Michigan Central Railway Tunnel
The Michigan Central Railway Tunnel ( also Detroit River Tunnel ) is a rail tunnel under the Detroit River. The two -tube tunnel is 2557 meters long and connects the cities of Detroit, USA and Windsor in Canada. It was opened on 26 July 1910.
History
North of Lake St. Clair operation since 1891, the Grand Trunk Railway to St. Clair Tunnel, the first permanent rail link between Michigan and Canada. The railway companies south of Lake Saint Clair were opposed to rely on less effective railway ferries. The connection across the Detroit River was part of the transport route from the Midwest to the Northeast and Eastern Canada by the Michigan Central Railroad. 1875 were carried approximately 174,000 freight cars until 1909, the Fähraufkommen rose to 735 753 vehicles. It took three to eight hours to carry a freight train across the river. Ten ferries were constantly in use. In the winter the freezing resulting in an interruption of the traffic. 1872 took the Michigan Central and the Canadian Great Western Railway a first attempt to build a tunnel. However, the marl clay in the riverbed posed an insurmountable obstacle, so that in 1876 the construction work had to be stopped. In the following years, plans were repeatedly prepared for the construction of a bridge, but always discarded.
1904 mandated the Michigan Central and the Grand Trunk Railway a design for a high bridge. The experiences of the Electric traction of the New York Central Railroad (parent company of Central Michigan ) to Grand Central Terminal was also the construction of a tunnel back into the focal point. It has therefore commissioned a feasibility study. The Commission recommended the construction of a 2.5 km long electrified double-track tunnel.
On August 15, 1905, the subsidiary Detroit River Tunnel Company was founded, which began with the construction of the tunnel in October 1906. In the supervision established by the Michigan Central was among other things, William J. Wilgus, who was responsible for the concept of Grand Central Terminal in New York. For the construction of underwater tunnels four concepts were compared. In three of the variants prefabricated tunnel sections should be laid in a trench, which is then backfilled. The fourth proposal included the tunnel production in the shield tunneling. However, this was not feasible due to the low coverage and the expected water ingress. A higher coverage would have meant a greater slope inside the tunnel. Finally, they decided on a variant with pre- tunnels.
The running underwater tunnel segments are made of steel and include two separate tubes. They were mostly 80 meters long, were dragged to the right place river and sunk into a pre- excavated trench in the riverbed. The sections were connected and the cavities poured around the tubes with concrete in order to fix them on the river bottom. The tunnel segments covered you then with gravel and boulders. This first applied form of tunneling was later also used in other projects.
The construction of the tunnel was completed in 1909. The expansion lasted until July 1, 1910. Because of the tunnel, the company built on both sides of new marshalling yards, a new railway station in Windsor and opened in 1913, and now abandoned Michigan Central Station. On 26 July 1910, the tunnel was opened. The official freight began on 15 September 1910 and the passenger a month later.
The tunnel was a 650 -volt power rail. The electrified line between Windsor and Detroit was 7.24 km. Overall, around 48 kilometers of track were fitted to a power rail. The locomotive workshop was on the American side. In Detroit, a substation was built. The two 2000 - kW motor - generator units converted to three-phase alternating current supplied by the Edison Company at 60 Hz and 4400 volts into 650 volts DC. As a reserve in case of failure of the supply line was a battery with 2520 amperes. Thus, the operation could be maintained for 30 minutes. Furthermore, five pumps and lighting were operated electrically. In 1925 the service was extended to 2000 kW 2 x.
For operation admission were six locomotives of the later series R-1 available. The mechanical part has been supplied by the American Locomotive Company and the electrical part of General Electric. 1914 and 1926 was followed by four two additional locomotives that were slightly heavier. In the 1950s, still has the former New York Central locomotives of Class R-2 were used.
Trains on the Windsor - Detroit relation were generally from 1800 to 1900 tons and in the opposite direction due to the lower slope of 2270 tons. The passage through the tunnel lasted 6 minutes. Two locomotives went on Zuganfang and another at the end of the train.
The electric train has been set in 1953. The traction switch to diesel locomotives made the electrical island operation unnecessary.
In 1906 the Michigan Central Railroad had leased the tunnel company for 999 years. The operation in the tunnel and on the adjacent sections was carried out by the also leased by the Michigan Central Canada Southern Railway ( CASO ). 1930 was leased for 99 years the Michigan Central by the New York Central Railroad. About the Penn Central reached the tunnel 1976 Conrail. 1985 Conrail sold the tunnel and the Canada Southern half each to the Canadian railway companies Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. Meanwhile, the tunnel is majority owned by Borealis Transportation Infrastructure Trust, which all share of Canadian National bought in 2004 and 2009 to 16.5 %, the shares of Canadian Pacific. Track usage rights have the CN, CP, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern.
In 1994, the tunnel was slightly enlarged to accommodate larger freight cars can. However, his gauge is still too low, so Hi -level freight cars, as can two-storey container trucks pass. There are therefore plans to convert the tunnel to truck traffic and instead to build a larger rail tunnel. Each year about 350,000 freight cars pass through the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel.