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Model Railroad Index Excursions Seneca Stone Cutting Mill

Spiral Tunnels

Railroads in Laurel, MS page 1

Lindsey Wagon Speech page 1

Log Wagon Wallpapers

Train Wallpapers

Logging Pages Index

Lindsey Eight Wheel Log Wagon

Lindsey Lumber Company

St. Marys Railroad

Story of Bogalusa

Gulf & Ship Island RR

Saratoga: A logging Town

Old Boss

Big Poplar Log

Tree that won a Loco

Spiral Tunnels

Museum Index

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[Note: This photograph and information was found in my father's files. I could not tell if it was copyrighted or not. If anyone objects to this being posted on this web site, please let me know and I will remove it. Incidentally, the picture is about 137k to expand.]

PRIOR to 1908 Hector and Field stations were separated by such extreme grades that four consolidation locomotives were required to haul a trainload of freight over this section. For about three miles a grade of 4.5 per cent prevailed, ten times the maximum gradient normally permitted on heavy prairie work.

By the construction of these Spiral Tunnels this grade was reduced to 2.2 per cent. From the east, the track enters Tunnel No. 1, 3,206 feet in length, turns under Cathedral Mountain at an angle of about 250 degrees on a 573 foot radius, passes under itself and emerges at the opposite portal 54 feet lower. Tunnel No. 2, under Mount Ogden, has a similar radius through an angle of 232 degrees; it is 2,890 feet long and the grade produces a difference in elevation of about 45 feet between portals. Thus the railway traverses the valley by three lines at different elevations, and crosses and re-crosses the Kicking Horse River by four bridges. Two engines can now haul a bigger load up the valley than the four previously used.

The two tunnels are a perfect maze, for the railway doubles upon itself twice and forms a rough figure “8” in shape. If the train is run in two sections, passengers are able to see the other section making its way up “the big grade” at a higher or lower level.

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