The Hoosac Tunnel (also called Hoosic or Hoosick Tunnel) is a active

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

tunnel A tunnel is an underground or undersea passageway. It is dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, or laid under water, and is usually completely enclosed except for the two portals common at each end, though there may be access and ve ...

in western

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

that passes through the

Hoosac Range The Hoosac Range is a mountain range that forms the western edge of the northwest Berkshire Plateau of western Massachusetts, an extension of the southern Green Mountains of Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England reg ...

, an extension of

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

Green Mountains The Green Mountains are a mountain range in the U.S. state of Vermont and are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains. The range runs primarily south to north and extends approximately from the border with Massachusetts to the border with Que ...

. It runs in a straight line from its east portal, along the

Deerfield River Deerfield River is a river that runs for from southern Vermont through northwestern Massachusetts to the Connecticut River. The Deerfield River was historically influential in the settlement of western Franklin County, Massachusetts, and its ...

in the town of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, to its west portal, in the city of North Adams. Work began in 1851 under an estimated cost of $2 million and ended in 1875, having used $21 million. At its completion, the tunnel was the world's second-longest, after the Mont Cenis Tunnel through the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...

. It was the longest tunnel in North America until the 1916 completion of the

Connaught Tunnel The Connaught Tunnel is in southeastern British Columbia, on the Revelstoke, British Columbia, Revelstoke–Donald, British Columbia, Donald segment. The tunnel carries the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) main line under Mount Macdonald in ...

under Rogers Pass in

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. It remains the longest active transportation tunnel east of the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

, and is the sixth-longest railroad tunnel in North America. The

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

made the tunnel an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1975. "Hoosac" is an Algonquian word meaning "place of stones".

Construction

Proposal and beginning

The tunnel project was originally proposed in 1819 as a

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...

to connect

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region of New York (state), New York that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area of downstate New York. Upstate includes the middle and upper Hudson Valley, ...

via the Deerfield River on the east of the

and the

Hoosic River The Hoosic River, also known as the Hoosac, the Hoosick (primarily in New York) and the Hoosuck (mostly archaic), is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed October 3, 2011 tr ...

on the west. That project was shelved, and later reborn as part of the new Troy and Greenfield Railroad. The project was nicknamed "The Great Bore" by its critics, including future

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Justice

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, U.S. Supreme Cou ...

, who said that he would like to "wall up a dozen lawyers at one end of the tunnel and put a good fee at the other." The most important proponent of the northern route and the Hoosac Tunnel was Alvah Crocker, a self-made paper mill owner from

Fitchburg, Massachusetts Fitchburg is a city in northern Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The third-largest city in the county, its population was 41,946 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Fitchburg State University is located here. History ...

. The project, which was promoted by Crocker but mostly organized and engineered by others, notably

Herman Haupt Herman Haupt (March 26, 1817 – December 14, 1905) was an American civil engineer and railroad construction engineer and executive. As an honorary Union Army General officer, General during the American Civil War, he revolutionized U.S. milita ...

in the early stages, and several other firms under contract, under the direction of several head engineers assigned by the state of Massachusetts, which took over the project after it initially failed and went bankrupt. In 1841, Crocker formed the

Fitchburg Railroad The Fitchburg Railroad is a former railroad company, which built a railroad line across northern Massachusetts, United States, leading to and through the Hoosac Tunnel. The Fitchburg was leased to the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The main l ...

(chartered 1842, opened 1845) between Boston and Fitchburg. In 1844, Crocker incorporated the existing Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad, which ran from Fitchburg west to Greenfield, as well as northward (from Millers Falls) to

Brattleboro, Vermont Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a New England town, town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located about north of the Massachusetts state line at the confluence of Vermont's West River (Vermont), West River and the Connec ...

. In 1848, Crocker secured from the legislature a charter for the Troy & Greenfield Railroad (T & G), with provisions for a tunnel through Hoosac Mountain. The first chief engineer of the tunnel project was A.F. Edwards. In 1854, the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

provided $2,000,000 in credit to Edward Wellman Serrell and Company, which began work in 1855. In 1856,

took over as chief engineer. The Western Railroad, led by Chester W. Chapin, which ran a southern route through Springfield and Pittsfield, opposed the Hoosac Tunnel and its northern route through the state. It successfully lobbied to block state funding of the tunnel in 1861, which bankrupted Haupt and temporarily stopped the project. Haupt had excavated , or about a fifth of the distance, at that point. He left and became a Union Army railroad engineer and general in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Completion

