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portal fifty-four feet lower. Tunnel Number Two has a similar radius through
an angle of 232 degrees. It is 2,890 feet long and there is an elevation difference
of forty-five feet between the portals.
What a difference those tunnels made! Where four engines had been needed
to haul a normal freight load before, two now did the job. And today it’s
only when they have an exceptionally heavy train of over seventy or eighty
cars that they use three locomotives. If you’re lucky and are travelling on a
two-section train someday maybe you’ll have the eerie pleasure of looking
down from your train at the second section going into the tunnels from which
you’ve just come out.
Not far away... going towards Vancouver, you pass through the Connaught
Tunnel, the longest double track railway tunnel in North America. Five
miles long from portal to portal, the ‘‘hole’’ as the railroaders call it, has
been carved underneath majestic Mount Macdonald. Prior to building
Connaught, the trains had literally to fight its way, zig-zag style, over Rogers
Pass. When this tunnel was built as part of a diversion it shortened the main
line just over four miles; eliminated nearly five miles of snow sheds and
reduced the summit elevation 552 feet. I remember standing in the middle
of this tunnel . . . two and a half miles from either end and thinking that
right above my head there was more than a mile of solid mountain.
They started to gouge this hole in August 1913 and the first train went
through on December 9, 1916. There’s a powerhouse at the west portal which
operates a couple of huge fans which clear the tunnel of smoke and fumes.
Wind velocity reaches hurricane force as it enters the tunnel and fades down
to a gentle twelve mile an hour blow at the other end. I’m told the tunnel is
cleared of smoke inside of a few minutes.
Engineers taking trains through operate on the left hand track instead of
the right to provide a clear view for the engineer.
An oldster, who still works on the line and who helped build the Connaught
Tunnel told me that they started from both ends of the “hole”, and when
they were finished, the tunnel join was only inches out. A remarkable feat
which construction engineers still consider to be a world beater.
Program Notes
The CBC International Service
broadcasts two English-language trans-
missions daily for listeners in the
United Kingdom. A description of
these transmissions for the month of
November appears below.
Detailed information, including times
and frequencies for the various pro-
grams, will be found on the CBC
European Service program chart in-
serled in this issue.
THE NEWS is heard three times daily.
For times see the chart inserted.
SUNDAY COMMENTARY (Sundays).
During November John Marsh begins
a new series of commentaries on
Canadian industrial development.
MIDWEEK COMMENTARY (Wednes-
days). Speakers and journalists
review the highlights of the week’s
news.
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