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TOOday's history lesson

Outdoorsfellar

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Some of you know I like trains & I am a model railroader. I just learned today from the guy who is going to concrete my driveway this coming week, that where we camp at Woodbury, that gravel road use to be a railroad line & that there is an abandoned tunnel at the end of gravel road nearby. He was at the house today & asked about my camper which is setting on top of a open ridge right now after I dropped it off after Strouds. I was telling him about its travels to the bow shoot & Strouds. He told me he use to live in that same area of Tunnel Hill, Ohio. RT 60 & 541. Small world. I know him from going out to Buckeye Lake all the time as it is, but that's just funny. This was a railroad from back in the late 1800s & was abandoned by the early '30s. He was telling me that bears would hibernate inside, most of it is collapsed inside . I did some investigating afterwards & here's a few pics ....

Here's the north portal where we camp.....



The south portal ....



Anyway, that was quite a history lesson.
 
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cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Cool stuff for sure! I have a tunnel that resembles the second picture a lot right below my house. You can actually still walk through it. When we were kids we used to ride quads through it. Now it's where all the coyote howling comes from.
 

bowhunter1023

Owner/Operator
Staff member
48,879
274
Appalachia
Good stuff. We have some piers here in the county from the B&O RR and it is a famous ghost spot. Lots of old tales from down there!
 

Outdoorsfellar

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Pretty cool. What line used it originally.


That's a big question. To begin with, the name of the tunnel is " The Noland Tunnel". I originally thought it was called Tunnel Hill, but because of the tunnel already being there I beleive, in the hills, a town was formed being called that. That's my quess. The name of the railroad I found out is was called the CA&C. Cleveland, Akron & Columbus RR. It was part of the Pennsylvainia RR. Back in those days, there were railroads EVERYWHERE. Quite a few being branches of others, but having their own identity. There could have been at least 200 different ones. A lot went bankrupt, some became abandoned & most were merged with others. Just as today, all of the big name RRs have been merged over & over to form what they are now. There is still a lot of different RRs in Ohio now. I was just amazed at what I was told earlier today, by a younger guy who I had known in a social setting for the last 7 or so years. He knew a lot. I never would have imagined there had been trains barreling out thru a tunnel years ago where we now camp... let alone bears snoozing away at one time or another. With everything I said, there's more to it than I can put in here, but quite interesting. The tunnel was @ 1,500 ft long.
 
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cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
Actually, the tracks right behind my house that bypass the old tunnel I mention go right past that tunnel as well. I don't know much about it other than if I has to venture to guess, it was once connected to the same old rail system and was from the late 1800's until who knows when.

One of the quad trails we ride actually goes up old rail lines that are now mostly submerged in creek water. These run right through the middle of dense woods now. Same as that tunnel behind my house. There are remnants of old bridges there as well. But it's dense woods now. Took my kids hiking down there a few times. Really cool sights.