A wedding has me in Western KY for a long weekend and with most of today free, I pinged Adam to see what the chances were of catching P&L traffic at the Dawson Springs tunnel. He let me know that the NS coal train would be passing through on the way to Louisville midday, so I hit the road. After a short hike, I set up by the Tradewater River bridge and figured out my angles. A little after noon the scanner picked up some traffic and at 12:15, here she came. The sequence below is approaching the tunnel, through the tunnel, approaching the bridge, crossing the bridge, and leaving the tunnel. Thanks Adam.
These are some of the only shots I've seen of the dawson tunnel, and NS power to boot. Good shots butch, I still can't get over how well that worked out . In the winter the ice forms so fast on the north face if you're the first train thru you'll actually hit it.
good catch..I had no idea the PAL even had holes in the ground OR ran trains in the daylight!
The IC had six tunnels at one time and the Dawson Springs Tunnel isn't even one of the original ones. The grade was realigned-can't remember if it was the 20s or teens, but it involved moving the tracks from going through town to a little bit south and through the current tunnel. At the same time, a smaller tunnel several miles west was eliminated as the line was straightened. Four of the other five tunnels were daylighted [Echols, Rosine, Black Rock, and Stephensburg] over the years and the last one near Fort Knox was by-passed by a cut that left most of the tunnel inside the curve. Probably more than you wanted to know.
Is this your first trip to Dawson Springs tunnel?
No, I've been a couple of times before as well as the original Dawson Springs Tunnel-really several miles further west, and the other tunnel sites.
A little more Dawson Springs background courtesy of Jim Bergant:
I have the article from Railway Age Vol. 65, No. 25 which reviews this project. Work was started in August 1917 and completed in early 1918. An interesting note in the article was that due to increased traffic due to WW I, they retained the original route for a period of time to have double track capacity.
I'm a native of Dawson Springs and have walked virtually every mile of the old IC in and around this city. Before the crossover conveyor between the coaling towers was torn down, I walked across it as a teenager.