Western Railroad Discussion > Tunnel 7 reopened

The first train through Tunnel 7 passed northbound through the bore this morning at 11:38 PDT. It was the MWCCO-19. That's West Colton to CORP (Central Oregon & Pacific interchange at Eugene). At this writing a southbound QPDRV-21 is about 50 miles away from the tunnel heading uphill.

Congrats to UP for this!!!

I'll miss all the reroutes over Donner.

Saw the QPDRV through Springfield around noon. A second uphill is running through town right now at 13:20. There's at least one more up there somewhere (staged from yesterday).

John,

Thanks for all the updates.

Nudge

Very, very hard, hot, dirty work by a lot of professionals....and maybe some good luck too. Tunnel fires were sure a curse on the SP and NWP. Probably weren't too far from being several months at that; rumors based on SP history weren't too wrong. Everyone involved in western railroading sends their thanks to those work crews.

Will there be maintainence windows for continuing repairs to tunnel 7, or is it back in full service?

barrydraper Wrote:
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> Will there be maintainence windows for continuing
> repairs to tunnel 7, or is it back in full
> service?

There will be a lot of continuing clean-up work as well as removing timbers and filling the spaces with concrete. This will be done under traffic with some curfews.

yes, I'll second the "thank you" for your reports.

Also, thanks for not bailing out on us despite the thrashing UP gets on TO at times. It's just that many, many of us are concerned about UP and are very frustrated at what are are hearing and seeing out there. UP was very pro-active in past years; they only seem re-active now...

AM

UPRRPR Wrote:
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> The first train through Tunnel 7 passed northbound
> through the bore this morning at 11:38 PDT. It
> was the MWCCO-19. That's West Colton to CORP
> (Central Oregon & Pacific interchange at
> Eugene). At this writing a southbound QPDRV-21 is
> about 50 miles away from the tunnel heading
> uphill.


Of course, John doesn't mention this, but the tunnel is still on fire, but UP is saying the hell with it and going on with railroading as usual. Ya gotta love the spunk of that UP!!!

Sounds like a good job. Congrats on the effort.
There must be interest in some kind of article or story about this. Similar to the SP's articles on the Noisy Creek Bridge in the early 60's.

TCnR Wrote:
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> There must be interest in some kind of article or
> story about this.

Unfortuntely, I think any interest is only in the railfan community. For being so close to a population center (Eugene) there is very little recreational interest in the area. Hiking trailheads are several miles away at Salt Creek Falls. There is deer and elk hunting around Fields in the fall. (After a couple of six packs those guys shoot anything that moves and the reflection off of a camera lens looks like antlers to them. They have done an excellent job of scaring me out of there in the fall) I have never met anybody interested in the volcanic activity in the area from Mt. Fuji or Yoran. Or glaciers in the area. Or why the railroad has to follow the present route to get over Salt Creek Falls. Where did that lava come from?

A few years ago a timber lined highway tunnel between Portland and the Coast collapsed killing an ODOT employee
and the greatest concern was about the detour and increased amount of time it took to get to the beach.

If any of the local papers have sent a reporter in there I haven't seen their articles.

jb

There have been almost daily reports in the Oregonian (Portland) and the Register-Guard
(Eugene). Just today there was a piece entitled: "Cleared of fire, train tunnel opens for regular traffic" by Scott Maben in the Red-Guard. Certainly there has been more coverage about this incident than there usually is about anything rail-related in our area...

BrianJennison Wrote:
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> There have been almost daily reports in the
> Oregonian (Portland) and the Register-Guard
> (Eugene). Just today there was a piece entitled:
> "Cleared of fire, train tunnel opens for regular
> traffic" by Scott Maben in the Red-Guard.
> Certainly there has been more coverage about this
> incident than there usually is about anything
> rail-related in our area...

I took the TCnR comment to mean an article by somebody who was in the area and could see how the fire was attacked. Was it by Forest Service personnel? Oakridge fire dept? UP maintenance employees? (Today, Tues AM, maintenance in the Willamette Valley didn't know if the tunnel was open) Foam? Water? Where did the equipment come from? (on Sunday I saw a water train NB at Chiloquin, was it used) How did they stage equipment at Fields/Cruzatte and get to the fire? Any problems with keeping the fire contained in the tunnel and not going up the hill? What kind of problems did this cause the shippers in Roseburg?

The article in todays Red-Guard by Scott Maben did nothing but quote Mr. Bromley.

jb