Show cascade tunnel annel breaks records boi through washington mountains Is longest in america i www t i giant cascade tunnel I 1 ranks fifth in length among the worlds other oilier tun 1 I 1 net nel projects the new cascade boro bore ranks fifth in length those p exceeding it being in curole the worlds longest bores anre simplon SlOT Sim plon feet I 1 miles calles s st gotthard Pot thard feet A i miles Loetsch berg feet alles mlles mont cenis feet miles new cascade feet En miles Iles moffatt 39 roo feet miles rogers pa pass feet oil 0 11 miles fr X x Sc scenic ellic wash when a railroad rull rond wants an eight mile tunnel built in three years records have to be shattered dard bard bitten pneumatic drill man and horny handed muc ers anre looking for new jobs after three years work vork in constructing the he cascade bore it was three years ago that the great northern directors voted to spend KOW building a tunnel that would eliminate six miles of costly snow sheds lower the lie summit of the line feet and discard 1014 1944 degrees of track curvature cunn tura they decided also they wanted it in three years in addition to tho the construction of the tunnel the great northern has relocated nil all hut but seven miles of the former 50 mile route over the cascades and the lie of the 75 miles of line between wenatchee Wen We alchee natchee and sky shy which includes the new tunnel altogether the project will cost 75 MAW americas Arne ricas longest tunnel on december 28 1925 contractors started tunneling operations on october 20 1028 1928 there was a continuous boie ind bodny the finished Inis hd tunnel 77 anile 3 long lined with culic clit le of concrete ion irete la Is in use by mall and freight trains pulled by 17 mighty electric locomotives loco mothes between tin ye two date more records were arc smashed than to in a modern olympia the finished tunnel longest in america Amerl ca nearly two miles more in length than the recently completed complete moffatt bore in colorado was drilled by twice the yearly mileage and will rill show a concreted job as compared with unlined tunnels of comparable lengths 1011 1 through the european alps eliat took seven to fourteen years ara drilling Dill ling crews in the cascades established a worlds record when they excavated feet of the ag by 18 A feet bore boie in september 1020 1920 then in it june 1027 10 7 this feat was outdone 1154 1164 feet were tunneled during 31 days work the secret of the rapid progress rested with the new plan of drilling a pioneer tunnel paralleling the route of tile main bore prom from this auxiliary ry tunnel drifts were run at seven POI points lits to in tho the route of the main bore permitting 1703 1701 men to work simultaneously A alt all rock and debris from tile big tunnel were removed through gh alie Is pioneer while concrete workers wor k era f fallowes fallowed fall I 1 owed cl sely behind the completed c t straight e as needle 1 W the ile nd 0 d railroad line between scenic R W berne the east portal was IS i long coming from berne a n iaan i h had ad to cumb climb 1325 feet pass six tunnels and six miles tit of snow sheds five of the tunnels were short the lie sixth al alent tnt t three miles long once reaching the summit of the rond road the train descended into scenic bid feet in a few miles almost as aa I 1 hard ord on the locomotives as pulling up to the top the weight of a railroad train runs into enormous tonnage and to drug ding up or hold bock on moun tain grades la Is a herculean tent fent it costs money too the climb Is not all the new tunnels saves if nil the old curves were added together they would form just six complete circles white this new tunnel Is na straight as n needle the longest railroad tunnel already built in the western hemisphere sphere Is tile the ropers rogers pass bore about alx and one half miles long on the canadian the now new tunnel now ready for fo r through service Is one nille mile longer nn and I 1 large arge enough for dou double it ae tra tracking eking fill facilities t 1 besides it Is the only largo large tunnel in the lie world clec electrified trifled state gets old roadbed while the the rall railroad rond intends to abandon its old mountain track the famous roadbeds surveyed in 1890 have been donated to the state of washington highway commission for use as scenic automobile routes all bridges and trestles will be repaired and altered to care tor for motor travel providing one of the most stupendous mountain highways in the far west in winter months the roads burled buried under deep snow will be useless unless some method can be devised to keep beep them clean of 0 drifts something the railroad with all its ita capital and facilities found difficult to accomplish virtually all of the work was done by machinery and skilled workmen electricity compressed air and dynamite applied with the utmost skill through the most modern machinery characterized characterize the whole project what took tooh place in one pioneer heading Is typical of the activity nt at all of the ninny faces the cycle of the various operations which followed in regular sequence from the moment that the drills were started against a new face of rock until they were again ready to drill the succeeding face constituted a round each round accomplishing an advance of eight feet feel delays eliminated five in twenty four hours was vi as ohp objective which was mis consid V ered a perfect conre this would be fl A total progress of 1240 feet tit in it n month A loss of one minute it 11 round in the pioneer would menn it a delay of dir forty hours tu in ih atio onI dou of 11 the 1 tunnel ill so the great problem was to cut doati low delays A typical cycle for uie ie round in the pioneer tunnel consumed about four hours and forty minutes in its var various losis parts for instance on august 25 iola at in the morning the shifter throw threw in the tiring firing switch de detonate ing pounds of GO 00 per ent cent gelatin for twenty seven minutes approximately cubic feet of air a minute were discharged at the face to clear away the gases so mon men could return to work during the follow 1 ing thirty eight minutes the shift of 10 men brought up the mucking machine cleaned up the fly rock and replaced the electric light and an compressed or lines then for one hour and twenty two M minutes the mucking artl machine calne loaded out the round in fifty cubic feet capacity cars at the rate of three ini minutes a car after the blasted rock was removed thirty eight minutes were occupied in taking the mucking machine anek to a place of safety and bring ing up tip the drill carriage on which were mounted four drills each manned by a driller and his helper drill 28 holes in hour and 17 minutes the drilling time for twenty eight holes which averaged eight and one half feet in depth oc occupied culled the next hour and seventeen minutes during the drilling time a wooden body insulated powder car wits was brought to the face with the exact exact amount of dynamite and primers required for one round while part of the drill crew removed the drill carriage the balance or of them loaded the holes this operation requiring thirteen minutes when the holes had find been loaded and the leads of the electric blasting caps connected up the electrician who was a member of the drifting crew tested the exploder circuit separately after which the shifter who was the last min man to leave the face connected the exploder circuit 1 to the firing line As he retreated in the tunnel he be closed a safety switch in the firing bring line about feet from the face and when he had reached the next crosscut where the locked firing switch wits was located he be unlocked it and ored fired the blast at 1150 a m a total elapsed time of four hours and forty minutes following this same general plan of close synch ron ezit tion fill all the lie other operations erat ions at the tunnel went on continuously day and night including Inc lading sundays u I 1 1 1 ays and holidays and in spite of encountering water rea reaching chIna tit at times a now flow tit of gallons it minute nil nute nor a single eight hour shift was lost during the entire construction period |