Chronology of the Double Tracking of the Radford Division ?

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

>From the March 15, 1907 edition of The Railroad Gazette, here are  some
of the difficulties N&W had in double -tracking the Radford  Division:
 
"When it came to driving comparatively long double-track tunnels  through
this rock in the straightening of the line, it was found that no  dependence
could be placed upon investigations of borings in the matter of the
stability of the cover . . .at a short distance back of the western  portal
(of Eggleston #1), the bore struck the lower part of a pocket and  there
was a cave-in that crushed all timbering that could be used and so  the
material from the funnel-shaped pocket reaching to the top of the  hill
about 200 ft. across, had to be taken out through the portal.  A  similar
cave-in at a tunnel being cut a mile or so west of this (Eggleston #2 ?),  
has 
occurred near the center with only 90 ft. between the ends of the
completed tunnel lining at the time of the fall and this is now being
removed by steam shovels . . . .  Again at Pembroke, the whole  face
of a mountain into which a cut-off tunnel was being driven, came down   and
buried the portal.  The debris was removed and a stone portal  built."
 
                                                            Harry Bundy
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