Tunnel Hill
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DEDICATION PLAQUE
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1898 |
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Creeping from out of black tunnel as if afraid of the daylight, Norfolk Southern 3342 starts the long down grade to Altoona, Pennsylvania. |
| Leading five Conrail Locomotives, Norfolk Southern 3342 heads east with a load of soft coal. As the diesels power up, a ground hog, who stands at attention on the rails ahead, leaves the rails and takes to the high green grass. |
| Conrail 3350 couples to the coal train. Once the soul source of power for the ancestors of Locomotive 3350, the soft coal now is only a heavy load to be backed down the Allegheny Grade. In the walls of the cut leading to the entrance of the east side of the tunnel, a five foot seam of soft coal is exposed. While digging the cut in the 1890's, it takes little imagination to see the coal from this excavation going from shovel to the fire box of a steamer. Or the coal being wheeled up the trail to a stove in the line shack, to keep the site boss warm during an icy January bone chilling day. |
| With their diesels roaring, four locomotives tag behind the coal train. As the train rumbles slowly east toward the Horseshoe Curve, the ground hog again appears from the high green grass, climbs higher up the embankment, and drops out of sight into his own tunnel. |
James E. Frizzell
Post Office Box 595
Kimberton, Pennsylvania 19442
date posted: June 01, 2001.
last revised: June 06, 2001
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