Cascade Tunnel Operations (HD) 

A friend of mine and I hopped a freight train in the town of Skykomish on the west side and hitched a ride to Wenatchee. We jumped on to an empty car about 25 cars behind the engines as there were quite a few others in the cars closest to the engines and we found out the hard way why they were so close to the engines. The fumes were so strong that we had to take our t-shirts off and soak them in water from a canteen and breathe through them. I think it took about 20 minutes or so to go through the tunnel but it seemed like much longer because we thought we would die before we got to the other end. I was very sick after we emerged from that tunnel. The second time I hopped the fright, a year later, I got aboard a car much closer to the engine. Oh, our t-shirts were brown where we were breathing through them! Oh, it was apple picking season and that's why we were going east to Wenatchee and this was in Sept. 1974.

About the doors from wikipedia: as a train enters the west portal of the tunnel, a red-and-white-checkered door closes on the east portal and huge fans blow in cool air through a second portal to help the diesel engines. As long as the train is within the tunnel, the fans work with reduced power to avoid pressure problems. When the train is approximately halfway through the tunnel, the door opens in earnest. Once the train has cleared the tunnel, the door closes again and the fans operate for 20 to 30 minutes with maximum power to clear the tunnel of exhaust before the next train passes through. In the opposite direction, the door opens when the train is within 0.6 miles (1 km).

1:30 That was Amtrak 130 before it got repainted into phase 2 to replace Amtrak 66.

Pretty interesting the challenges made by having the technology to build a nearly 8 mile long tunnel! Thanks for this. Has anyone but me watched this all the way through? Is that the measure of a true train fan? 😜 I work on a steam tourist operation and things just take time working on the railroad, you just can't rush it, so I am used to waiting around for something to happen but being ready to move immediately!

I've drive past (over!) that so many times and didn't know that was the east end of the tunnel. Thanks!

Interesting video! Nice trains and scenery! Good work! Thumbs Up Greetings from Romania Andrew

I'm not sure I believe the stuff in the introduction about diesel being able to pull freight trains through a tunnel more efficiently that electric (I'll given them steam though). There are literally dozens of rail tunnels in the world ranging down from the 57km (35 mile) Gotthard Base Tunnel, and they are, as far as I can tell without exception, operated by electric traction which vastly reduces the need for kludges like 800hp fans to clear out the fumes. Surely the real reason for diesel traction isn't it's inherent superiority, but because of the (understandable) lack of long distance electrified lines in the USA. It's simply not viable to use electric traction as that would mean electrifying the whole line (or using electric/diesel hybrids just for a short section). Electrification was apparently used for a while, but for a relatively small part of the system it wasn't cost effective. Hence this is a bit of a kludge brought about be the fact that the US long distance railway system is dominated by diesel.

I wonder why the 50ft warning when the door is closed. EDIT : Looks like I got my answer; it's a safety precaution so that people don't get blasted with debris from the insanely powerful fans. Not forgetting the noise they make too.

What's the wind pressure inside the tunnel when it's ventilating? Is the door one solid metal plate or multiple? Why do you have to stand back from the gate 50 feet?

Awesome. The least dusty place in the whole state!

Why do they leave one fan on while Eastbound trains are passing inside the tunnel?

What do they do in a derailment ??

It's too bad they cant make an observation deck like the one they have at the spiral tunnel in south east British Columbia

Wouldn't the tunnel ventilate better without a door.....open at both ends for cross ventilation?

a question because the tunnel closes, that is, because there is a door that closes?

Cool video 👍 nice work

If somebody stood there while that door was closing would they be squashed ? On the Queen Mary a steel bulk head water tight door was closing and young cabin boy tried to squeeze thru but he got crushed!

Two questions. Do you think there are any cutthroat trout in the creek and what is the speed limit through the 7.8 mile long tunnel. Interesting video and quite an engineering feat. Thank you.

As an European, i didn't understand at first. Than disaster, someone's story of half died at the end and the lack of an power line got me finally. The fumes, they using diesel trains and I thought, why they don't have by us such doors. But why such a system? Why no ventilation system like as in an car tunnel? Should do the same, or is it not enough?

Those grain cars are very likely going to the Tacoma grain elevator with corn being the most likely cargo, or maybe soy beans. Local 23 I.L.W.U. west coast longshoremen will unload them.

I like train videos videos on RU-vid 👍

Nice video, going to get one of the other side?

Is Steve Larson still alive?

I'm surprised they didn't run a chimney Wouldn't be hard run a vacuum in there

Is there a need for a door?

