The rugged landscape between St. Paul and Coeburn proved to be a tough engineering project for the railroad back around 1900. Looks like a few ideas were thrown out how to get thru this area, but grades proved to be too much, So 5 tunnels were blasted thru the mountains west of St. Paul to get the railroad out of the Russell Creek Valley, thru the Dwina Hollow, into the Bull Run Valley, and out into the Tom's Creek Valley. All this allowed the Interstate Railroad to access the rich coal fields west/north of Coeburn. The railroad gains 556 feet in elevation in 10 miles. That's an average grade of 1%, but grades do top out at 1.7%.
Here we have a loaded coal train out of Andover creeping slowly thru the Little Bull Tunnel. The train is fighting hard to hold back the train on the steep 1.7% grade. Right behind me is the Big Bull Tunnel. Little Bull Tunnel is on a 10 degree curve and 327 feet long. A 3 unit manned helper set will tag along all the way to Bluefield. This train is bound for Clover, VA.
Photo: accessed by private property with permission.
