June 1989

East End of Tunnel 1

This is the east end of tunnel 1 at Hampton looking back towards Johnson City. It's slightly curved and comes out at the Doe River where the railroad crossed the river on a large, 3 span, wooden covered deck bridge. This end of the tunnel is very tall at the mouth but shortens down to about half the height about 50 feet inside. The smoke stains on the ceiling are very evident. There is some speculation that this started out as a standard gauge tunnel and was finished as a narrow gauge one. Don't know if that's true or not, I speculate that the entrance had to be enlarged because of structural issues with the rock face around the portal. That's John Barden in the way....errr...lending scale to the photo.