Western Railroad Discussion > Hermosa Tunnels; Question for Historians

Just wondering what the reason for digging the tunnels was? I notice most pictures I’ve seen don’t show much on top necessitating the bore. Almost seems they would have just excavated a deep cut.

Posted from iPhone

Wyoming snow would fill the cut level with the top, and packed as hard as concrete!

Posted from Android

Darren Boes
Lethbridge, AB
Southern Alberta Railfan

This is a relocation, the original construction was a ways tovthe north.

In the early 1900’s the Union Pacific wanted to charge their customers mountain freight rates over Sherman Hill.  The Interstate Commerous Commission ruled that in order to charge mountain freight rates you had to have a tunnel.  Hermosa tunnel was built in 1921 for that reason.  In the mid1980’s the Union Pacific was going to extend three track around the tunnels.  The Surface Transportation Board up helded the earlier ICC ruling that they had to have a tunnel to charge mountain freight rates.  That is way they never extended three track.  That is why they do not day light the tunnels.  This a short answer to your question why the Hermosa Tunnel is there.

Not quite...

Hermosa Tunnel lies on Union Pacific's mainline linking the Midwest with the West Coast. Approximately 100 freight trains run through the tunnel every day, carrying a wide variety of cargo. The original line over Sherman Hill was completed in 1869, reaching a summit of 8247'. This tunnel was constructed in 1901, resulting in a lower summit of 8013'. The single line through the tunnel was not enough to handle the traffic, so the bore was twinned during 1918



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/19 07:32 by CPRR.

I think we may have a troll.

Conductor_Pappy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the early 1900’s the Union Pacific wanted to
> charge their customers mountain freight rates over
> Sherman Hill.  The Interstate Commerous
> Commission ruled that in order to charge mountain
> freight rates you had to have a tunnel.  Hermosa
> tunnel was built in 1921 for that reason.  In the
> mid1980’s the Union Pacific was going to extend
> three track around the tunnels.  The Surface
> Transportation Board up helded the earlier ICC
> ruling that they had to have a tunnel to charge
> mountain freight rates.  That is way they never
> extended three track.  That is why they do not
> day light the tunnels.  This a short answer to
> your question why the Hermosa Tunnel is there.

Bob Wilcox
Charlottesville, VA
My Flickr Shots

Conductor_Pappy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the early 1900’s the Union Pacific wanted to
> charge their customers mountain freight rates...

I'd like to check into this a little more - can you provide us with a source/sources for your statements, a book, document, or internet link?

Thanks,

Mark 

And the top of the tunnel was cut down some to take some of the weight off the top. They did the same with one of the remaining tunnels in Echo Canyon in Utah as well.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

That's nowhere close to the definition of a troll, although the dates appear to be incorrect. I've heard the Mountain District idea before, don't know where. The snow in the cut idea sounds good to me as well until I visited the area and figured out there's not that much snow that stays in one place. It could also be to allow the landowner a passage from one side of the tracks to the other.

One of the better sources of info is the UP Historical Society publications. The Sherman Hill rebuild was mostly a Harriman era project, Harriman funded or arranged for many interesting projects that made Engineering sense. There's a number of interesting books on Harriman, The rational may have been presented in one of those publications. For many years there was no deed to 'document' why they built something a certain way.

Something that I've noticed is a lack of info on Sherman Hill, there's a number of articles that have the title but miss a lot of explanations. The Dale Creek trestle is an example, The Ames Monument another. Perhaps everybody else knew about these and I missed it. Here's an link to Bridgehunter that has the Hermosa tunnel info:

https://bridgehunter.com/wy/albany/hermosa-tunnel/

Interestng Wiki on Dale Creek, there's others on the town of Sherman and the Ames Monument which also effected by the re-alignment:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Creek_Crossing



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/19 08:32 by TCnR.

When the line through the Hermosa Tunnels was being built, it was planned to just make a cut. However, the rancher from whom Harriamn bought right of way insisted that access must be provided for his livestock to move between grazing areas on either side of the main line. Hence the tunnels. Livestock access to both side of the tracks is provided to this day.

Best regards,

Rob L.

My transportation professor at the University of Colorado talked about UP freight rates to Denver in the late 1800s. The UP charged Denver customers what it would cost to ship the goods by ocean freighter all the way around South America via Cape Horn to California then by rail from California over Donner Pass to Cheyenne then Denver. There was no alternative.

Denver's citizens decided to build their own alternative and the Kansas Pacific came to be. The UP knew how this line would affect their rates so they bought KP stocks and bonds through 3rd parties to finance the KP. Once the KP was built the UP took control of the stocks and bonds they had paid for and the Kansas Pacific Railroad became the Union Pacific. The KP freight rates were set the same as the established UP rate to Denver.

Do you ever wonder how ICC regulation of railroads came to be?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/19 19:06 by fbe.