CSX/B&A State Line Tunnel

[checexcitation]

I have been wanting to get to Stateline Tunnel for quite some time. I have driven the T-way/Mass Pike dozens of times before, but have never been able to find out what exit and routes to take to get there.
Could someone please explain to me how to get there, and is this location a safe place to be as far as not getting hassled by cops for photographing trains?
Thanks !

[CSX Conductor]

The tunnel is not that impressive It is only about 500 feet long.

Go to Map-Quest and click o directions. Type in your address in the"from" and then 156 Tunnel Hill Road Canaan, NY in the Destination box.

Tunnel Hill Road goes right next to and over the "tunnels". Another street name to use when searching maps is Warners Road, which is a grade crossing less than 1/4 mile west of the tunnels.

[Engineer Spike]

The tunnel is actually in New York. Get off exit B3. Take NY Rte. 22 north. After you go by the truck stop, you will go on a bridge, over the B&A. Tunnel Hill Rd. is on the left. Go up th orad. It goes up hill. Where it crests is over the tunnel. As you start to go down, you will see the tracks on the right.

[PAUL112554]

Of course these tunnels aren't impressive...visit the Rockies or the Alps if you want impressive tunnels!

What IS here is a small part of railroading history (these are among the oldest R.R. tunnels still in use in
America), and the beauty & tranquility of rural Upstate NY.

Sadly, the last time I was here, the Penn Central ruled these rails. I was there with some friends to get a
few fall-foliage shots with my just-purchased Nikon. It was a beautifully warm and sunny Late-September
weekend, and the only train activity that entire afternoon was four GE 4-axle units shrouded in smoke as
they emerged from the portal pulling a drag of mixed freight on their way to (I believe) Selkirk's Alfred
E. Perlman yards.

[RussNelson]

I visited the tunnel on Thursday. Walked through the north bore. Could have safely walked thorough the south (active) bore because CSX was working on crossings to the west, so no traffic. Didn't.

Does anybody know any details about the relocation of that line from its original steep routing to the south? Bridgehunter says that the north bore was built in 1840, once doubled-tracked, and the south in 1912 to triple-track the line. North bore abandoned in 1988 when the line dropped back to single track.

[csor2010]

From what I can gather, the steeper route to the south was part of the Hudson & Berkshire Railroad, which competed with the Albany & West Stockbridge (tunnel route) until both were bought out by the Western (future B&A) in 1854. The H&B was then abandoned between Chatham and State Line in 1860. The Chatham-Hudson portion lived on as an NYC branch (with the a portion in Hudson still in use) and the State Line-West Stockbridge portion was used by the NH until the 1960s.

[trainsinmaine]

You have summarized a rather complicated history very well. Kudos!

I haven't yet determined how the Massachusetts end of the Hudson & Berkshire --- from State Line down through West Stockbridge --- came under the eventual ownership of the New Haven rather than the B&A/NYC. More research needed . . .