5:07 I thought it was a train

The doors there to help clear exhaust?

WHATS THAT STRUCTURE TO THE LEFT MADE OF GIRDERS?

And nobody shows the other end... ever.

What is that engine noise that comes on when the door to the tunnel is closed? Is that a ventilation system?

Hello where is cascade tunnel

CLICKBAIT, THIS IS THE EXHAUST PORT FOR ROSIE O'DONNELLS BATHROOM

Paint the doors Vantablack

I expected a tunnel that includes some huge elevators lifting or lowering the train to the next level. That is a cascade tunnel. That Cascade Tunnel is just another large tunnel. No special effects. No cascade for trains. What a bummer.

thought this was europe

I wonder if any animals or birds go into the tunnel when the door is open?

I've never heard of a tunnel with a door before, how odd. o.o

I have a question, why do they close the doors? ( I imagine there is another one on the other side)

Wow bnsf pulling Amtrak.

So, diesel locomotives burn up more oxygen that steam locomotives doing the same amount of work?

Exactly what is that loud noise

I have a question. A two parter. Do the crew in the cab of the first locomotive, smell exhaust from their own locomotive as they pass in the tunnel? And second, can passengers who are in passenger trains, smell the exhaust from their own locomotives?

Why don’t more tunnels have doors on them like that???

why the door? there has to be a reason behind it .

Так так так. Русскоязычные эксперты расскажите почему его закрывают, и что они там скрывают??

been in the cascades tunnel many times on the empire builder. gives me a kind of weird feeling under so many feet of mountain.it's amazing how this tunnel was built with the technology at the time.

Imagine walking in the tunnel and seeing it close behind you

There was a part of me waiting for Wile E. Coyote to show up and paint that door to make it look like the tunnel was open.

Kinda insane that the problem of fumes was already solved - there used to be overhead electic wires to power locomotives. But they chose to tear those out and replace them with this ventilation system, and run diesels through instead

I took an Amtrak ride from Cleveland, Ohio to Edmunds, Washington, for only one reason, because ever since I learned about Cascade Tunnel I wanted to go through it. So I took that long trip just to go through the tunnel. Also I timed it how long it took us to go through the tunnel, it was 15 minutes and about 20 seconds at 30 mph. Added bonus of the trip was going through the 7.1 mile long Flathead Tunnel in Montana, that one took us a little over 8 minutes to go through at 50 mph.

When we’re working in that tunnel, we’ll have the dispatcher run the fan at 50% to keep the air flowing and blow out the diesel smoke, the air towards the center is stagnant and no air flow.

Super cool vid - I've hiked a bit in the area but never seen the eastern portal personally. Your comment about trespassing got me curious and I pulled the property ownership info from the Chelan County Assessors map. It looks like if folks stay on the access road they should be fine, (basically north of the powerlines) but BNSF does own all the rest of the property south of the road continuing on both sides of hwy 2...

Thank you for zooming in on most of the signs. More good info.

Am i the only one that thinks that the sound of the fans running almost sounds like an air raid siren? Edit: 73 likes!?

Wow that looked like a close fit for the double stacks. Thanks for sharing this!

Greetings from England. I'm loving some of these American Railway videos all over RU-vid. This door and ventilation system is an amazing piece of engineering and I have never seen anything like it. Is this type of system used anywhere else in the US?

I was very intrigued with your introduction about how the ventilation system for the Cascade Tunnel came to be. But when I read the last part I was kinda disappointed. For guys like you and I who like engineering stuff it's sad that it's become so difficult to admire them. Guys like you who have the time and resources to go to these places and document them is great for guys like me who don't but get to admire them from afar as it where when you make your video available for public viewing. I understand that security is tight because we live in such paranoid times. But when security is too tight, it becomes difficult to document them. And that's too bad. I do understand why though. I would like to go there to admire the engineering but also to do some fishing! That looks like a good spot. Thanks for posting the this video.

At the 5:00 minute mark, door closes, fans ramp up. Is it exhausting or intaking area at that moment at that end of the tunnel? Great video. We went through this tunnel on our way via AmTrak from Chicago to Seattle a few years ago.

The Wellington Disaster is a tragedy worthy of a movie. It was on the opposite side of the canyon. You can still see the remnants of the track for a number of miles hanging off the cliff.

I am surprised at the small size of the fans in use there. The Link stations use much larger fans (and more volume).

Amazing how you can see the smoke clear in matter of seconds from the door closing from 7:50

If you put a ladder in the river and film from there, your untouchable.

