N&W in 1910--Long tunnel

[NW Mailing List]

Bluefield Daily Telegraph
February 6, 1910

LONGER THAN COALDALE
------
Tunnel Near Cedar Bluff Will be 4,700 Feet--Work to Begin at Once

    The Franklin Contracting Company will send men to work at once on the Cedar Bluff tunnel and the three and one-quarter miles of grading for which they received the contract from the Norfolk and Western.  O. T. Franklin, who was in the city last night, said that the work must be completed in a little over two years and while it is heavy construction his people expect to have it done on contract time.  The tunnel, which is to be 4,700 feet in length, will be nearly 900 feet longer than the Coaldale tunnel, which is the longest tunnel on the Norfolk and Western system.  During the construction of the Coaldale tunnel the contractors struck a thick vein of coal and it is often said in this section that they cleared $75,000 on the job.  No such luck will greet the Franklin construction Company as the coal is above the tunnel and will not be touched during the work.
    As in the case of the Coaldale tunnel a fan will be necessary at the end of the tunnel, but the contract for that will not be let until after the tunnel is completed.  In addition to the work done by the Franklin Contracting Company, about three-fourths of a mile of grading will be done on the Canebrake side of the tunnel.  This work will be let under a separate contract and will permit of the opening of the No. 4 plant of the New River and Pocahontas Consolidated Collieries Company.  J. R. Rich, one of the best engineers in the employ of the Norfolk and Western, will supervise the work for that company.
------
[There are a couple of errors in the article.  First, in 1910 Coaldale tunnel (old Elkhorn tunnel) at 3,015 ft. long was only the third longest tunnel according to a tabulation on p. 78 of Prince's book on the N&W.  The two longer tunnels were Dingess tunnel, 3,327 ft. long, opened 1892 and Pepper tunnel, 3,302 ft. long, opened 1900.  Second, the new tunnel near Cedar Bluff at 4,700 ft. long would be nearly 1,700 feet longer than the Coaldale tunel instead of the "nearly 900 feet longer" as given in the article.  Interestingly, according to Prince's tabulation, five tunnels longer than Coaldale were opened 1931 or later, viz., Raitt tunnel, 3,766 ft. long, opened 1931; Staggerweed tunnel, 4,026 ft. long, opened 1933; Elkhorn tunnel (new), 7,107 ft. long, opened 1950; Sandy Ridge tunnel, 8,268 ft. long, opened 1958 (now closed); Blair tunnel, 3,100 ft. long, opened 1970.]

Gordon Hamilton
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20090914/4df1ddc3/attachment.html>