Abandoned Railroad Tunnel Pennsylvania RR Carr's Tunnel Greensburg PA
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- Опубліковано 4 лис 2008
- For Still pictures check out www.stuffthatsgone.com. " witches Tunnel" Wow a major archelogical find, right in a fancy housing development east of Greensburg PA in the old Railroad town of Donahoe, off Donahue Rd near Twin Lakes Park. This tunnel is known as Carr's Tunnel (incorrectly called Donahue Tunnel in the video) The Pennsylvania Central Railroad first alignment into western PA was completed in 1852. Around the turn of the century, this alignment was abandoned when the line was straightened and made a four track line. the new alignment was set north of this location. For years this was abandoned in the woods, until recently a developer put in some georgeous houses nearby--amazingly the tunnel was never plugged or buried, and the interior is pristine. Ready for a bike and jog trail.. visit www.stuffthatsgone.com buy Photos of this Tunnel at
stores.ebay.com/Lost-Images-an...
The track that ran through this tunnel connected with the PRR main at "AX" interlocking, just across Donohoe Road. If you check out the main there, you'll see the still-intact flyover, with one main track on each bridge, a stairway down to the roadbed of the New Alexandria Branch, and railings around the bridges with "PRR" cast into the bottoms of the stanchions. If you poke-around a little, you can even find the grade of the track connecting the branch to the main. LOTS of history!!!
This is exactly what You Tube should be used for... Original, interesting, inspiring and informative content. Thanks for sharing!
Nice video. I walked the entire length of this line from just west of Beatty Station to Donohoe in 1965 (a couple years before the PC merger). At that time the rails were gone, but the ties and ballast were in very good condition, including through the tunnel. This was indeed part of the original PRR main line completed in 1852. In the early 1900's many miles of the original main line were replaced by the present Norfolk Southern mainline; yhis was done to reduce grade and curvature, and to provide sufficient space for four tracks. This particular part of the old main line (Donohoe to Beatty) was retained because it allowed coal trains on the New Alexandria Branch going east on the mainline to reach the eastbound main tracks without crossing over the westbound tracks. The PRR once had many such "flyovers" and "duck-unders" to reduce train congestion; there was another one at Southwest Junction in Greensburg. You can still walk thru that one as there appears to be a public trail thru it.
I would like to thank you guys as well for filming this and sharing it with us.
Back in the late 1970s, we (us young clowns) used to go Four Wheeling back through that tunnel and into the field behind it. Lots of partying went on back there in those days! Lol ! Oh the memories !
There are quite a few abandoned tunnels in PA, there used to be one on the North side of Phoenixville,pa that fed the Cromby coal/electric plant on the river and the RRline that ran thru Spring City, PA. It was open until the late 90's when the roof collapsed closing the road above it with a sink hole. They filled in the tunnel; but like this one you can only get to it in the fall/winter. It runs behind some houses and used to come out at the far end of the old Phoenix Steel Plant......
My uncle's old house is at the Donohue Rd side of the tunnel. It used to be almost on top of the tunnel but the new owners moved it after he sold it and moved to FL. Lots of good times in that place.
I visited this tunnel about a month ago and was amazed I didn't know about it sooner. Thanks for the video!
I was in the PA Army National Gaurd for many years and made many trips thru this tunnel on drill weekends in Jeeps and Humvees. The water was always high but those Us Army issued 4X4's always mad it thru....I am glad that it was Gov't vehicles...I would never take one of my personal 4X4's thru those mud holes......some time try the RR tunnels near Tunnelton, PA. They are long and make this one look like a dog box!
Thank you for sharing this great find.
back in 81 or so we would get stoned, drive from latrobe to greensburg at night crossing over and under the rail lines and then drive through this tunnel slowly stopping in the middle turning out the lights. amazing to see its still there and still accessable.
Nice find! The Moonville tunnel along the old B&O in southeastern Ohio is one of my favorites.
