EXTERNAL: Clarks Gap Tunnel pix

[NW Modeling List]

Frank:

Sorry, I forgot to sign the email with the photos of the Clark’s Gap tunnel portal.  I took those in Sept 2014.

I had tried to locate the tunnel on an earlier trip to WV, but failed.  On this trip, Wanda and I were driving on the road along the VGN right of way from Matoaka toward Clark’s Gap.  We lost sight of the track, but came to a 5-corner intersection (all dirt roads, at that point).  There was what appeared to be a closed-down general store at the intersection, and an open-sided shelter toward its back that had 5 people eating a picnic lunch under it. I walked up to them and asked if they knew where the railroad tunnel was.  Four of them said, “There’s no railroad tunnel around here.”  The 5th said, “Sure—it’s right under us!”.  He offered to show me the way to it, and I jumped at the offer.  He fired up his trail 4x4 and said, “Follow me.”  I got back in the rental car and followed him a short way down one of the 5 roads.  He pulled over and got out, as did we.  He pointed down a “maintenance trail” that I wouldn’t have risked a bulldozer on, and said, “Walk all the way down to the tracks and turn right.  The tunnel will be right there.”  I asked Wanda if she wanted to go; she took one glance at the trail and declined.  I asked her if she would stay in the car while I went down, and (because she is a saint) she agreed.  I told her I’d be back in an hour, and left.  Wow, was that path tortuous, steep and long.  But the directions were accurate, and I found the portal.

After I came back up to the car, Wanda was clearly agitated.  She said over 40 people on the small 4x4 trail machines had stopped at the car and asked if she was OK, and what she was doing.  She explained my flavor of “VGN Craziness”, and they laughed, chatted with her for a while, and eventually left to continue their trailing junket.  Wanda had been thoroughly scared, but also admitted that they were super nice folks and she kind of wished they had stayed longer to chat.  I have to agree that I’ve always felt like an outsider in that part of WV, but that all the people I’ve met there have been very interesting, very nice, and very willing to help.  The economy is still strongly tied to coal, and every other road and high school seems to be named for Robert Byrd, but my goodness that is a beautiful state!

The most apt explanation of a pair of AEs and an AD in this context is that together they comprised over 172 cubic feet of cylinder volume, and had commensurately sized boilers and fireboxes that would have been worked for all they were worth up the Eastbound approach to Clark’s Gap.  The AEs would have been pushing on the rear of the train, and the crew of the 2nd AE would likely have had the worst tunnel experience in the world, ever.  Twice or three times a day.

The cylinder volume of an AE was 93.2 cubic ft (largest by far of any steam locomotive except for the triplexes), whereas the AD’s was a “mere” 79.1 cu ft.  By way of comparison, a Y-6b’s was 62.4 cu ft.  Does that adequately convey a sense of an AD?

The square-heads eliminated the smoke, and doubled the train speed (to a torrid 14mph!) up the Eastbound approach to Clarks Gap.  Yeah, they also eliminated the “romance” of gigantic steam on that stretch of track, and reduced the required engine crews from 3 to 2 per train, but you know I suspect the crews weren’t too disappointed to get with that program.

Yes, we are crazy about the VGN—and with very good reason.

-Eric Bott

From: NW-Modeling-List <nw-modeling-list-bounces at nwhs.org> On Behalf Of NW Modeling List
Sent: Monday, October 21, 2019 18:23
To: NW Modeling List <nw-modeling-list at nwhs.org>
Subject: EXTERNAL: Clarks Gap Tunnel pix

Thank you, whoever sent those.  About when were those pictures taken?

In one of Lloyd's books he went on at some length to discuss the extremely harmful effects of smoke in some of the tunnels, especially Clarks Gap, and why that helped with the move to electrification.

I assume that most of the Virginian Enthusiasts, and all of the true Crazies, know what the AD was.

Frank Bongiovanni
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist6.pair.net/pipermail/nw-modeling-list/attachments/20191022/2ef8884a/attachment.html>