For those of you who would like a clean shot of the tunnel, here it is. I shot this I believe in the late 1980s. The last time I was at the museum, the tunnel was filled with freight cars and there was limited or restricted access.
Neat shot. Just to be sure everybody knows, the 2 Barretts tunnels were on the Missouri Pacific, not the Frisco. The SLSF is about a mile south of this location. Ken
Here is view from the air of tunnel. http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v...519707864447&phscl=3.71535229097172&encType=1 And yes this is one of two tunnels. See the history link below. http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/parks/landmarks/Kirkwood-landmark.pdf
More St Louis area tunnel background. There is a ridge running along the southwest corner of the greater St Louis area. The first evidence of the upcoming Ozark Mountains as you continue to travel southwest. This ridge blocked both the Missouri Pacific, and later, the Frisco rail lines as they headed west out of St. Louis. The MoPac, as the Pacific Railroad originally, tunneled through the ridge with the two Barretts tunnels. The west Barretts tunnel is the one on the grounds of the National Museum of Transport. This makes our museum one of the few in the world to have a railroad tunnel in their collection! During WW2, the Barretts tunnels caused unacceptable clearance restrictions, so the MoP took them out of service, relocating their line to a new series of cuts through the ridge on the southeast side of the two Barretts tunnels. Both tunnels still exist. Further on down the MoPac (now UP), there is a much longer tunnel just before the railroad reaches Pacific, MO. That tunnel is still in service. You can see the east portal from I-44 if you look quickly. The Frisco had a similar problem with the ridge blocking them as they built their new line to connect St. Louis with the start of the "Southwest Branch" in Pacific, MO, which ran down through Rolla to Springfield. Prior to this, the Frisco ran over the MoP line to Pacific, then took off on their own. The Frisco also solved the ridge problem by boring a tunnel at Meramec Highlands, just west of the Meramec Highlands/Osage Hills depot. This area is about a mile or so south of the MoP tunnels. As old tunnels usually do, clearance troubles resulted at Meramec Highlands. In the late 1920's the Frisco relocated their line slightly to the southeast, running the track through a new cut in the ridge. I have an article around here somewhere describing the relocation project. The Meramec Highlands tunnel also still exists. Ken
The Barretts Tunnels were constructed by the Pacific Railroad Company during 1851-1853. Originally the Barretts Station tunnels included the east tunnel 1 at 630' long and the west tunnel 2 at 440' long. Both have seen erosion over their 170+ years. Today both bores are a little shorter. The story of their development and history is interesting to read. The Frisco used trackage rights through these tunnels between Pacific and St. Louis until we built our own line between these points. That segment also included a tunnel just a mile to the south at Meramec Highlands. A short but detailed narrative is presented below. Please see the below link to the National Register Of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Barretts Tunnels.pdf Hope this helps. Thanks! Mark
Per Collias, when a wreck or maintenance forced the Frisco to use the Barretts tunnels after the introduction of the 1500s, they had to doublehead with Pacifics east of Pacific because the tunnels wouldn't clear the 1500s' cabs.
