After another particularly long week, I needed to get out and do some hiking, railfanning, ANYthing to get me outta the house. So, after a lengthy search of satellite photos, I followed the railroads out of Great Falls southeast to Laurel, NW to Shelby, NE to Havre, and SW to Helena. Lo nd behold, a formr GN tunnel is in service less than 20 miles from me. The only markings on either portal is the date the concrete portals were constucted, 1911. Without further ado, the ex-GN tunnel near Wayne, MT: West Portal: East Portal: This tunnel is easily accessible for the west portal, from a nearby dirt road, but the east portal is nearly impossible to find otherwise. I'll not divulge any info on how I accessed the east portal...:zip: The view from the road shows a local grain elevator,a nd some Difco side dump cars:
A really good way to do your homework on a new area to railfan is follow satellite maps/photos. Find the tracks, and just scroll till your eyes get buggy. You generally see a trestle's shadow, the large cuts and fills are easy to spot, and tunnels usually lead into a cut, then the track disappears. Makes it easier to find shots, too!
Spionkop Hill as I recall. I may have spelled that wrong. We were led there by a former Milwaukee brakeman out of Lewistown who's dad had worked on the GN. He had ridden to GTF and back to Lewistown several times that way as a kid. I have photos of a BN freight rolling out the east portal. It was a LONG run across a then-freshly-plowed field. Dano HY
The east portal was a long way from anything, as I recall... The road over the top makes this an easy shot to bag...
Hemi, I hope you didn't climb up on top of that hill over the tunnel....kick a couple of rocks and a few handfuls of dirt out of the way and you'd daylight that sucker in a hurry! I'm sure it's an illusion but it looks like that thing's the prototype for the Lionel "tunnel". Seriously, I'm just bustin' your chops, Hemi ole pal! Those are some great shots and apparently hard earned. I'm jealous...I think the closest active railroad tunnel to me is on Raton Pass!
It ain't no thang, my friend! That tunnel is very, uhm, shallow. 800' Long, but shallow. If it were daylighted, it would certainly drift closed from winter storms. Likely stays the way it is, since the winds can be fierce there. D&RGW Tunnel 22 is similar, and (180' long) shorter. Shouldn't have been bored. Doubt the drift factor, though. Mr. Moffat had money to burn, methinks.
You know, I never really thought about it that way, but short tunnels are probably a good thing in that respect. A good break from the wind and snow to let a train "right itself". And I never though about the snow drift aspect either, of course. We do get snow in Texas, but not THAT much. :teeth:
"Tunnel junkie" Keep'em Coming but just remember the old statement. Warning, the light at the other end of the tunnel might be a train coming the other way! oh5qn: oh5qn: oh5qn: oh5qn:
