been that the surveyor for the Georgia Pacific was paid by the mile. Like many lines in the South that were laid out in the 1870s, the Georgia Pacific had to be built inexpensively. But to be fair, the roller-coaster topography of the foothills was a pain in the neck.

In any event the route is quite curvy and there aren't many places along the route where passenger trains run at 79 mph.

As to low ridership on the Atlanta - New Orleans segment of the Crescent's route, the 4 hours between Atlanta and Birmingham (drivable in 2.5 hours) doesn't help but it's not the only reason.

 

[FormerOBS]

Once upon a time a passenger asked me if we'd be going through any tunnels on the Auto Train from Virginia to Florida. I think he hoped so. So I told him we would have to tunnel through the Great Okefenokee Mountains and Mount Okeechobee. I think he was disappointed a few minutes later when I told him the truth. :giggle:

Tom

 

[xyzzy]

Haha, I think the highest elevation on the Auto-Train route is about 235 feet above MSL in central North Carolina. If the route went higher, two P40/P42 locomotives would never be enough.