Johnson City TN

Clevinger Branch Tunnel

Bob Lawrence2 Comments

This is a CSX Clevinger Branch Coal Run subdivision (read about it here) tunnel near Clevinger Branch Road (3227), about 3 miles NE of Coal Run Village in Pike County KY.  Coordinates (at center) are 37.5519, -82.5239.  It’s about 1,500′ long on an active line.
Inside the tunnel, the ties are concrete:

 

The ballast is covering the center of the ties.  I’ve seen flat (and cracked) concrete ties at the Indian Ridge tunnel in Johnson City, but none like these. Interesting.

#35 Indian Ridge tunnel

Bob Lawrence4 Comments

This is the last tunnel in Tennessee as the CSX heads east to North Carolina.  This is Indian Ridge tunnel, in Johnson City.  It’s 1.023′ long and centers at 36.345467, -82.424185.  This is looking westerly.

It was a sunny day, so the ballast and the ties (or “sleepers”, as they call them in the UK) overexposed a bit.  Notice that the ties are concrete.  And a fair number of them were badly cracked.
It was hard to get to this tunnel.  We had to park about a half-mile away and carefully walk down the side of a fairly busy road that had no generous shoulders.  Then we had to scramble (there’s a lot of scrambling when it comes to getting to tunnels and bridges) down to the cut.   The date is 1912 on the facing.  Squint hard, you can see it.