Abandoned Railroad Tunnel Pennsylvania RR Carr's Tunnel Greensburg PA

[cjplumm]

The tunnel fills up pretty good with water most of the time coal trucks from the carney mine went thru this tunnel up until the mid 80's and the house that sits between the tunnel and donohoe road was moved there from another location in the last 10 or 15 years making access to the tunnel a little harder now

[CPD0123a]

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.

[CPD0123a]

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.

[nakayle]

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.

[cooldog60]

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.

[devastator2110]

cool awesome train tunnel. In tunnell hill georgia we have an old train tunnel in side of a hill that is obsolete now it is a park sort of you can tour it for about $3.00 i think is the admission fee but the caretakers took out the old tracks and have a concrete walkway with motion lights inside it . the tunnel is 1056 feet long there is an active train track right next to it and a covered bridge on the approach to the tunnel it is part of the civil war history in georgia.

[trainlover479]

ok i have to say that the PRR was never known as the P. C. R. R. it mainly was known as the P.R.R.

[meliketrolleys]

Thanks for a very interesting video - very interesting part of the world.

[storrey0423]

Witches Tunnel! Went there once in the late 1980's...it was super creepy. Rumors always said it was haunted.

[Dosalt]

wouldn't anyone like to walk through that tunnel, why not. very interesting.

[metalbynumber]

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.

[chris40539]

the tunnel was dillengers tunnel

[chris40539]

i know about another tunnel it was used for train rides in 2008 pulled by readling 203 and 202

[bobbyhill789]

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

[taz81872002]

my family owned a farm just down the road when i was young we used to call this place witches tunnel.

[BigUnitBeef]

Old Panhandle line?

[Brenda2OOO]

This is cool. I love the STG website.

[goff8128]

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

[PantherP74]

I visited this tunnel about a month ago and was amazed I didn't know about it sooner. Thanks for the video!

[YourMom62401]

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.

[jafnjlk]

@YourMom62401 When I walked through it, there were no water problems...that was before Eidemiller decided to use the tunnel as a throughway while he strip mined the south side of the tunnel, back in the seventies...also before the air duct(which I have pictures of) was filled in.

[YourMom62401]

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.

[PantherP74]

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.

[mpvids]

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.

[arrowguy173]

Nice find! The Moonville tunnel along the old B&O in southeastern Ohio is one of my favorites.

[ta455driver]

Interesting video..

[Marta7350]

Wow, what a fascinating old place! Those lucky folks in that housing edition. If I lived there and knew it, I'd be walking down there a lot when the weather was nice. Thanks for a great vid!

[Gavsta10]

Too dangerous you will need to restore the tunnel before anyone can go in it. It could cave in any minute.

[bluehairspaz]

i grew up in that area and that is nicknamed witches tunnel.

[elkerb]

@bluehairspaz yup its called witches tunnel. I live 1-2 minutes from it.

[mlavender480]

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...

[theqman1956]

Thanks--I did already and took pictures!

[PRR5503]

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

[theqman1956]

yeah--carney area--we took some pics--thanks

[mattersfact2]

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.

[jeremyfrantz]

@mattersfact2 ahh, witch's tunnel.. I actually drove through it in a suzuki samurai once in the 90's..

[PRR5503]

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

[theqman1956]

Good info thank you for the updates!

[PRR5503]

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

[SuperSlipman1]

IMAGINE if there were a train sitting in there

[howardkevinm]

why does it always take so long for the right of ways to become taken ovr by overgrowth?

[Landaux]

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?

[theqman1956]

Tracks pulled 1968-69 according to the viewer above

[Landaux]

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. :-)

[flyingbrix]

No houses have been built directly above the tunnel, but a low traffic neighborhood road does run perpendicularly across the tunnel.

[pyedubois]

Yes, Witches Tunnel is what I knew it as too.

[skinscrazy1]

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

[chuckeieio]

Great! Thanks for adding the story!  You rock! 6 stars!! No wait... Just 5. sorry. :)

[myoldreteacher]

This is exactly what You Tube should be used for... Original, interesting, inspiring and informative content. Thanks for sharing!

[perspex2000]

I used to ride through and play in the tunnel when I was little. Also used to be able to drive through it too. Now someones yard is in the way!

[Matanjun1970]

Run Fast Buddy.

[gocartowner24]

Nice I might try to look around over there sometime.

[conrailer]

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.

[bskatell]

Went through that on my racing Quad when I was a kid. We used to call it "witches tunnel" It was creepy!

[bbo40]

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......

[Foam219]

I have family right in that area, and have never thought to go back in there and wander around. I will now do that.

[CinntiSurf]

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.

[Breakfastchief]

Awesome!

[mlavender480]

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!!!

[jmantra623]

What road is this off of, I am trying find it on Google earth and I am not having much luck

[theqman1956]

Laurelview Dr off Donahue Rd

[poorringo]

I'm familiar with that area myself and I've never seen or heard about it. Thanks, informative video.

[xxxDeath9572xxx]

wow interesting nice catch with this old tunnel!