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My brother recorded this video passing through Cumberland Gap train tunnel while he was working for Norfolk Southern. You can hear the train hit the wall. This tunnel is very dangerous as it is old and prone to rock falls. If the train is too slow it will get overtaken by the smoke and you will suffocate, too fast and the train will derail and you are trapped inside and could possibly die from the heat and smoke. It really is a scary tunnel. Please Subscribe, it really means a lot.
Brief History:
This is the last tunnel on the line coming out of Knoxville. The Knoxville Cumberland Gap Louisville railroad company blasted out this tunnel in 1888-1889, with a grade going up to the more or less center of the tunnel on both sides, so the cross-section of the mountain would reveal a tunnel that looks like an inverted “V”. Smoke had a tendency to collect at the top and make breathing difficult for crews and passengers. Then, to add to the woes, the tunnel collapsed on July 4, 1894, and again in 1896. Engineers didn’t like to go into the tunnel, so they’d push a string into the tunnel and have another locomotive pull it out from the other portal. Passengers had to take a wagon ride through the gap. This wasn’t a good situation. When L&N gained control of the tunnel (KCGL had gone bust in 1892), they did a complete refurb ending in 1897, which is the date on this portal (this is mostly from “History of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad” by Maury Klein). It’s also the date that “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, was published. When the tunnel was begun, the Buffalo Soldiers were active in the West, just 7 years after the gunfight at OK Corral.
