Hoosac Tunnel Discussion & News

taracer wrote:The B&A was built first, in fact it is the first mountain railroad in the US. They didn't have the tech to build a tunnel like Hoosac when it was built.

Very interesting - I was unaware of that fact, Taracer! Thanks to you (and everyone else) for your responses.

In the October 1998 Trains magazine, somebody did a story on Guilford that included direct material from messrs Fink and Pease. One of the items mentioned when discussing capital investments was a quote from Pease that mentioned that 65% of Hoosac Tunnel had already been notched 18 inches in the roof to accommodate double stacks. Clearly this project was never completed or else we would have had double stacks to Ayer long before now.

Is it true that 2/3rd's of the tunnel is sufficiently notched already? Why was it never completed? Was it money? Was it bait to get other entities money (some other longer haul RR that saw $$$$ in the prospect) to pay for finishing the job? Or was there some geologic issue discovered that put the kibosh on completing the job?

some of it is money for sure, but i had also heard that when they cut the notch they cut a bare minimum notch which needs to be redone in order to accomodate the occasional swaying of cars/containers travelling on a less than perfect track. speaking of which if somebody/government came up with the money, i'm sure that installing the startrak panel system similar to what has been installed in other tunnels would allow them to gain the vertical space they need.

They did complete the work and we do have double stacks and autoracks to Ayer, but they are only double international or one international and one domestic -19'6". It is not cleared for double domestic -21'.

Geological issues prevented the full clearing at the time, especially considering how many other undercuts/bridge raises also would need to also go up to 21" . The notch that was done barely clears 19'6". If there is a solution it won't be cheap or it would have been done by now. NS is choosing to use the B&A for their doubles in the future...

The traffic on the route is all domestic 53' containers at this point, which are a foot taller than international 40' containers. So as Newpy said, the tunnel is cleared for 19'6" - which happens to be the same clearance as standard autoracks - and that's what two international containers need. Two domestic containers need 21'6", since they are a combined 2 feet taller. An international plus a domestic is 20'6".

WRT 40 foot international shipping containers, my understanding is that Hi-Cube 40 ft containers (9' 6" outside height) now dominate trans ocean shipping so 2 double stacked Hi-Cube 40 footers won't clear Hoosac. A Wikipedia article discussing "Intermodal Containers" cites a Drewry Container census:

Standard containers are 8 feet (2.44 m) wide by 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) high, although the taller "High Cube" or "hi-cube" units measuring 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m) have become very common in recent years. By the end of 2013, high-cube 40 ft containers represented almost 50% of the world's maritime container fleet, according to Drewry's Container Census report.

I'm guessing this is why many old non-Hi Cube international containers are available to be used for shipping municipal waste to landfills (eg, Ayer to Arrowhead in Alabama via PAS/NS).

Mebbe I missed it: Did the recent West Portal repairs restore status quo or go to domestic DS?

Status quo on clearance, far better on the state of the tunnel on the West side. Scroll up to my last post - clearing for full double domestic is not a small nut to crack.

The Hoosac Tunnel Central Shaft is being upgraded. Before and after pictures are revealing.
Video by IMR Films on You Tube---------https://youtu.be/zbgoCSlll-A

What's going on with the one on the right? that's the one that hasn't been in operation for decades. Smaller backup fan? If they were permanently removing it you would think it would have been chopped back to the wall. As for the one on the left, it looks like an entirely new fan bell, that's all new.