Love this! I don't live too far from here so I would love to go find this myself!
I'm familiar with that area myself and I've never seen or heard about it. Thanks, informative video.
wow interesting nice catch with this old tunnel!
This was a hot party spot when I was in high school in the 1980s. It was called "witch's tunnel". You used to be able to practically drive up to it. It really wasn't that far to walk to. Even then, it was prone to massive puddles and mud during rainy weather. Oh...the memories! LOL
I thought when that housing plan was built in the 1990s and some of Donahoe road was rerouted, that they would tear down the tunnel...I'm amazed it's still there.
We just went and looked for this tunnel today. I would have never known about if it wasn't for this video. Found it fairly easily. We drove up the roadbed to about 100 feet from the east entrance, and walked the rest of the way. The easy way is to enter at N40° 18.421' W 079° 27.767' for those carrying GPS.
Thanks theqman1956.
great info to go along with the video thanks for posting,
That is excellent! I wish there were finds like that around here in Massachusetts. I walk on a trail in my town all the time, and I'm pretty sure that it used to be a spur line that went to another town.
Good info thank you for the updates!
It will always be witches tunnel to me. A real rite of passage of teenagers in Charter Oak and East High Acres to go through at night.
My name is on the wall in there somewhere. :) Thanks for posting. Fun memories
One commenter named Brian says it's no where near Twin Lakes that is incorrect it is just over the hill from this location... If you go thru the tunnel from the side this video is shot and you cross over Donahoe road you walk about 50 yards or so and go thru another tunnel under the current mainline and then walk another quarter mile or so and you are in the main parking lot of Twin Lakes
Great website and video's man! Super cool idea!
Witches Tunnel! Went there once in the late 1980's...it was super creepy. Rumors always said it was haunted.
Nice I might try to look around over there sometime.
i can just imagine an old T1 chuggin down the line..great video..o and i live in the south hills off pittburgh close to washington, Pa got some old lines through here
AFAIK, the tunnel is still open...I live about 2 miles away. I always thought it was one of the many feeder lines that connected the many coal patch towns located in this area. Quite a few of the local communities were coal patch towns, including Carney and Denison, which are both in the general area of the tunnel. I think it is a double track width, but it seems pretty narrow and I only seem to remember one set of rails (from long ago). It might have been a main line on the PRR, since it currently sits less than a mile from the tunnel and kind of intersects it, but it seems pretty small in my opinion for carrying the main PRR traffic.
Thanks for a very interesting video - very interesting part of the world.
I grew up close to Witches tunnel, It was spray painted on the top " Abandon all hope yee who enters the Tunnel of witches" That water is deeper than it looks, and the other side is much worse. Last time I was through it in a 4x4 water was up to the doors and nowhere to turn around at the other side. Better admired from a distance since the walls are starting to fall in.
Have you guys ever had the chance to film the old railway bridges behind the Livermore Cemetery off Rt 22 ??
Crazy place that is !
Dam I can't believe I didn't know about this.When I was a kid we used to walk the tracks from Irwin to Greensburg.
Great! Thanks for adding the story! You rock! 6 stars!! No wait... Just 5. sorry. :)
Been there. Live just near there. It's not the mainline. according to my pap, who worked on the prr back then, that was right next to the current line. This is the Unity Branch. It ran from Donahue (Don A HUE) to New Alex. The georges station freight station is our barn-my pap bought the MOW shed, and his brother bought it. After sitting at the old house at twin lakes, my pap took it and reassembled it on our farm as the barn. It is an ATV trap, and the tunnel is notorious for falling rock.
Went through that on my racing Quad when I was a kid. We used to call it "witches tunnel" It was creepy!
wouldn't anyone like to walk through that tunnel, why not. very interesting.
mlavendar480, ranger101 and myself studied this tunnel ourselves, and I can add a few pieces of info
I spoke with a fellow who removed the tracks from the tunnel, and he said this was done 1968/1969
the PRR was famous for spreading it's ballast (large stones) very deep & wide along it's right-of-way, and this is why the author easily finds ballast:
sometimes this ballast was several feet deep, and if you look along the current PRR Mainline, you'll see it is easily twice-as-wide as needed
Thanks--I did already and took pictures!
