A fire of undetermined origin ignited within tunnel #13, located in the Siskiyous between Ashland, Oregon and Hilt, California early Monday morning (17 November 2003). Tunnel #13 is a little over 3,000 feet long and is the site of the last train robbery (at the west portal) in the 1930's, and is part of the old original California Oregon (1888); Centeral Pacific; Southern Pacific line, now operated under lease by the Centeral Oregon & Pacific (CORP). The fire continues to burn out of control as of tonight and is starting to collapse the roof because there is no way to get fire fighting equipment in and is too dangerous to send in firefighters. CORP spokesmen states there's approximately 5 feet of debris on the tunnel floor and estimates it will take at least 3 weeks to get traffic moving through the area again after the flames are extinguished.
Bill- Lots of speculation in many quarters on what affect this fire will have on the immediate ability of the Yreka Western to survive...some are reporting that the veneer (which is widely seen as being the only thing keeping the lights on at the YW) is immediately going to trucks... Is this true? Wishing you and your railroad the best, JDLX Elko, NV
Bill- Do you have any information on the tunnel construction? Such as lining, if any? Or what the geology is around the tunnel? Where does traffic off the YW usually go? Any particular customer? Or various? Such that reroutes would cause major difficulties? Boxcab E50
JDLX .. first let me welcome you to Trainboard. You have joined a long list of great, friendly people here and we are pleased to add you to that list. It's true, the veneer that the YWRR would normally be sending over the Siskiyous via rail is suspended until the tunnel situation is remedied. However, we (the YWRR) are still able to ship wood chips out the south end of the line, which will help keep us out of trouble. Boxcab - If my memory serves me right, the tunnel has several methods of support. Some beams shoring the walls and roof for the most part; with some wood "sheeting" in others. The wood is very old and the smoke from the Creosote is extremely heavy and acrid. I'm not a geologist, but it appears that much of the mountain consists of sandstone and granite. Eastbound traffic with veneer normally goes to Medford or Roseburgs' Timber Products plants where they make plywood. We also ship cars of "peeler cores" to those locations. The only reroute would be via U.P. at Weed, CA. I don't believe it would be finantially viable for Timber Products to ship that way as they would have to go all the way up to Springfield, OR .. then back down to the cities mentioned above. Right now, trucks are the only practical alternative .. at least until the snow begins to fly on Siskiyou Summit. No doubt, this will put a dent in the YWRR's operations, but we will survive. Afterall, we have earned the name, "the railroad that refuses to die." !
It will be interesting to learn what steps they must take to reconstruct the tunnel. Could cost a few dollars to clear up, and insure that it's not going to have any further collapses. Boxcab E50
Bill, Your tunnel fire also made news in Seattle. The only thing they said was that it was in southern Oregon. I knew if I came on the site some one would have more info about the fire. One question? I am not sure how far in the fire is but is there a chance instead of rebuilding the tunnel it might be daylighted? Just wondered Shannon WP LIVES
No chance of daylighting this tunnel...it passes directly underneath the summit of a major mountain range.
The fire reportedly started about 65 feet in from the north end. They suspect that a transient may have started it with a "warming fire" as there had been no train thru there all weekend long. JDLX is correct. There's no chance of daylighting that tunnel. There's well over a thousand feet of mountain above it. What worries me is the line was originally leased from Southern Pacific, which means that Union Pacific how hold the lease. I have heard rumors that UP and CORP are challanging eachother about who has the responsibility for rehabing the tunnel ! They may opt to just abandon the Siskiyou line. This is not good news for the YWRR if this happens. Of course .. these are only rumors and hopefully there's nothing to them. Keep your fingers crossed for us.
For what it's worth, a few of the local papers are quoting CORP officials as saying that the tunnel will be repaired, and that they hope to have trains up and running again within a month. However, they are saying this before they have any real idea of what kind of damage the fire did to the tunnel, and siesmic tests are planned, so things could very quickly turn out very differently... JDLX Elko, NV
As of today, 25 November the tunnel is still smoldering. The plan is to send in a robot to allow closed circuit TV inspection of the damage ... but I do not know when this will take place. Reportedly, CORP has X amount of dollars to do just so much repairs. If the damage exceeds available funds, they will bargain with Union Pacific to get the job done. I'm feeling better about it now. At least there's no talk about abandoning the line entirely.
Bill- Do you know if the tunnel has a grade or crown in it? (Done thus for drainage.) If it has a crown, it's possible the highest area might be where the fire is still smoldering. Due to not enough oxygen for burning it out. Boxcab E50
Boxcab . . . I donno. I'll see if I can find out for ya. I'm going to take a trip up there with the owner of the YWRR this weekend. Maybe I'll have more info by then.
