The property surronding it is full of trees. There is a road thats beside it but alot of trees. I might hike threw the trees and try to get a photo someday!
Duncan tunnel is 9 tenths of a mile long, it's steepest grade is 2.8%. a dash9 locomotive is good for 1950 tons up the hill. Those are the exact's on it for you all. The whole tunnel is not 2.8% but parts of it are. It is a very neat thing to go through but I will say if you have no reason to be there then don't be. Yes the fans that are pictured were used in the tunnel for work that went on in it last month. More work is scheduled for the tunnel in a month or so, so I am betting the fans will get more use very soon.
Probably used to purge the tunnel quickly, after a train passes. So the maintenance crew can get back to work again. Boxcab E50
I wonder how fast these could go if cut loose under there own power? Incidently, a SP nut might call these,"two very odd tunnel motors".
Ed P brings a great point--the NS police are also notoriously aggressive. 2.8% is pretty steep. The tunnel would become a boiling mass of soot, fumes and hot exhaust gas after a train ascends that grade. That would remind me of the D&RGW atop Tennessee Pass's 3% grade, but only 2550 feet long. This NS tunnel is almost double that. Got SCBA?:tb-tongue:
Hemi, Indiana is very hilly at the southern end in what is known as the Knobs. That is where the glaciers stopped and formed the Ohio River. I run the old Monon through Southern Indiana and we always poke fun at the crews we trade off with at Washington, IN when they talk about "hills". They have no idea:tb-err:
Nobody mentioned theres a vent about a thousand feet (maby less) from the top of the grade. You can see the fenced area from I-64. Its behind the Shell gas station.
Its a good size ventilation shaft. Up top all you can see now is a fenced area with an antenna. When a train comes up the hill you can see the smoke coming out.
Is this the vent? Right next to Highway 64. You can toggle back and forth between Satellite and Map and trace the tunnel under the McDonald's and back the other way too.
The 4.75 mile Hoosac Tunnel (Guilford) in northwestern Mass. has a center-bore vent shaft to the surface 1028 feet above. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosac_Tunnel A photo of the blower house is about 2/3 down the page in this photo journal. http://sturmovikdragon.livejournal.com/25893.html
Put those "railfans" out here on the Clinton Sub and I bet they will run pretty fast against a UP GE.
