Bill,
I made several slides of the south portal a few days before the tracks were removed.? The removal train was parked a couple of hundred yards to the south (this was on a weekend when my father and I trekked back there).
Arnold
On 04/26/2022 12:21 PM Bill Delmar <bdelmar.list@...> wrote:
Thanks for all the details, Warren, very interesting. I agree with you the building is probably not a motorcar shed as it has steps up to the door. Also motorcar sheds don't need windows. I do not see any material such as ties in the gauge that would assist in turning and taking a motorcar off the track. There is what appears to be an old pushcart at the left edge of the photo,?perhaps sitting on ties.?
I don't recall ever seeing a photo of the south portal, maybe there is one out there.
On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 11:44 AM Warren Stephens <
wdstephens@...> wrote:
Arnold is correct that is the north portal. Do you see how the track is straight leading into the tunnel and how the portal is directly on the face of the mountain? If it had been the south side, there would be a gentle curve leading into the portal and the portal would be set back into a rock faced cut and not flush like that. There was at the time this photo was taken, a water tank to the right of the photographer. Most people try to include it in their picture and therefore only a portion of the building on the left makes it into their image. There was a nighttime operator at the north portal - at least in steam days - this may in fact be the ¡°depot¡± or train order office. It could be a motorcar shed but I doubt it. Why no daylight operator I do not know. And I base this on the limited employee timetables that are known to exist. There may at one time have been a daylight operator. When Estelle was a going concern this may have not felt so isolated but boy I would not want to be in that holler by myself at night. It¡¯s spooky now in broad daylight. On the water tank side and therefore out of this picture there was a flanged wheeled scaffold that could be rolled into the tunnel to work on the roof or inspect it. I think the proper job title of the employees who worked this station would be operator tunnel inspector because in the bad old pre Coverdale days it was most likely inspected daily if not several times a day. When constructed, the tunnel was timber lined. Along about 1917 this lining caught fire and stopped train operation for several days. The brick veneer is only at the ends and was added after the fire. After the timber lining burned they decided to leave it unlined for some reason. Southern sprayed the tunnel bore with gunnite the stuff in ground pools are made of.?
Warren
On Apr 25, 2022, at 8:51 PM, arnoldeaves <aseaves@...> wrote:
I believe it to be the north portal, but wiser heads should weigh in.
Arnold
There is also a good photo of a tunnel portal, which would be Pigeon Mountain, but is it the North or South portal?
On Mon, Apr 25, 2022 at 5:36 PM Warren Stephens <
wdstephens@...> wrote:
If you click on the pic it takes you to a Flicker page with even more TAG pics. Look at the ones taken inside the shop building. Note the hostlers and consider the fact that they were only a few days away from loosing their job. Only track guys and train crews kept their job. For a few years anyway. All the rest of the roughly 90 TAG folks lost their jobs. The merger was consummated Dec. 31st 1970 at Midnight or Jan. 1st 1971 if you prefer. New Year¡¯s Day 1971. Thanks for posting the link.?
