Western Railroad Discussion > Lake Shasta old tunnels and bridges exposed?

Has anyone seen or taken pictures of old railroad bridges and tunnels pre-Lake Shasta that have been exposed because of the drought recently?

In 2014 there were a number of pictures posted of exposed bridges and tunnels.

How is the lake level now compared to then?

Here's a couple from 2008. At these locations of Lakehead and Salt Creek the water level can't get much lower. The current water level is at least equivalent to this.

Robert Morris
Dunsmuir, CA
Robert Morris Photography



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/22 09:57 by photobob.

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There have been a number of plans to enlarge Lake Shasta, might not be a bad idea to get thru some of
the dry years (assuming it ever fills back up).

Out 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/22 13:48 by callum_out.

Depends which old tunnels and old bridges you mean, I had to wait until October for the bridge and tunnel 5 combo to be fully exposed last year, the top of the bridge wasn't even visible until around September. Don't think we've posted a lake level for tunnel 5, I know it's been discussed elsewhere.

I'll have a chance to look tomorrow, Bob's photos are at Lakehead and Salt Creek, which are fairly common these days. Suggest looking for yearly Lake levels and compare the post date with todays level.

Date: 10/22/21 21:47
Lake Shasta and that old Bridge across the river - Far Nor Cal

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5349128,5349794#msg-5349794



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/22 12:40 by TCnR.

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Spooky!

Wow, thanks for the updates.

How long ago were these bridges and tunnels first submerged?

Over 70 years closert to 80 my guess or better. 

The dam was completed in 1945 so 80 iears . 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/22 07:09 by czuleget.

NPRocky Wrote:
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> How long ago were these bridges and tunnels first
> submerged?

What is the lowest level ever recorded would be another question. 

The drought years of 1977 / 1978 were the lowest I've seen, as mentioned in the Pit River bridge post a few days ago, the lake was not visible from the bridge and was out of sight to the west. This website would be the one to look for older lake level info:

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/ca/nwis/wys_rpt/?site_no=11370000&agency_cd=USGS

+ the link to the previous post has some great info about previous years, the old RR route, some sources, check it out.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/22 09:22 by TCnR.

Thanks to all

TCnR Wrote:
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> Depends which old tunnels and old bridges you
> mean, I had to wait until October for the bridge
> and tunnel 5 combo to be fully exposed last year,
> the top of the bridge wasn't even visible until
> around September. Don't think we've posted a lake
> level for tunnel 5, I know it's been discussed
> elsewhere.
>
> I'll have a chance to look tomorrow, Bob's photos
> are at Lakehead and Salt Creek, which are fairly
> common these days. Suggest looking for yearly Lake
> levels and compare the post date with todays
> level.
>
> Date: 10/22/21 21:47
> Lake Shasta and that old Bridge across the river -
> Far Nor Cal
>
> https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,
> 5349128,5349794#msg-5349794

Some time after 1977 someone put white vertical markers on top the trestle. They are not shown in the 1977 photo but clearly seen in the photos accompanying your October 2021 TO thread. I presume they were placed to alert boaters of the submerged obstruction becoming shallower as the lake lowered.

There are videos on that video site that show people boating through that tunnel and bridge; pretty interesting. 

BAB Wrote:
> NPRocky Wrote:

> > How long ago were these bridges and tunnels first submerged?
>
> What is the lowest level ever recorded would be another question. 

The California Department of Water Resources site doesn't offer lake level data going back to the 1970's, but it does have monthly reservoir storage data going back to the 1950's, which is almost as good.  The lowest storage volume recorded in that timeframe was in August 1977: 578,000 acre feet.  The second lowest reading was last year, October 2021: 1,001,988 acre feet.  Here's the plot from 1974 to the present:

 

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So the game becomes finding the right graph showing historical data and todays's lake level, or a way to compare the USGS acre-feet with feet from the top, or elevation, or percentage full. So far I haven't found that graph, but now I know last October's Tunnel 5 photo was approx 1.0xx million acre-feet. Looking at the graph that concides with the dates of previously posted tunnel 5 photos.