Quitaque Railway Tunnel - Quitaque, TX
Posted by: 
WalksfarTX
N 34° 14.475 W 101° 07.392
14S E 304466 N 3790944
742-foot-long tunnel on the abandoned Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Line carried both passengers and freight. It is now on the Caprock Canyon Trail owned by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept.
Waymark Code: WMZT1M
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 12/31/2018
Views: 2
The tunnel can be reached by hiking the Quitaque Canyon Trail. This area is one of the most picturesque and interesting throughout the entire trailway due in part to Clarity Tunnel at mile marker 12. Suggested Parking Area: N 34° 17.967 W 101° 05.836
NRHP Nomination Form
"The Quitaque Railway Tunnel, located in lower Quitaque Creek Canyon, was blasted and drilled through a jutting finger of the Caprock Escarpment more than 50 feet below the earth's surface. The tunnel is considered unusual due to the fact that it was bored almost 500 feet straight through sandstone. The construction crews included Irish and Swedish immigrants whose drilling and blasting of the sandstone produced mounds of rubble which were carried away in small mining cars pulled by mules. Most tunnels of this type were considered major engineering projects even when constructed through normal earthen terrain.
In 1927 the Fort Worth and Denver Railroad decided to build a branch line from Estelline to Lubbock, Texas for the shipment of agricultural products. A year later a tunnel was blasted and bored through a rugged portion of the Caprock Escarpment to make way for the coming railroad.
In 1930 the railway line and the tunnel were completed and put into use. A second tunnel, located approximately one-half mile upstream and west of the original underpass, collapsed in 1968 after a derailment occurred inside the structure."