Blogging the Railroad Tunnels

Raitt Tunnel was part of an expansion by the Norfolk & Western into the coal fields of Buchanan County VA.  It’s 3,700+ feet long and was completed in 1931.  This west portal is at 37.35168, -82.07228 between Big Rock and Hurley.  It’s just off the Highway 650 and, if you find the little trail down to it, it’s easy to get to.

This is the east portal  (37.35408, -82.05974).  As I was walking up to it from the car, about 900 feet or so away, a sudden summer shower dropped a bucket or two of water on me.  I kept the camera dry with my cap, but I got wet.  The temperature that day in the sun was around 90 degrees and humid; the temperature at the portal was maybe 15 degrees cooler.  The second picture is taken from the portal of the mist rising from the hot tracks after the cool rain.