Going Underground/Trains article

Except for one minor problem. When the East River tunnels were bored they were made too small for the current generation of LIRR high-capacity cars to fit through.

Plan ahead.

I read that article and it makes me think how long it will be that NYC ceases to function because of the mass of population. By the time they get it built and fix all the problems it will be obsolete.  Tunnels will make good A bomb shelters, though.

To be specific, they were designed only as large as needed for the current electric MU cars. I don't think multilevel cars were envisioned when the original 63rd street tunnel, a prefabricated bilevel structure (subway on top, LIRR below) that was built in a shipyard, floated to NYC and sunk into a prepared trench.

---PCJ

This kills me that they only bored them for the current cars.

Hasn't anyone in the RR industry learned anything? When the Milwaukee Road got pulled up through WA state, BN then started kicking itself for not buying and using their line through Snoqualmie Pass, as that tunnel was built extra high, high enough for stack trains, when neither of the other Cascade Pass tunnels were tall enough without a lot of work.

Plenty of other examples of stuff like this through history. I'll never understand why nobody thinks to make a bridge a foot or two wider or a tunnel a foot taller, just in case the trains get bigger someday...

Lee:

The Clinchfield did the same thing in southwestern Virginia, Tennessee and the Carolinas.  Although the railroad was built in 1909-1914 time frame, none of the original tunnels have had to be raised by CSX.  The Clinchfield planned way ahead when their tunnels were bored.

Curt

I remember reading about the 63rd street tunnel (which was pre fab, not bored through the river bed) that it was built to pretty generous specifications, so it may be able to handle the two level trains. I know that on NJ transit, the two level trains aren't that much bigger than the single level cars were, they couldn't be with the trains running off of overhead power, plus the tunnels leading into NYC are pretty small..so I suspect LIRR could run two level trains on this line. 

Hopefully when they did the boring in Manhattan to get the trains to Grand Central, they built them big as well, given they were using modern boring equipment and it wasn't all that long ago they started the project, they hopefully had the vision to make clearance generous. 

They had a tunnel boring machine capable of boring further southward to 34th street, but stopped and sealed it in concrete, rather than extend the tunnel another three blocks. I am thinking of train storage 100 years from now.

Amid all the second-guessing, still a pretty impressive achievement!