Sunday, February 10, 2019

West Portal of Alpine Tunnel by drone

When my family visited the Alpine Tunnel this summer, I rented a drone hoping to get great aerial footage of the west and east portals.  I ran out of time on the west side and, due to my inexperience with drones, was too afraid to fly too high on the east (You can see that footage here).

Lo and behold, I found someone who did what I wanted to do at west portal.  He flies his drone super high!  It's so high that at one point you can even see the eastern approach.  It is stunning footage.  I don't know who David Moore is.  This video simply came up in a Facebook search for the Alpine Tunnel.  I wish his video was on Youtube, but I could only find it here on Facebook.

Below are some screenshots from his video:

Here is the right-of-way looking west (west portal out of sight to the bottom of the photo) with the turntable to the right.

Here is the cut leading to the west portal, indicated by the large round gash in the mountainside.  The construction trail over the pass can be seen to the right.

Another shot looking west.  Alpine Tunnel station complex is in the center of the photo with the remains of the engine house to the left of the grade and the telegraph office to the right.

Even higher than the previous photo, the grade can be seen veering to the left to head west.

Tunnel Lake can be seen just a little above the center of the photo. 


The west portal and the turntable.

Moore flew his drone high enough over the pass that one can see the grade on the east side.  It can be seen just to the right of and below the clump of trees in the center left of the photo.  This is near Atlantic siding.  The east portal, if I'm correct, would be behind the trees in the left of the photo.

1 comment:

Albyn said...

Amazing footage - thank you both very much.
Unlikely to justify the expence of visiting myself even if the altitude didn't stop me from walking up on either side.
Albyn Austin, Cardiff, UK.