| Posted by on November 29, 2013 | |
It is generally thought that the Mount Macdonald tunnel in British Columbia on the Canadian Pacific main line is the longest railway tunnel in the Americas. Built between 1984 and 1988 it is slightly shorter than the Tunnel #4 of the Sargento – Cuajone tunnels in Peru. They are located on the Southern Peru Copper Corporation (SPCC) line and they opened to railroad traffic in November of 1975, i.e. 13 years before the Canadian tunnel. Despite that, perhaps because of lack of publicity about the industrial SPCC railroad’s Cuajone line, it is still claimed that Mount Macdonald tunnel “is the longest railway tunnel in the western hemisphere” (See the Canadian Railway Hall of Fame web site). The SPCC tunnel #4 is 14724 m / 48307 ft / 9.15 miles long. It belongs to a formidable series of 5 successive tunnels - separated by very short open sections – 27km / 16.8 miles long in total.
For more information, refer to RPN pictures 343067, 343135, 343255 etc.
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