No houses have been built directly above the tunnel, but a low traffic neighborhood road does run perpendicularly across the tunnel.
from Carney Tunnel, progress south, and go up a short hill, until the road levels-off, then raises again as you head to Mountain View;
the level area is where the original PRR crossed that road, and you can easily where the trees are cleared-out for that road-bed, towards that Tunnel
Love how he says donahue. the tunnel is in east high acres, its really not even close to twin lakes. if you know where the old sewage plant used to be you can get down there from there or park in front of the 2 houses on clearview and sometimes you can see the top of it just looking over the cliff. I used to ride my bike threw it, its not easy theres lots of water in it. years ago when i did go threw it, parts of the inside were falling in. as said before, us locals call it witches tunnel.
I grew up with this tunnel in my backyard. In the 1980s someone spray painted the name Tunnel Of Witches on the top and that became the new name of it. An earlier name for it is The Mushroom Tunnel.
If you hike on the top, you will find The Pit. Im guessing its some type of air shaft for the tunnel. My friend got stuck in the pit years ago. hehe good times.
The surrounding area also used to have many abandoned houses from the early settlements of the area.
Interesting video..
The last steam on Penney’s Pittsburgh division ran in 1954 or early 1955. My dad worked for the pennsylvania railroad.
It's sad how many abandoned RR tunnels and bridges there are everywhere and so much track has been taken up you wouldn't even know existed now. On a rail trip I made in 1990 I saw countless factory spurs that had been disconnected and abandoned. If we hadn't abandon so much of our once great rail infrastructure maybe our highways wouldn't be clogged with trucks.
yeah--carney area--we took some pics--thanks
I am from Britain but i enjoyed your commentary and camerawork, go and visit some more old hostoric places please, i enjoy railwayana as we call it here
Fun reading the comments, until 1984 I lived in Greensburg. Would you believe before the housing developments, large groups of young people would drive through the tunnel to have field parties? Probably around 1980 or 81, AC/DC at high volume and LOTS of beer.
hi, i just visited donahoe there are are two bridges , coming from mt thor rd. u go under current tunnel and then theres two abutments. would love to know more bout this abandoned rail line.thanku
Oh, and for the people saying to go through it, you could, but it's been notorious for falling rock, at least going back to when my grandfather worked on that branch.
Yes, Witches Tunnel is what I knew it as too.
How do you get there?
Just a note of caution if anyone does go out to explore the area... if you decide to climb the stairs at the former "AX" interlocking to the mainline grade, be on the lookout for the NS Police. I have no idea if they patrol this particular area; I've seen them in Latrobe and have heard they have been around Buffenmeyer Road to the east...
Nice video. By the way u seen the tunnel from humberstone park?
@mattersfact2 ahh, witch's tunnel.. I actually drove through it in a suzuki samurai once in the 90's..
Im on mobile but someone said "Twin Lakes Park? Don't you mean Lakemont park?" NO. Lakemont park is an amusement park in altoona, waay far east of Greensburg. Twin Lakes park is a park with 2 similar lakes. It isnt an amusement park either. If you go to twin lakes, bring some mosquito spray and watch out for ticks. (I live really close to it)
+The Undertaker No. Most definitely Twin Lakes Park in between Greensburg and Latrobe.
Old Panhandle line?
just curious what do you like about exploring abandoned tunnel ?
It makes you think about industries before your existed!
Is the tunnel still standing after the development happened? This video was taken 8 years ago.
Yes.
Why didnt u get any closer so we couldve seen it better? That is an awesome find.
Exactly. He just stopped and started zooming in. Tough to tell because the video is blurry, but maybe there was too much water and mud.
