D&H Tunnel outside of Binghamton

In 1974 I was in a local band in Binghamton called the Time Tunnel. We had some promotional pictures taken by J.J. Young Jr. and Dick Allen in front of a tunnel just north of Binghamton. I have tried to find the site but my memory just doesn't stretch back that far anymore. It seems like the north end of the tunnel was just a short hike from the road (Rt. 7?). Can anybody tell me exactly where it was and if it still exists?
Thanks,
Bill

If you go North on Tunnel Rd. (Rt 221) off Rt 7 towards Tunnel, NY just past Houghtaling Rd. you will see the tunnel on your right side. If you continue up 221 a bit then turn right on Meade Rd. then right again on Walling Rd. ,about 500 ft or so, you can see the East (North) end of the tunnel on your left.

Who would have thought that Tunnel, NY would be the site of a railroad tunnel??

Yup, established 1864 when rr workers settled there to build the tunnel.

Not bad if you got J.J. Young to take pictures for you! Have any of those pictures left?

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:Not bad if you got J.J. Young to take pictures for you! Have any of those pictures left?

-otto-

John & I were friends when he lived in Binghamton and he often arranged special privileges for me. One of the band pictures made it into a 1975 Trains mag along with a short story. Richard Allen was a D&H employee photographer at the time and took several pictures as well. Both gentlemen gave me the negatives and transparancies which I still have. Unfortunately they have been combined and I have no way of determining which were taken by John and which by Richard. One picture was published in a 1975 Trains with John's credit so I can probably identify that roll. I currently have all the negs and transparancies out to a lab to be reprinted, but you can see some of them on my website:
http://www.cwhowell.com/tt/tt.htm
Bill

Sorry, this has nothing to do with the tunnel, but .... I was browsing east of Tunnel, and found this:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=42.21259,-75.56203&z=15&t=T
Ya think there used to be a wye there?? Maybe? Just a little one?

Did D&H use helpers to get up the Belden Hill? That the reason for the wye??

Probably just a freak of Nature I'm sure!

I'm fairly certain that the trains were pushed north out of Binghamton, and in the steam days wyed there east of the tunnel. In the diesel days, they probably just went back down the hill for the next train.

That has to be a wye..
its too perfectly wye-shaped, and right next to a railroad, to be natural.
its built up above the surrounding floodplain, and a small pond today occupies the low land in the middle..

yep, no question in my mind, it was a D&H wye.

http://www1.nysgis.state.ny.us/tempimag ... 37490D.gif

Scot

I'll ask a friend of mine who runs trains on the D&H whether it was or not.

It may also have had something to do with the line splitting there and running south to Scranton.

I can attest to the fact that they used pushers on the hill in 1974. The day the band pictures were taken, we had to wait for a 100+ car freight to go past. There were 4 engines on the front and 2 on the back.

That is the remaining grade from the Penn Division. The reason it looks like a wye is that a large segment of the raised R.O.W. was removed between the 'wye' and I-88 which is not visible in the NYSGIS image. I believe to make level access to adjoining properties.

I don't recall any mention of the D&H turning locomotives after pushing up Belden Hill. I believe they just reversed back to Binghamton. The RR was double track with additional sidings during the steam era. That may have allowed for different traffic patterns than we saw in the diesel years.