CSX Lyle, VA
The Chesapeake and Ohio James River Subdivision follows the favorable descending river grade of the James River east to Richmond. Some of the earth work required to build the railroad began as the tow path of the failed extension of the James River and Kanawha Canal. To avoid a horseshoe bend in the James near Lyle Virginia, a tunnel was excavated beginning in 1853 to cross the neck of the peninsula in the center of the horseshoe via aqueducts over the river on both ends. The original canal bore required enlargement for the railroad equipment of the period. C&O named the 189 foot bore “Little Tunnel”. Although the bore was enlarged again in 1933, neither linings or portals have been added to the limestone and quartz of Buttons Bluff.
Eastbound CSX utility coal train T318-05 from Newell, PA to Cross, SC glides over the James River framed in the rough rock of Little Tunnel.
CSX Lyle, VA
The Chesapeake and Ohio James River Subdivision follows the favorable descending river grade of the James River east to Richmond. Some of the earth work required to build the railroad began as the tow path of the failed extension of the James River and Kanawha Canal. To avoid a horseshoe bend in the James near Lyle Virginia, a tunnel was excavated beginning in 1853 to cross the neck of the peninsula in the center of the horseshoe via aqueducts over the river on both ends. The original canal bore required enlargement for the railroad equipment of the period. C&O named the 189 foot bore “Little Tunnel”. Although the bore was enlarged again in 1933, neither linings or portals have been added to the limestone and quartz of Buttons Bluff.
Eastbound CSX utility coal train T318-05 from Newell, PA to Cross, SC glides over the James River framed in the rough rock of Little Tunnel.