Canadian Railroads > Connaught Tunnel, 1987

A westbound freight exits the Connaught Tunnel at Glacier BC back in April 1987.

Dwayne

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A tunnel I don't remember seeing a picture of before - excellenrt shot.
Gary

East portal of Connaught Tunnel, June 1947.  Picture taken by my grandfather from rear of passenger train.  Note double track.

Second picture taken in September 2013 of empty eastbound coal train.  

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The double track through the Connaught tunnel was unique because it was opposite the usual current of traffic in North America.

Soon after opening, it was discovered that locomotive engineers had no forward vision going through the tunnel, as they were trying to see forward in the space between the tunnel wall and the tracks.

By moving the westbound traffic to the south track, forward vision was greatly improved.

This double track was between Connaught, about a mile east of the east portal and the west end of Glacier at the west end of the tunnel.

An interesting feature of the tunnel operation was that the "Sykes Patent staff system" from the 4.4% grade on the Big Hill east of Field was moved to the stations either side of the tunnel, for use when one of the tracks in the tunnel was down for maintenance. Increibly, this system remained in place until the mid-1960's, when the tunnel was singled tracked to allow for TOFC traffic.  Sadly, the staff system was scrapped.