Antmanbee. That may be my partner. He's a Yinzer. Only vid he ever spoke on
I'd like to argue that point!
but there's no arguing it. This is the price of you being right.
Enter the same way but go around 100 am in the fall, the sun will be in just the right position to highlight the initials of the men that built it. I believe they were waiting for the next load of stone blocks to be delivered. Look for a round indentation and the signs and crosses are right close by.
I have been doing extensive genealogy and discovered this tunnel may have been built by my husband's great great grandfather Thomas McKernan. Are you able to take any photos of the initials of those men? His obituary states he was a contractor and helped to build the Pennsylvania Railroad and was division forman of the road and at one time helped in building the tunnel in Greensburg and at Spruce Creek. Not sure if this is the same tunnel but would be before 1857.
Oh, ok. Well if there are still rails intact inside the tunnel, there should be date stamps on the outter side of the rails. Its ashame all thoes man hours go to waste like that to build such a structure and then leave it for dead. I so love historical adventures like this, maybe when i get a chance, ill show yall the old-abandoned rails / tracks by the abandoned sugar cane mills here in south La. :-)
This was an old TROLLEY line. That is why there was no sign of soot in the tunnel. Part of the West Penn Railway Light Rail Trolley System.
Definately a RR tunnel. We have traced the entire route of the West Penn. It was nowhere near here. Came through Baggley and Youngstown into Latrobe.
The route did not follow US 30 between Latrobe and Greensburg.
that's the crab tree branch. it passed through twin lakes park. in fact they just used part of the old ROW as the twin lakes trail. we helped design part of this and there are old stone culverts that are really cool that carry streams under the line. they have funding to keep going.
+Stuffthats Gone The same rail extended thru St Vincent Shaft (at St Vincent's College), crossed Rt 30 right below the Latrobe Airport runway, and continued out, as mentioned, thru the Youngstown and Baggley patch towns. The line also extended further south and goes thru Pleasant Unity and towards Mt Pleasant. The rails have been gone as long as I can remember, but the bed can still be discerned down the line. I'm pretty sure it was mostly a coal train track system, since it went thru many of the coal patch towns, but it could easily be used for passenger cars as well. There was also a branch running to Ligonier that joined up in Latrobe, but I'm not sure where since the current PRR/Conrail/Norfolk lines main lines run considerably north of Ligonier. This whole area was a spiderweb of train spur lines, trolly lines, and coal patch towns. The abandoned train lines near Livermore, Pa (not too far from Blairsville, Pa) has a spooky abandoned train tunnel on a tall trestle that sits above the now flooded town of Livermore. It was flooded as part of the Conemaugh Dam system. When the water level is down, you can see the buildings sticking out of the water!
Hi there... I live in Latrobe and am very interested in seeing this tunnel. Would someone be able to give me exact directions as to whwere to find it? I am familiar with Twin Lakes park and the surrounding area.
Latrobe to Greensburg, Donohoe Rd, pass Sullenberger Rd, tunnel on the left at the dip in the road.
What road is this off of, I am trying find it on Google earth and I am not having much luck
Anyone know of pics that exist of rodebough tunnel as a young boy I remember it being bulldozed out in the mid 1960s there also was another tunnel 100yrds before rodebough headind north that was taken out in the early 70s
Tracks pulled 1968-69 according to the viewer above
Laurelview Dr off Donahue Rd
Twinlakes Park? Did you mean Lakemont Park?
Twin Lakes Park
I have been watching your videos, having just discovered your channel. And I realized something : You're losing your Western PA accent. On this vid it's way more pronounced. I wonder why?
Great stuff, by the way. Fascinating and informative. Addictive, really.
