N&W COALDALE TUNNEL REMEMBERED

N&W Coaldale Tunnel Remembered :

By Buddy French
Copyright 2020

My research and many exploration trips to both former
Coaldale/Elkhorn Tunnel entrance sites have led to me discovering
some of its fascinating history.  In August 1888, the Norfolk & Western
Railway Company, still in its infancy, opened its new tunnel to traffic. 
The tunnel had been driven 3,014 feet through the famous twelve-foot-
thick, Pocahontas No.3 coal seam beneath Flat Top Mountain in Mercer
County West Virginia. N&W had secured a coal lease that was
approximately 600 feet in width for its 16-foot wide by 19-foot-high
tunnel. The width of the coal bed lease was to ensure that no nearby
coal mine would cut into the railroad tunnel. N&W and early
newspaper stories referred to it as the Flat Top Tunnel but in the
1890's, newspaper stories referred to it as the N&W East End Tunnel. 
By the early 1900's the East End Tunnel was officially known as the
Elkhorn Tunnel, but it was better known locally as the Coaldale Tunnel. 
The opening of the Coaldale tunnel had given access to the billion-
dollar Pocahontas coal fields of McDowell County, West Virginia.
Mining operations with coal camp communities quickly spread up and
down hollows all over McDowell County.  The new tunnel helped to
create thousands of new jobs in the mining industry and brought in
millions of dollars in profits to the N&W railroad.  It also opened the
N&W railroads expansion westward, but the new tunnel quickly
became a place of dread and fear to train crews according to 1890's
newspaper stories.  Beginning near Elkhorn, West Virginia, the rail
grade going east began to increase to two percent.  This caused
significant problems for steam engines pulling their long coal trains. 
Even with a pusher engine and two lead engines, they often began to
struggle as they entered the west side entrance of the Coaldale Tunnel
when going east.  

The elevation at the tunnel's entrance was 2,343 feet and the grade
increased to two and a half percent once in the tunnel. Traveling at
such a slow speed, I can't imagine the dread and anxiety that train
crews must have felt as the heat and smoke began to build up.  It must
have felt like entering the bowls of hell as the crew struggled to
breathe.  With his vision limited to just a few feet ahead, the engineer's
job was equivalent to an airplane pilot flying blind without the aid of
instruments.  It took great skill in "feathering" the throttle to prevent a
"slip spin" or stall.  Engine stalls had occurred on occasions in the
middle of the tunnel with deadly consequences. We've all heard the
old saying about seeing "a light at the end of the tunnel".  Could it be
that this saying originated in the Coaldale Tunnel?  Did train crews who
saw that light at the end of the Coaldale Tunnel see it as an answered
prayer?  I can only imagine the relief felt by crews as they exited the
tunnel near Ruth, where the tunnel apex reached an elevation of 2,410
feet. The following is a Bluefield Daily Telegraph headline that was
reported on April 19, 1898.

Death On the Rail:

Freight Train Stalls in East End Tunnel Sunday Afternoon Engineer Kennedy
was asphyxiated. Conductor, Fireman and Brakeman narrowly escaped.
The story went on to report that W.H. Kennedy died of asphyxiation
when his compound engine No. 66 stalled halfway through the East End
Tunnel.  The conductor, firemen and brakeman narrowly escaped death
by running out of the tunnel.  That same year on Dec. 1, a double-
header pulling a long coal train stalled midway through the East End
Tunnel.  Both engineers and firemen were reported as being brought
out more dead than alive but did survive.  The East End Tunnel had
become known as a death trap to train crews and there was an
explosive story in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph on March 28, 1899.  The
following is an excerpt from that story.

Criminal Court meets next week and the grand jury will not fully dischargeitsc its
duty if it does not inquire into the hell-blast that blows through East End Tunnel. 

