Today turned out to be the perfect day to return to the Salina Tunnel. All the fog I had to deal with the first time I went out was gone, and all the water in the flooded section was frozen solid. There was no problem getting the whole way through the tunnel. A hard hat is absolutely necessary because some of the brick section is starting to fall. Not a lot, just some debris, but if it fell on your head you'd know it.
I'm not going to get a lot into the history of the tunnel in this post. For a more in depth history see my previous post here: http://coalandcoke.blogspot.com/2013/12/salina-tunnel-western-pennsylvania.html
Or you can click to the right under "Popular Posts".
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| These are a couple of the manholes where you would jump into if a train was coming. |
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| I would imagine in the age of steam engines, this would be a pretty awful place to hide. The tunnel would be full of smoke. |
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| The flooded section completely frozen solid. |
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| Another manhole. These were placed every 200 yards on alternating sides of the tunnel. The section of the tunnel that is just solid rock has them cut right into the rock. |
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| Huge icicle. |
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| Right past the furthest icicle is where the tunnel turns into solid rock. My co-conspirator Libby messing with her camera. |
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| Looking into the frozen western portal. |
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| Brick ceiling and the reason you need a hardhat. |
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| Libby. |
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| Me! |
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| This is the end of the masonry part of the tunnel. After this it is all solid rock until you reach the eastern portal. |
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| Solid rock roof. There's a couple sections where pieces of this have fallen as well. |
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| An old rail. |
Stay Safe!!
ReplyDeleteMike my name is Dan ,l live in Salina Nice job on the tunnel footage. My father in law live to be about 90yrs ��. He showed and told me of other historical places here in the area, from where they use to toe barges up the river with horses, including some sort of canal short cut from Salina to Saltsburg used before and after the trains were put through this area. We even had one of the tallest wooden train bridges from when the old steamers came up past the old historical Salina Hotel and out through the back end of Salina.l was told that one of the US presidents may have even stayed at the hotel .The Train bridge must have been Huge to span the distance. I could show you. I also have other info for you if you are interested .l am not Tec-Savy so l hope l did this correctly. Please ignore the () symbols after my E-mail add.Not sure what they are there for, and l'm afraid to try and change it.
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