This tunnel was used by coal truck traffic to get to a nearby mine until the late 1970's early 1980's when the housing plan was built... and until really recently you could still see it from Donahoe road ....... Its tough to walk thru it unless you have hip waders because when the railroad bed was dug out for the coal trucks it fills and holds a lot of water .... I live nearby and have gone to see it a lot it's a place local teens go to see ghosts supposedly someone committed suicide thru one of the vent holes in the roof and was hit and carried away by a passing train.... still very cool and yes a bike trail thru it would be really nice
+Chris Plummer That's true. We used to go four wheeling and partying back there in the late 70s.
ooohh is that what that is? haha thats so werid cause i'v walked throught that exacpt path you went down. I don't think it will be a good bike/jogging trail cause when it rains it gets really really mudding in that area.
Is that still there or is it bulldozed shut? We used to drive through this to the strip mine on the other side for shooting and field parties, but by 2010 it was getting pretty built up.
Have you done "Dead Man's Tunnel" directly behind the pool at Lynch Field? And just on the other side of the tracks right there in the middle of Greensburg was an old quarry full of bass, but the cement company dumped concrete in there and filled it in.
You say the PRR converted to diesel in 1940. Nope. They were still buying & building new steam locomotives in 1946. Last one was class T1 no. 5549, built August, 1946 by Baldwin Locomotive Works. This engine was sold for scrap in January, 1956. PRR was totally dieselized in 1957.
www.abandonedrails.com/Alexandria_Branch
if ou use the above map, go to the very Southern-most location on this branch to see where it connected to the PRR Mainline ~ you can change view to SATELITTE for better understanding this area
opposite of where this map 'says' the New Alex Branch began, you can see a gradual curve, away from the present-day Mainline, running to the South/East, and a break in the trees, almost beside the major street (Laurelville Drive) of a new housing developement ~ follow that line to the S/E portion of that neighborhood, and that line turns almost due-East, becoming the road-bed for another paved road (Lauralynn Drive) ~ THAT was the original, as-built path of the PRR in the 1849-1852 period
your host was standing BELOW that neighborhood's S/E corner (the neighborhood is built above Carr's Tunnel), shooting video into the tunnel, looking railroad West-bound, towards where AX was located
if you zoom-in and focus on the current-day NS/PRR line, you can see a Black spot 'between' the tracks, which are the stairs leading to the lower-floor, that Mike Lavendar mentioned (miss you, Mike)
the PRR undertook a major curvature-reduction / tunnel elimination project in the early 1900's, which included 4-tracking most of the 353-mile route between Philadelphia & Pittsburgh, at which time the Main was moved to it's current location, but the original line remained a functioning piece of the road:
I can't confirm, but it is possible that a single track was centered through the bore, allowing 'high-and-wide' freight to sit on the original trackage without fouling the busy main until a time when the over-sized load could move without problem
Suggest you consider looking at the on line Penn Pilot web site at the 1937-39 free aerial foto of this area..
Sorry uTube will not allow me to past in the exact web address of Penn Pilot web site for fear that they may loose some advertising money....
IMAGINE if there were a train sitting in there
I wish you guys would gave us a tour of INSIDE the tunnel, and shown the rail there and even a DATE should be shown on the side of the rail, indicating when the last time they replaced the rail was. Very interesting, and one other note and fear factor and I know im going to get a 'thumbs down'..If thoes are houses built above the tunnel, over time I would worry about a cave in?
Bummer, lot of gum flappin, no inside shots of the tunnel.
PRR retired it's steam-fleet approx October 1957, so these tracks were used after that, and were used during the diesel era until the late 1960's
to the East, the tracks connected to the current Mainline beyond carney, and those tracks were used as a siding, or for storing old freight cars:
my fiancee had family that lived near Carney Tunnel, and they recall seeing trains in the 1950s on that trackage
Love how he says donahue. the tunnel is in east high acres, its really not even close to twin lakes. if you know where the old sewage plant used to be you can get down there from there or park in front of the 2 houses on clearview and sometimes you can see the top of it just looking over the cliff. I used to ride my bike threw it, its not easy theres lots of water in it. years ago when i did go threw it, parts of the inside were falling in. as said before, us locals call it witches tunnel.