2000+01 Cascade Tunnel East Portal

In May of 2000 and May 2001 I recorded the tunnel door operation on the east portal of the Cascade Tunnel in North Central Washington State. The first video has a westbound entering the tunnel and within 5 minutes a strobe light flashes and buzzer sounds, the newer metal partitioned door closes and the turbines wind up to evacuate the tunnel of the engines exhaust.

The second video was shot the next year, same scenario, however this time I did not get the door closing as the battery died on the camera. After a quick charge, I managed to get the other roll-up door opening and the turbines shutting down.

Be sure to add &fmt=18 to the end of the address to watch in high quality as the compression kills the older NTSC 8mm video quality!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Cascade
• Tunnel
• BNSF
• door
• turbine
• air
• longest
• Berne
• Train
• Railway
• Tag

[moonwalker5058]

What is that sound after the tunnel has been shut?

[mrksvideos]

That is the twin (?) turbine fan blades spinning up and then running at full speed. The door provides a pressure barrier to the compressed air from the turbines so the exhaust can be blown (pushed) from east to west and clear out the tunnel.

[Nigel16032009]

This tunnel must surely be a bottleneck. How many trains pass through in an hour?

[bond1011]

7.8 miles long? damn...

[lordbemylight]

They have to blow their horn first before they enter/exit the tunnel.

[moonwalker5058]

Those turbines do make a great sound!

[truckinman86]

West to east. the fans act as the tunnels "vacuum"

[videocreatorgr]

What's the direction of the air the 2 fans blow? The air moves from the East to West side or from the West to the East side? Somebody explain me, I don't understand.

[southparkline1]

How many tunnels in the US have a fan system like this. I can think of one other and that is the Moffat Tunnel.

[kentuckyjim06]

If you think its creepy wait till u ride through it. Its slow all u smell is brake pads & exhaust you cant see anything except for the occasional small light about every mile all you here is squeeeeeeeeeeeeek its warm not hot just warm. im glad i had the chance i was on my way to seattle no it wasnt am-trak an no i didnt have permission from bnsf