The story went on to state that the tunnels continued use by N&W
could possibly be considered criminal action.  The two incidents in the
tunnel in 1898, along with the possible threat of a criminal indictment,
apparently brought pressure on N&W to address the tunnels' safety
issues.  The only possible answer at that time was to build a ventilation
system that would remove the smoke and heat from the tunnel. The
following is a story published on March 23, 1901, by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph:
Norfolk and Western Putting in Ventilation Fan Similar to the one in Switzerland.

The Norfolk and Western people have been engaged for the past six
months in putting up an immense fan, the object of which is to
ventilate the deadly East End Tunnel at Coaldale.  Since the
construction of the Norfolk and Western Railway, many accidents,
more or less serious, and a number of deaths have resulted in
trainmen by asphyxiation, produced by the impure air of the tunnel.
The newspaper article also stated that a large power plant was
being constructed near the tunnels' western entrance at Coaldale.
There would be two boilers and two engines of 200 horsepower each,
that would drive two ventilation fans.  N&W drilled a 285 foot deep
well to supply water for the boilers, and the construction project was
said to be near completion.  With the new ventilation system being
completed, a large fan had been placed in a duct system on each side of
the tunnel entrance that forced air through the tunnel.   This kept the
locomotives' smoke and hot gases moving ahead of the engine, but the
engine's speed was restricted to 6 mph. Once in operation, the new ventilation system
improved the dangerous conditions incurred by steam engines. But the slow speeds
through the tunnel caused rail traffic to back up on both sides of the mountain.

In 1913, N&W came up with a solution to speed the train
traffic up when it began a construction project to switch to
electrification. Electric engines would eliminate the smoke and hot
gases that necessitated slow speeds with steam engines going through
the tunnel.  Electrification was completed in 1915, and N&W saw an
improvement in profits with the increased traffic it could handle
through the Coaldale Tunnel.  But coal production had increased
dramatically in McDowell County during this era, causing long coal
trains to have to wait for their turn through the tunnel. Although it will
be many years into the future, massive changes were on the horizon.  A
new tunnel and grade realignment had been in the plans for years.  On
February 6, 1947, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph carried a blockbuster
story in its headlines.  N&W To Spend $12,000,000 to Improve Elkhorn
Mainline; Coaldale Tunnel to Be Eliminated

Besides eliminating the Coaldale Tunnel, the relocation of the rail
line would encompass a huge 5.27 miles long, grade realignment
between Coopers and Switchback, West Virginia.  This grade
realignment was projected to have a new 6,900 feet long double-
tracked tunnel with a modern ventilation system.  It would pass under
Flat Top Mountain at an elevation of one hundred feet lower than the
Coaldale Tunnel.  East bound traffic approaching the tunnel would have
a maximum grade of 1.4 percent while the tunnel grade would be one
percent.  The massive construction job was projected to be completed
and open to traffic in 1950 and it would be the largest double track
tunnel in the world.                                

Bluefield Daily Telegraph - Sunday - June 25, 1950:
      Powhatan Arrow To Be First Train Through New Elkhorn tunnel on Monday.
The newspaper stated that the tunnel construction began on
January 1, 1948. It was 31 feet wide by 32 feet high and 7,052 feet in length,
making it the largest of its type in the world.  It was also
announced that N&W's electrification would be abandoned. N&W
would be using steam power exclusively with the opening of the new
grade realignment.  This meant the end for the Coaldale Tunnel that
had been so instrumental in opening the southern West Virginia coal
fields.  On June 26, 1950, the Powhatan Arrow passenger train was
the first to pass though the new Elkhorn Tunnel.
  Over the years, the Coaldale Tunnel saw hundreds of millions of
tons of the world-famous Pocahontas Smokeless Coal pass through it. 
Even with its faults, it was a pioneer in opening southern West Virginia
to development and prosperity that fed the furnace of industry for
America.  With the opening of the new Elkhorn Tunnel in 1950, it ended
the Coaldale Tunnel's life that had spanned sixty-two years from 1888
until 1950.  Yet, its legacy has left an indelible mark on history even
though mother nature has now consumed it.