RICHMOND, Va. β It's been 100 years since the collapse of the Church Hill train tunnel in Richmond, and several events are planned to commemorate the anniversary.
Among them is a ceremony at the Richmond Railroad Museum at 10 a.m. on Thursday.
Museum Committee Chair George Saunders said the hour-long service will pay tribute to the four men who died in the collapse and to honor the efforts of those who attempted to rescue the victims in the immediate aftermath.
What Happened
Saunders said the Church Hill tunnel was built in 1873 by the C&O Railroad Company to move coal from Kentucky to the shipyards in Hampton Roads where it would travel to Europe.
But an economic slowdown meant the tunnel fell into disrepair and was not used. When the economy surged back in the 1920s, the company started work to rebuild the tunnel for use.
"And that's what they were doing on the 2nd of October 1925," said Saunders.
A locomotive with ten flat cars was in the tunnel along with work crews when a section near the western entrance of the nearly 4,000 foot tunnel collapsed.
"They found that some of the lateral supports had been removed," added Saunders. "We don't know why or who took them out, but some of the lateral supports had been taken out. Therefore, the collapse really was not so much from the top, but from the sides coming in."
Most of the men in the tunnel were able to escape by crawling underneath the rail cars and got out through the eastern entrance.
This included the train's fireman (the person who shoveled coals into locomotive's engine in order to propel it), Benjamin Mosby.
However, he was so badly burned by steam coming out of the train's ruptured boiler that he died later that same day.
The train's engineer, Thomas Mason, was killed in the collapse. Crews were able to recover his body.
However, they were unable to find the bodies of two missing workers -- Richard Lewis and H. Smith.
"By the 5th of October, the tunnel was filling with poison gas," said Saunders. "But, the poison gas made it very difficult to look but they went down there for the next 21 days trying to find those guys."
By 1926 the tunnel had been filled and sealed for safety -- serving as their and the train's final resting place.
Attempts to reopen the tunnel have been discussed, but never acted on.
Saunders says the soil of the hill over top of the tunnel is too soft and unstable.
"It's been unstable for 200 years, probably, or more. It probably was never a good idea to put a tunnel in under the ground where it was so unstable. In fact, when the collapse happened, the houses that on Church Hill sunk down a little bit, so they weren't plumb anymore," he said.
As for the tragedy's lasting legacy, Saunders said it should be about the importance of smart urban planning as the city was under pressure to build the tunnel in the 1870s in order to help with city growth, but did not balance the desire for a train service with the topographical realities of where it was built.
"I think what we could learn from it is to be much, much more careful about what the ground is where you're building and consider the risk to the employees who are going down there," he said.
Other Events
Along with the museum's service there are several other events taking place over the next few days to mark the 100th anniversary.
The Haunts of Richmond Ghost Tour company will host walking tours on October 2 and 3 between 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. Tours will start at Richbrau Brewing and will leave every 20-30 minutes. The tour is expected to last between 45-50 minutes.
Richbrau will also host an event on Saturday, October 4 that will feature talks about the tunnel collapse and the Richmond vampire, plus the launch of its Entombed DIPA.
Then on Sunday, October 5, The Valentine will host a bus tour about Richmond's rail history, including stops at the Church Hill Tunnel and the Richmond Railroad Museum. Advanced tickets are required. The tour will last between 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
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