In 1862, the Troy and Greenfield Railroad defaulted on its loan from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which foreclosed on the mortgage and took control of the railroad, including the tunnel project. The state sent engineer Charles Storrow to Europe to study modern tunneling techniques, including the use of

nitroglycerin Nitroglycerin (NG) (alternative spelling nitroglycerine), also known as trinitroglycerol (TNG), nitro, glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), or 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane, is a dense, colorless or pale yellow, oily, explosive liquid most commonly produced by ...

and compressed air. In 1863 the state, with Alvah Crocker now superintendent of railroads, restarted the project and made Thomas Doane the chief engineer. In 1868, the Massachusetts state legislature appropriated $5 million to complete the project. Canadian engineer Walter Shanly (sometimes spelled Shanley) and his brother Francis took over the project from the state and remained through the completion of the tunnel boring. Among the consulting engineers at the time was

Benjamin Henry Latrobe II Benjamin Henry Latrobe II (December 19, 1806 – October 19, 1878) was an American civil engineer best known for pioneering railway bridges, notably the Thomas Viaduct, and serving as chief engineer for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His innova ...

, a noted civil engineer who was serving as the chief engineer of the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

. The final chief engineer was Bernard N. Farren, who took over on November 19, 1874, and on Thanksgiving Day that year, the last of rock was removed beneath the town of North Adams. Farren completed the work, including enlarging sections of the tunnel, reinforcing weak areas with arching, completing drainage systems and completing the east tunnel facade. The first train passed through the tunnel on February 9, 1875.

Technology

The tunnel construction project required excavation of of rock. On March 16, 1853, "Wilson's Patented Stone-Cutting Machine" (a

tunnel boring machine A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a "mole" or a "worm", is a machine used to excavate tunnels. TBMs are an alternative to drilling and blasting methods and "hand mining", allowing more rapid excavation through hard rock, wet or dry so ...

) was used; it failed after excavating of rock. Tunnel builders resorted to hand digging, and later used th
Burleigh Drilling-machine
one of the first pneumatic drills. Construction also featured the first large-scale commercial use of nitroglycerin and electric blasting caps and the first such use in the United States. Digging the Central Shaft also allowed workers to open two additional faces to excavate: once the shaft was completed in 1870, workers dug outwards from the center to meet the tunnels being dug from the east and west portals. Engineers built a

elevator An elevator (American English) or lift (Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive traction cables and counterweight systems suc ...

to hoist the excavated rock from the Central Shaft. One of the many engineering challenges posed by the project was getting the proper alignment between the four tunnel segments that were being dug: the east and west portal tunnels and the two tunnels dug outward from the central shaft. Engineers cleared a path through the forest over the mountain and strung a straight line from the east to west portals through "sighting posts" on the east and west peaks of Hoosac Mountain. In 1866, Thomas Doane took over as chief engineer. He resurveyed the alignment of the tunnel by constructing six towers. The alignment towers served to make sure the tunnel stayed true to its course. Grooved iron markers were originally used instead of these towers. Each tower, except the Rowe Neck tower, consisted of a transit scope, a sloped wooden roof on the top of the stone structure. Repeated surveys verified the line ran true between the posts, and steel bolts were installed at fixed intervals along the line. Only four of the towers remain today, in ruins, and can be found by using old roads and some bushwhacking through the current forest overgrowth. On December 12, 1872, workers opened the east portal tunnel to the Central Shaft-dug tunnel, which were aligned within : a tremendous engineering achievement at that time. On November 27, 1873, the remainder of the tunnel was opened to the west portal tunnel. The Hoosac Tunnel allowed the summit of the Fitchburg's route to be lower than the Boston and Albany, which only had one short tunnel. Lewis Cuyler of the Hoosac Tunnel Museum Society described the project as the "fountainhead of modern tunnel technology". The

made the tunnel an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1975.

and working conditions

Deadly accidents during construction killed or seriously injured 195 workers with 135 verified deaths. Survivors dubbed the Tunnel the "Bloody Pit". Workers died from explosions, falling rock, and accidents involving ladders or scaffolding. In 1865, workers went on strike and burned buildings in protest. Fourteen men died or were injured working on the tunnel in 1866. The deadliest accident was the explosion in the Central Shaft on October 17, 1867. Workers were digging the tunnel's vertical exhaust shaft when a candle in the hoist building ignited

naphtha Naphtha (, recorded as less common or nonstandard in all dictionaries: ) is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture. Generally, it is a fraction of crude oil, but it can also be produced from natural-gas condensates, petroleum distillates, and ...

fumes that had leaked from a "Gasometer" lamp. The ensuing explosion set the hoist on fire, and it collapsed into the shaft. Four men near the top of the shaft escaped, but 13 men working below were trapped by falling naphtha and pieces of iron. The pumps were also destroyed, and the shaft began to fill with water. A worker named Mallory was lowered into the shaft by a rope the next day; he was overcome by fumes and reported no survivors, and no further rescue attempts were made. Several months later, workers reached the shaft's bottom and found that several victims had survived long enough to fashion a raft before suffocating.

