Millions of tons of earth and rock are being moved as great tunnels are bored, canyon-like cuts are excavated, and fills are built up to cross deep ravines as Southern pushes ahead with the work of building a new, fast, trouble-free roadway for trains operating over the CNO&TP -the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway.
Still other millions will be shifted from high to low points to reduce grades along the right-of-way before the job is finished and the roadbed is ready for track-Iaying.
When all of this work is completed, the 337-mile Southern System line from Cincinnati to Chattanooga -leased by the CNO& TP from the City of Cincinnati -will lose its "rathole" identity. It will then be ready for the BIG loads, the kind it cannot handle now because too-low and too-narrow tunnels which earned it the nickname of "Rathole Division" restrict movements of Southern's most modern freight car equipment over the line.
As shown on the following pages, the over-all construction job is divided into six projects -three are in Kentucky, three in Tennessee.
In Kentucky, all existing tunnels (a total of seven) will be by-passed by the new line. The Tennessee projects involve el iminating five present tunnels; enlarging one to almost double its former size (now completed); and boring three new large tunnels. In both states, line changes will greatly modify present speed-restricting curves and grades. Trains will be able to move fast and safely and haul today's high, wirje loads.
This is a $35 million improvement to serve shipper-customers better.
Freight we haven't been getting will once more move via Southern. And:
Jobs Follow the Freight.
The largest cut on the new line will be this one near the small town of Kings Mountain. it curves gently over a distance of about a mile and its walls at one point are 140 feet high -about the height of a 14-story building. At track level (not yet reached in the picture) the width of the cut will be about 75 feet.
A newly-developed blasting technique used on this, and other cuts on the line, leaves the walls as smooth as if they were cut with a giant chisel.
Estimates place total excavation here at over two million yards, about four and a half million tons.
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In the line re location between these points, the new route crosses U. S. Highway 27. Steel spans are here being laid in place on an overpass carrying the track over the highway.
The other photograph shows grading operations under way, on the left, and the waters of Cumberland Lake, some 200 feet below, on the right. There are several other scenic overlooks along the line in this area.
Project II has two of the highest fills on the new line -one measuring 180 feet from the lowest point, the other 210 feet.
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The front end of this train was already in the to-be-abandoned tunnel on the present line near Wiborg where work is progressing on the new line seen in the background.
The truck-Ioading view is a close-up of the excavation going on in the background of the train scene. Power shovels scoop up from two to four tons at a bite and load into 40-ton dump trucks. Loads are taken to the nearest fill site so that, in most cases, the terrain is much alike in adjacent cuts and fills.
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A great concrete-and-steel pier rising from the north bank of the New River looks deceptively small in its surroundings.
It is one of two main supports for a bridge that will span the river at this point. When completed, the 1,618-foot-long bridge will be 302 feet above the river.
The second picture shows machinery at work in a hollow spreading and compacting loads of earth and rock brought from a nearby cut by dump trucks. The hollow will be filled and built up to track level, which will be about 60 feet above where the work is shown in progress. The total fill involves an 85-foot rise above the original ground at this point.
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Sighting down the new route in a straight line, this view from atop the south entrance to the new tunnel near Lancing shows the bridge being built over the Emory River and the present line emerging from a tunnel just to the left of center in the picture.
In the picture, the new tunnel at Nemo is on the right; the present line and tunnel on the left.
Trucks in the entranceway give an indication of the size of the tunnel (20 feet wide, 30 feet high and about 2,700 feet long).
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On the opposite page, the new smooth face and greater bore of the only original tunnel still remaining on the CNO& TP contrasts sharply with its former "rathole" size and appearance (at top).
In the other picture, Southern's "Spark Plug" passes by the south entrance to a new tunnel under construction. This very important freight train will be even more dependable in keeping automobile assembly lines going in Atlanta when these line revisions are complete.
In summary, the face-lifting project now well under way on the CNO& TP -in addition to cuts, fills, tunnels, bridges -will involve the building of nearly 25 miles of new line. Estimated cost for the entire job is $35 million. (The .original 337-mile line from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, completed in 1879, reportedly cost $20 million to build.)
It's a lot of money. Southern will need to earn many, many times that amount to net enough to pay it. But it's a sound investment which will payoff in added freight business in the future.
And -Jobs Follow the Freight. .
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