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ARCHIVED - The Kid's Site of Canadian Trains

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Building a Railway

Engineering

Tunnels

Photograph of workers in front of the entrance to the Corey Brothers' tunnel, 1884

Source

Working on the Corey Brothers' tunnel in the Rockies, 1884

Photograph showing tunnel crews working on different levels of the tunnel at the same time

Source

Tunnel crews working on the Corey Brothers' tunnel in the Rockies, 1884

More than 100 men did the dangerous work on the Corey Brothers' tunnel. The tunnel was being worked from both sides at once. The hill was made of gravel on top, next a layer of blue clay and at the bottom, hard rock that needed blasting. Men worked on three levels. The lowest attacked the clay, the men in the middle cleared out the loose gravel, and the gang at the top moved the sand and tree stumps. Rocks falling from the top two levels made working at the bottom the most dangerous place to work.

I Was There

"I worked here myself, and without any exaggeration I can say I never felt safe, for every minute or so would come the cry, 'Look out below!' ... And a heavy stone or rock would come thundering down the slope right among us."

The Western Avernus or Toil and Travel in Further North America, by Morley Roberts.
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1887, p. 76

I Was There

"...In the daytime there was the usual labour, such as drilling holes in the rock to blast it with powder, whose explosion sometimes threw the heavy stones a hundred yards into the torrent of the foaming river. We would dodge behind trees and get into all sheltered places till the shot was fired, then come out again and take away the débris, hammering the larger blocks to pieces and shovelling up the smaller into the carts."

The Western Avernus or Toil and Travel in Further North America, by Morley Roberts.
London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1887, p. 88

Listen to This

Listen to the railway builders' favorite song, "Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill" (running time: 2 min, 39 s)
[RM 5,306 KB] / Source

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