Operations

The Troy and Boston Railroad (T&B) and its Southern Vermont Railroad and Troy and Greenfield Railroad opened in 1859 from

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

, on the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected New York metropolitan area, gr ...

and

Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

, east to North Adams at the west portal of the tunnel. The 1863 state buyout of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad opened the way for competition through the tunnel. The Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Railway (BHT&W) was organized in 1877 to build from near the

–

border, where state ownership ended, parallel to the Troy and Boston Railroad to near

Johnsonville, New York Johnsonville is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet located in the towns of Pittstown, New York, Pittstown and Schaghticoke, New York, Schaghticoke in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It was named for its settler, William Johnson. History ...

and then west via

Schenectady Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...

to Rotterdam Junction on what became the New York, West Shore, and Buffalo Railway in 1883. The line was being planned as a part of the Delaware and Hudson Company's system (D&H) and as part of the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Northeastern United States, originally connecting Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, with Lake Erie at Dunkirk, New York. The railroad expanded west to Chicago following its 1865 ...

system via the Delaware and Hudson Company's Albany and Susquehanna Railroad. East of Greenfield, the east end of state ownership, the BHT&W would have built its own line to terminal facilities at Winthrop. The first train passed through the tunnel on February 9, 1875. Regular service via the tunnel between

and

began the following year. The tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad were bought by the

in 1877, which year is inscribed on the East Portal entrance arch. The

Boston and Maine Railroad The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...

bought the Fitchburg Railroad in 1900. Competition between the two companies caused various court challenges to be made. In late 1878, the T&B attempted to evict the BHT&W from the roadbed of the abandoned Albany Northern Railroad between Hart's Falls and Eagle Bridge. The BHT&W lost that case, but continued to use the right-of-way. The case lasted until late 1881, when it was overturned. In May, 1879, a

frog war A frog war occurs when one private railway company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities between the two railways. It is named after the frog, the piece of track that allows the two tracks to join or cross and ...

(a conflict between two railroads when one trues to have its tracks cross the other's) was feared at Hoosick Junction, where the BHT&W was to cross the T&B's Troy and Bennington Railroad. In July,

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

, who owned the

New York Central and Hudson River Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

, acquired a controlling interest in the T&B, threatening to build a branch to

Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over ...

unless the BHT&W/D&H alliance was ended. In November, an appellate court ruled that the application to cross the Troy and Bennington was improperly made to the Troy and Boston, and the T&B claimed that the improvements, including a stone bridge, were forfeit. The first train ran over the full BHT&W to Mechanicville on December 6, 1879, and revenue service began December 20, with general offices at North Adams. In 1881, the BHT&W was being planned as part of a larger system west to Oswego and Buffalo. The line was not built, but the BHT&W opened an extension west to Rotterdam Junction on the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway. The

took over the NYWS&B in 1885, and in 1887 the

bought both the T&B and the BHT&W, as well at the Troy and Greenfield Railroad, including the tunnel, ending the rivalry. In 1910, the tunnel was electrified with the goal of reducing smoke and increasing the speed of traffic. Three years later, traffic within the tunnel was so heavy, at 70,000 cars a month, that the power plant in Adams, with its 6000 kW generator, could not keep up. Power was then drawn from a nearby dam north of the eastern entrance. In 1926, of the western end of the tunnel were deepened by . Electrification ended in the tunnel in 1946 with the advent of diesel locomotives, and a fan was installed in the Central Shaft to remove Diesel exhaust fumes. Today, the Central Shaft system remains in place; however, ventilation relies on a single fan operating on low power due to the low number of trains on the line. The last regularly-scheduled Boston and Maine Railroad passenger train, the ''Minute Man,'' passed through the tunnel in 1958. In 2009, ownership of the tunnel was transferred to Pan Am Southern, a 50-50 joint venture of

Pan Am Railways Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR) is a subsidiary of CSX Corporation that operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. Pan Am Railways is primarily made up of former C ...

