The Paw Paw Tunnel is a 3,118-foot-long (950 m) canal tunnel on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Western Maryland between Hancock and Cumberland. Work started on the tunnel in 1836, although by the time the canal opened for service in 1850, the competing B&O railroad had been operating for over 8 years! Still, railroad technology was still rudimentary and the railroad was only able to match the canal's rates by 1870. The Canal continued in operation until 1924 at which point it was shut down and eventually preserved as a linear park between Washington, DC and Cumberland, MD.
Also included in this set are some nearby photos of modern day CSX operations on the former B&O main line. You can see the full album here.
Access to the tunnel is from the east end where there is a parking lot and campground. The western portal is full of embellishment as this would be been an engineering marvel of its time. There is a small put-in so that people can paddle small craft through the canal if they so desire. An info board provides additional context about why the canal choose the tunnel route as opposed to following the bendy path of the river. In terns of time and effort of construction, the idea probably backfired.
Detail of the keystone and inscription at the top of the western entry arch.
Eastbound interior view with flash and without. The old towpath is what has made made this a natural trail conversion. The adjacent Western Maryland RR trail project is stalled due to the need for engineering work to make the bridges and tunnels compatible with pedestrians and cyclists.
Approaching the eastern portal from the west.
Most of the tunnel is lined with brick. The stone blocks are only at the ends for show and to support unstable rock.
Eastern portal is built like the western one.
You can see how trying to build a cut through the mountain was quickly proving to be unsustainable.
These large blocks of slate have been stabilized with tie bolts.
The opposite side of the cut. made of looser material, recently gave way and slid down into the canal, blocking it.
With the ongoing re-signaling project on the former Conrail Reading Line I have been making a point to document the old stuff before it is gone for good. Last November I took a road trip to capture the western end of the line between CP-WEST LAUREL and CP-ALBURTIS. Now it is time for the eastern end of the line comprising CP-ALBURTIS through CP-ALLEN and CP-HAM on the adjacent Lehigh Line for good measure. Located on the main east-west freight route out of the New York metro area there is no shortage of NS freight trains and the route is littered with so called railfan hotspots.
You can browse through all the photos taken on this trip here, but some of the less signal related highlights are below.
Allentown, PA was a huge hub for the Reading System and the associated Central RR of NJ. Already a giant industrial center thanks to Bethlehem Steel and the nearby cement belt, Allentown marked the transfer point between the RDG and its subsidiary CNJ for traffic originating from the NY Metro area. Both the CNJ and adjacent Lehigh Valley RR had large downtown passenger terminals on their own bypass tracks serving downtown Allentown. After passenger operations collapsed the old stations were left stranded, but fortunately the old CNJ terminal has survived as a restaurant.
CP-HAM is located on the former CNJ main line running north out of Allentown. Back in the day the route between NYC and Scranton attracted new fewer than three rival railroads, the CNJ, Lehigh Valley and DL&W. With the collapse of the coal based economy in the 1960's and 70's, Conrail reduced the operation to a single main line route. The resulting Conrail Lehigh Line mostly used the the Lehigh Valley alignment (hence the name), but between Allentown and Lehighton, PA they switched over to the CNJ. CP-HAM is the southern end of a controlled siding on the Lehigh Line as well as the western end of Allentown Yard. The two headed searchlight signal is lit up due to the non-signaled yard track and displaying Approach to help flat switching movements.
Of course before the railroads there were canals. The Lehigh Canal was one of many serving the coal region of PA. At Easton the canal would transfer loads to the Morris Canal to NYC or the Delaware Canal to Trenton.
NS has a fun habit of keeping its SD40-2 helper and switching sets in sibling pairs. Here #6141 and #6140 flat switch at the west end of Allentown Yard, rounding the curve towards CP-HAM. The units are set up for remote control operation, but were being run in the traditional fashion on this day.
Reading and Northern hopper car sporting a pretty nifty anthracite coal logo. Previously popular for home heating, today anthracite is mostly used as a metallurgical source of carbon.
Here a westbound manifest train works it way out of the yard and past the flat switching duo with C44-9W #9345 on the front.
Included in the consist was former Southern high hood GP38-2 #5019
The full lashup consisted of C44-9W #9354 and 9609, ES44AC #8141, GP38-2 # 5019 and GP40-2 #3026.
Here the train is crossing the famous CP-ALLEN truss bridge. While typically a truss signifies a large span, in this case it was employed due to needing to allow clearance for canal traffic. Today the former lock gate has been replaced by a concrete dam.
Some impressive graffiti on a CSX box car crossing the Lehigh Canal.
Short video of the train crossing the Lehigh Canal with associated waterfall sounds.
So here was the crown jewel of my trip. Conrail scale test car #80017. The car is ex Pennsylvania Railroad PRR # 999953 and was built 1919! Typically placed towards the end of a train this car is a known weight and is used around the system to calibrate weigh in motion and other scales.
If you are ever in Washington DC with a few minutes to spare before your train departs Union Station, consider taking the Red Line for an additional stop and spending your layover at the DC Metro New York Ave metro stop instead of the Union Station holding pens. Built in 2004 as an infill station between Union and Rhode Island Ave with some of the funding provided by nearby development interests, NY Ave offers unrestricted views of the Union Station trunk line between the J and K signal bridges of the terminal interlocking. With both revenue and deadhead trains from MARC, VRE and Amtrak in addition to the steady flow of WMATA trains, there is almost always something going on.
Thanks to the purge, the only electric locomotives being operated by Amtrak are of the ACS-86 variety, so that can get a bit monotonous, but LD trainsets can spice things up. Here #626 passes under the K Bridge en route to New York Penn.
#659 at the same location shoving a Regional trainset towards one of DC Union Station's stub end platforms.
As this was the weekday PM rush, WMATA trains were passing through every couple of minutes. One of these contained 3000 series class car Mr. 3000!
VRE train heading to one of the lower level tracks with MP36PH-3 #V66 and ex-Metra Pullman gallery car #V427.
Here we see a deadhead MARC trainset with bi-level K-Car #7857 and MP36PH-3C #22 passing an outbound Brunswick Line train with MP36PH-3C #33 and Bomber split level cab car #8056.