Railway property is usually from 1 to 1.5 times the length of one locomotive from the nearest rail. So just stand way back about 70 to 100 feet from the rails themselves and usually, that means you are well off of railroad property. Sometimes they do own additional 'yard property' nearby, so that might be a problem too.

that has to be the scariest tunnel i’ve ever seen

I have been through that tunnel a few times and I go by the tunnel like 4 times a year !

Thank you for this. 👍👍👍👍👍👍 Been there myself and loved it. Found your video because I wanted to be reminded if my experience there. I'm going back sometime.

Steve Larson, how loud is the sound of the turbines in person?

The major rail terminals in NYC are all fed by underground tunnels, and the trains that go in and out of them must be electrically powered. But at times, in the passenger area of Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station,l, I have smelled diesel exhaust - when I reported it to a railroad employee, he said that once in a while a train has to be pushed or pulled into the station by an auxiliary engine, which might be diesel. (And this is probably related to the main tunnel under the Hudson River, which is ridiculously in need of repair after nearly 100 years of operation.)

A remarkable feat of railroad engineering

Why was that BNSF locomotive pulling an entire Amtrak train at 1:23?

I hopped a freight train in the eighties and went through this tunnel. It was the first time in my life I was in complete total darkness.

It's strange what YT will send one's way, but ironically I found it interesting. Kept thinking of the old 30's cliff hangers when the door to the secret tunnel opens and closes.😃

Just when you thought the fan couldn't make anymore noise.....it dose! Wouldn't want to be near either end when running.

Another Amtrak loco insufficiency day. Since they already depend on the freights for the rest of their infrastructure, they might as well just have them provide power and power crewing, also.

That's unique to have a road right above the portal. I wonder if the sewer connects with the drainage. And the Door shutting. Nice video.

What I'd also like to see is what they get in those filters when they clean them, I suppose that big structure too the Left is where it's carted out and loaded on a railcar.

Why dose the tunnle close after a train goes through it? What’s the facility next to it? I have so many questions

Holy crap, nice catch of 7795 with H3 on the front and H2 on the sides!!!

Hi Chris, the best way to remove the diesel exhaust is to create a “positive pressure “ within the tunnel. The way to do that in this application is to turn of the fans at the clean end of the tunnel, a low the exhaust out of the other end. However, you can’t have both ends open to do this, because you will not develop enough pressure in the tunnel to evacuate all the exhaust. Big opening to suck in clean air, small discharge to exhaust, at a higher pressure.

The feeling of seeing Amtrack being towed by BNSF

So when did they replace the vertical lift door with the horizontal sliding door shown here?

Does this system not suck detritus into the tunnel.? Can anyone recommend a good video of when the line was run with electrical traction please. Hi from GB & thanks for posting.

so electric locomotivs were apparently less efficient than tearing down electric infrastructure, developing, planning, testing and building an entire new ventilation system, then maintaining it and pay for the power it uses... I'm not so sure about that...

@Steve Larson @SteveLarson - Looking for the owner. Pentrex Railroad Videos would like to use your footage. We do, of course, pay for footage. RU-vid will not allow any contact information here, so please reply here and we will figure out how to get in touch.

Great video. Thanks for posting this. Have a nice day.

Yep, this was the fifties--such a different time from today. Back then America and Americans had the self-confidence to believe that they could solve any problem, rather than just sitting and whining and playing with their 'smart' phones. I was born in '55 and certainly wouldn't want to return to that time, but I miss that self-confidence.

Not gonna lie, it’s cool to see a BNSF train lead an Amtrak train

This is why i clearly dont trust myself going in that tunnel... even on cold days...

So interesting - thanks for sharing

1:26 why is there a BNSF locomotive hauling an Amtrak train? What happened to that P-42 behind the BNSF locomotive?

Looks like they took elons hyper loop idea. Pump all the air out and there will be less drag

Why does this tunnel have a red & white chequered closing door 🚪?

so where is the intake for the fans and the exhaust ports how big are the fans?

New Zealand has a similar operation for the Otira Tunnel in the Southern Alps

Owner of this footage. We'd like to license this footage. Look under your discussion tab for our email.

A tunnel that has a closing door? Never heard of that

4:40 holy shit, what a sound! *AWOOOOOOO!!!* ...but the one at 7:50 is even better. *ALAAAAAARM!!* 😁 ANd the blowers take quite long to wind down.

The freight train didn't appear to have a tail light.

Why would a BNSF locomotive be pulling an AMTRAK train? Particularly since the train already had an AMTRAK engine?

So in other words “this tunnel sucks😂😅”