and

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

. Freight trains through the tunnel are operated by Springfield Terminal Railway, the train-operating subsidiary of Pan Am Railways. The route is used for freight now, and has seen passenger excursion trains on rare occasions. It was converted to a single track in 1957. Clearances were increased in 1997 and 2007, the former by lowering the track, the latter by grinding 15 inches (38 cm) off the roof, allowing trailer on flat car (TOFC) and tri-level automobile carriers to pass. In March 2012, the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

granted $2 million to the

Massachusetts Department of Transportation The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) oversees roads, public transit, aeronautics, and transportation licensing and registration in the US state of Massachusetts. It was created on November 1, 2009, by the 186th Sessio ...

for preliminary engineering to increase clearance in the tunnel for double stack container trains. In 2019, MassDOT, with FRA support, had surveyed the Patriot Corridor, including the Hoosac Tunnel, and identified 19 improvement projects needed for double-stack clearance; MassDOT was preparing needed environmental reviews. On February 12, 2020, the tunnel collapsed about from the West Portal. More collapses occurred in the following days. While crews repaired the tunnel, freight traffic was diverted over the New England Central Railroad and Vermont Railway, and Intermodal traffic was diverted via CSX during the closure. The tunnel reopened on April 4, 2020. In 2023, about five freight trains use the tunnel each day.

CSX acquisition of Pan Am Railways

On November 30, 2020, an agreement was announced for

CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merge ...

(parent company for

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

) to acquire Pan Am Systems. With the sale, the intermodal traffic between Mechanicville and Ayer will be re-routed over the B&A to

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

. From there the traffic will come up the Worcester main and into Ayer Yard. On April 14, 2022, The Surface Transportation Board fully accepted the purchase by CSX Transportation of Pan Am Railways and 50% of Pan Am Southern. The combination of several

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may c ...

agreements in the approved plan will create a new route allowing Norfolk Southern to move double-stack intermodal trains and automobile trains from

Voorheesville, New York Voorheesville is a village within the town of New Scotland in Albany County, New York, United States. It is a suburb of Albany and part of the city's historic metropolitan area. The population was 2,841 at the 2020 census. The village is name ...

Ayer, Massachusetts Ayer ( ) is a New England town, town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. Originally part of Groton, Massachusetts, Groton, it was incorporated February 14, 1871, and became a major commercial railroad junction. The town was home t ...

(the Southern Route). The Hoosac Tunnel on the Pan Am Southern (the Northern Route), used by NS prior to this agreement, is too low for double-stack trains. Berkshire & Eastern Railroad (B&E), a wholly owned subsidiary of

Genesee & Wyoming Genesee & Wyoming Inc. (G&W) is an American short line railroad holding company, that owns or maintains an interest in 122 railroads in the United States, Canada, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland, and the United Kingdom; and formerly in Australia. ...

(G&W), will replace Springfield Terminal as the operator of Pan Am Southern and the tunnel. CSX made specific commitments in its filings and entered into settlement agreements with numerous parties that had initially raised concerns about the transaction.

Notes

References

* * *Hampson, Rick. "Tunnel a Wonder of the 19th Century", ''

Chicago Daily Herald The ''Daily Herald'' is a daily newspaper based in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The newspaper is distributed in the northern, northwestern and western suburbs of Chicago. It is the namesake of the Daily Herald Media Group, a ...

'' (August 24, 1980) p. 42 * *"The Story of the Hoosac Tunnel", ''

Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 ...

'', (March 1882) *"The Hoosac Tunnel Tragedy", ''The Defiance Democrat'' (Ohio) (November 16, 1867) p. 1 *"Fighting for Eastern Traffic", ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' (January 2, 1879) p. 5 *"Railroad Rioting Feared", ''

'' (May 25, 1879) p. 1 *"The Hoosac Tunnel Route", ''

'' (July 5, 1879) p. 1 *"Railroad Methods", ''

'' (November 26, 1879) p. 1 *"Railroad Management", ''

'' (December 7, 1879) p. 1 *"First Train Over the Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western", ''

'' (December 21, 1879) p. 2 *"A Great Railroad Project", ''

'' (April 11, 1881) p. 1 *"Boston, Hoosac Tunnel and Western Victory"', ''

'' (October 5, 1881) p. 2

External links

HoosacTunnel.net
- a website dedicated to the Hoosac Tunnel
Hoosac Tunnel information
- from the Catskill Archive
Western Gateway Heritage State Park
{{Fitchburg Railroad Railway tunnels on the National Register of Historic Places Railroad tunnels in Massachusetts Boston and Maine Railroad Railway buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Pan Am Railways Electric railways in Massachusetts Florida, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in North Adams, Massachusetts Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks Transportation buildings and structures in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Tunnels completed in 1875 National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts