Hits Tunnel

Louisville Herald-December 5, 1923

Jackson, Kentucky, December 4

A quartet-mile section of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company's track tonight is buried under tons of earth and rocks to a depth of thirty feet, the south portion of a tunnel is caved in and Eastern Kentucky is cut off from railroad communication with the outside world as the result of a hugh landslide between Athol and Tallega, in Lee County, at a point eight miles from here in the direction of Lexington.

The mountain slide is said to be one of the worst in the history of Kentucky. Huge boulders and tons of earth block the path of hundreds of workers and two steam shovels on either side are tugging at the tons of earth and rock day and night in an attempt to clear the right of way and open the only railroad outlet to Eastern Kentucky and the southeastern coal fields. One of the boulders resting on the track is fully as large as a two-story house and the workers already have used thirty cases of dynamite in attempting to move it or break it into bits small enough to be moved by men and steam shovel.

Immediately following the landslide, every available team and man in Jackson, was called to help move passengers, mail and perishable freight from one train to another on each side of the slide. This worked for a few hours, but after the teams with their heavy loads churned up the mountainside, travel soon was impossible through the mud. Now sturdy negroes and white men are packing the mail and passengers over the mountain and around the slide to connect with the trains on either side. The work, at best, though is slow and tonight every available room or sleeping space in Jackson is occupied, for many prefer to wait for daylight rather than take the trip over the mountain in the darkness.

A disastrous coincidence would have occurred had the train which passes along the scene of the landslide been a few minutes earlier. The L. and N. train which runs from Lexington down through the southeastern coal fields to McRoberts narrowly missed being swept to destruction by the slide, as it occurred a few minutes before it arrived and was flagged down at Tallega after the slide had been discovered by a track walker.

Two years ago, at this very spot the night train was turned over by a landslide of less proportions than the present one, killing the engineer and injuring the fireman and a few passengers. Had the present slide struck a train, however, it is probable all would have perished.

Railroad officials expressed the opinion tonight that it might take until Saturday to clear the right of way enough to permit the passing of a train without danger of another slide. In coming down the mountain, the tons of rocks and earth tore down the south end of the tunnel at that place, known as "mud tunnel." This fact will make it more difficult to clear the way as the runnel must be braced after the track is cleared. Jackson presents the aspects of a boom town tonight as scores of workers hurry to and from the scene of the landslide and freight trains hurry through town carrying implements or workers who are tugging away at the huge boulders and tons of earth. Two steam shovels are working incessantly tonight by the glare of hugh lights, and crews of men are shoveling and tugging at the rocks.

Workers Mired at Landslide

Louisville Herald December 6, 1923

Jackson, Kentucky, December 5

Constant rains which have been pouring down on workers and machinery laboring to clear the L. and N. tracks at Tallega of the landslide which Monday night cut Eastern Kentucky off from railroad communications with the balance of the state, have added to the troubles of those in charge of the work. As fast as the huge steam shovels clear the way, new but smaller slides fill them up.

There is little chance for resumption of normal railroad schedules over the track before Saturday. The "cut" at this point is about one mile long and the forty to fifty-foot bank on each side of the excavation is filled nearly to the top with stone and earth that came sliding down the mountainside. This not only must be removed, but men and machinery must keep at it until new slides ceased to fill in the gap.

W. M. Bailey, L. and N. representative here, on returning from the scene tonight, said the work had hardly started when the volume of earth and rocks yet to be removed is considered and that one hugh rock, about the size of the railroad station here, was still on the tracks, resisting all efforts of men and dynamite.

Every siding for miles this side of the slide is filled with coal cars from the southeastern fields waiting clearance of right of way. Passengers, perishable freight, and mail still are going around the slide from train to train, but the task is becoming more difficult because of the heavy rains and mud they must traverse in the mile detour.

A slide that occurred at this same place two years ago resulted in the death of engineer Howard Lancaster, of Lexington. Lancaster, unaware of the slide, ran his train into it. The impact turned it over and he was scalded to death.

A similar fate was spared the train from Jackson to Lexington that came along fifty minutes after the present landslide by the warning signal of a track walker, or tunnel watcher employed by the L. and N. This train came up from McRoberts, was due in Jackson at 9 o'clock and in Lexington at 2 o'clock in the morning. The slide occurred about 8:30.