CNO&TP Tunnel 15 ventilation shaft

rcornelius1942 · January 28, 2015, 12:05:43 PM

With help of local residents found the shaft. I wonder if any of the other rathole tunnels had one? This was the longest of the set so maybe there was no need. Located along U.S. 27 north of Robbins, Tennessee.

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nsgelocos · January 28, 2015, 03:55:04 PM

Great photos!

Is that the Highway 27 I see in the background?

Tunnel #2 in Kings Mountain Kentucky has a vent shaft and was the longest of the 27 small bores. I seem to recall a picture of that tunnel's vent shaft somewhere on here or somewhere on the internet. It was not quite as large as this one. I also seem to recall from something I read from my uncle that this tunnel in Robbins was build from the inside out and the vent was the starting point. That might be why it is so big.

rcornelius1942 · January 28, 2015, 04:39:39 PM

Yep, that's 27. Vent is visible at top of road cut this time of year. Thanks for the onfo on #2. I'll poke around.

rcornelius1942 · January 28, 2015, 05:02:38 PM

And thanks for the length correction.

nsgelocos · January 28, 2015, 11:11:47 PM

Anytime!

One more question, which side of the highway was that on?

rcornelius1942 · January 29, 2015, 07:33:04 AM

It's on the right if traveling south.
Approximately at Dropped Pin
http://goo.gl/maps/gbKLS

36°21'48", -84°34'52" if I have interpolated correctly from map on Android.

rcornelius1942 · January 29, 2015, 08:04:54 AM

I parked on the northbound road shoulder.

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rhotond · March 01, 2015, 07:53:28 AM

All of the old tunnels can be located by use of historical topographic maps either the 15 minute (or larger) or the vefry detailed 7.5 minute maps. One (of many sites is http://nationalmap.gov/historical/. Others can be found by googleing 'old historical topographic maps'

r

leroy · March 01, 2015, 08:16:44 AM

Great pictures and great research... Thanks for the hard work... My 25 yr old has been lookin for the Robbins tunnel for some time...
Thanks for sharing them...

RE: The "...build from the vent shaft method on tunnels..."... That was (...and still is...) a commonly used method of driving tunnels... It gives an extra two faces to dig from for every vertical shaft ya drive... Ya drive the vent shaft down to the bore level, start workin in two directions from the intersection, and start from the open ends at the same time... The idea is to speed up tunnel construction, and as ya can see, it does...

leroy