Amtrak Trains Fight to Go First

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4. The Pinkerton day-lighting job was a debacle for CSX

When the old B&O (now CSX) Pinkerton tunnel was day-lighted starting in 2010, CSX thought it would be an easy job, remove all of the relatively loose rocks that hung over both its remaining tunnel and the Pinkerton Tunnel used by the old Western Maryland railroad, which had been closed since the 1990s do to falling of such loose rocks.

This turned out to be a HUGE mistake. In 2011, Somerset county agreed to have the spoils from day-lighting the old B&O tunnel onto its land that had been turned over to the county in the early 1990s with the rest of the old Western Maryland Railroad line. Somerset ever offered to pay for the extra cost of daylighting the Trail's Pinkerton Tunnel, but all the CSX wanted was the right to move the spoils onto the land now owned by Somerset and part of the Great Allegheny Passage.

In 2013, the day-lighting of the CSX (ex-B&O) tunnel hit a stag, what everyone had thought to be one set of loose rocks, ended up being three sets of rocks. A loose set at the tunnel, another loose set at the top above the tunnel, but in between one of the stiffest, strongest set of rocks anyone had ever had to dig through. One report was that had CSX knew how strong that rock was, they would have drilled the tunnel up to that rock, removing all of the lower level loose rocks, for it would have been a lot cheaper then cutting through that rock. The problem was CSX was set up to daylight and could not shift gears halfway through the project. On the other hand the strength of the rocks caused all types of delays in day-lighting that tunnel. The Good news was CSX told the trail about the hard rock, so the Trail then contacted engineers who devised a relatively cheap way to remove that loose rock up to the hard rock and in the fall of 2015, the Trail's Pinkerton's Tunnel was opened.

Yes, a debacle for CSX became a way to open up the Pinkerton tunnel at a relatively low cost.

Now, the problems with the rocks above the Pinkerton Tunnel is NOT new. Right after the original Western Maryland Railway tunnel had been built, its Pinkerton tunnel (Now the Great Allegheny Passage Bike Tunnel) collapsed. The line was kept in business by building a road bed around the tunnel. It started with a 90 degree bend then along the river, then another 90 degree turn when the bed reached the C&O line. It was only used for six months and then forgotten for 80 years. In the 1990s the ceiling on the tunnel collapsed again for it was unstable. The Trail was looking at the tunnel being a blockade on the trail, till some old timers told them of the long abandoned cut off. The Trail then scouted out the cut off, found out that they still owned it (it was been part of what CSX sold them when they sold off the Western Maryland Railway tunnel) and diverted the Great Allegheny Passage to it and around the Pinkerton Tunnel.

For the last decades that had been the route of the bike trail, for the Pinkerton Tunnels roof was to unstable to be trusted. Then in 2010 CSX decided to daylight the old B&O Pinkerton tunnel which CSX still owned and the above mention set of hard rocks were found to exist over both tunnels. That meant the Trail did NOT have to daylight its Pinkerton Tunnel, the trail could repair the tunnel relatively cheaply (and the trail did so, opening it up in the fall of 2015).

The cut off is NOT as smooth as the actual old Western Maryland Railway tunnel route, but it does follow the River, remember it was last used in the 1910s, the rest of the trail was last used as a railroad bed in the 1970s:

Here is a photo of the inside of the tunnel before it was reconstructed:

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http://www.tribdem.com/news/somerset-county-trail-tunnel-to-be-fixed/article_c8fe4102-9baf-11e4-94a8-cfbfff291eb8.html

Here is a photo of the Pinkerton Tunnel on the Great Allegheny Passage as it is today, steel lined but no fear that rocks will fall on the lining and crush anyone who happens to be below it (The Steel Lining is to prevent SMALL rocks from falling down and causing accidents):

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http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/rails-to-trails-sojourn-on-great-allegheny-passage-meyersdale-to-harnedsville

Photos of the Pinkerton Tunnels in 1975 just before the removed the rails:



https://gaptrail.org/explore/trail-alerts

Here is a video showing the Pinkerton Tunnel open, on the left you can see the cut for daylighting the B&O tunnel, and to the right where the spoils for that cut ended up: