Hoosac Tunnel - Rare Footage - Electrics at the Tunnel (Motors, Locomotives, Engines)

[@cats0182]

Crewman on the electric at 0:11 waving to the camera. Priceless.

[@Utubin]

I love these locomotive real classics. Thank you to folks who filmed preserved and now uploaded for us to enjoy in modern era. I love it. Thanks so much.

[@Imrfilms]

Thank you! I'm glad you found this footage and enjoyed it!

[@eletourneau9424]

The electric engines were powered by 25 cycle current from the old Deerfield No. 5 station. A few miles up river from the tunnel. That station had 25 cycle and 60 cycle rotors on the same shaft. there were three horizontal hydro units. Originally the station was owned and built by the rail road and the power company and went into operation in 1913. -- In the 1965 blackout it was the first station to come back on line and powered up North Adams and Bennington, until the larger steam plants needed to power up their auxiliaries so they could start generating. -- The station was lost to history when Bear Swamp was built.

[@Imrfilms]

Thanks for all the great info!

[@ShizSmitty]

I never knew there was elecrtrics used through the Hossac. Thanks for posting!

[@tomp8871]

passengers could breathe lol

[@tomp8871]

Truly amazing what they all did back in the day.

[@labrd41]

Great old film and with sound too.

[@Aleiria13]

👍🏽🥰This was back when it was still twin-track’s running through the tunnel, can You imagine sitting next to a window as You rolled-through back then??🥺 Those wall’s would be pretty darn CLOSE!

[@WhyAyeMann]

those tunnel motors look suspicously like New Haven EF-1s

[@Imrfilms]

I think they probably are! I know that Charles Mellen (President of the New Haven line at that time) is the one who brought electrification to the tunnel!

[@WhyAyeMann]

@@Imrfilms Doesn't surprise me!

[@JamesSmith-fi8lj]

Excellent video...Thanks for posting...Oh, to be able to go back to those glorious days of the Boston and Maine, if only for a week or two!!!

[@BERXJoe]

Absolutely incredible! Thank you for sharing this footage! The next time I visit Hoosac Tunnel it will be fascinating to be standing there and think of this video-that first steam engine was huge! And @1:47-those electrics could really move along. Having seen this, I have an even greater appreciation for the tunnel and that particular period of time in railroad history. I have the DVD of the Hoosac Tunnel documentary you made and the laminated Hoosac Tunnel fact sheet (I met you at the Big E train show). Even after watching it a hundred times, I never get tired of it. To anyone who hasn't seen the video-its a must. It's one thing to grab a camera and state facts you can read online-but IMR put in a lot of time and hard work-and it shows. IMR created something really special that I find extremely valuable. If only IMR could have produced all the lame history videos I had to watch in high school, I might have actually stayed awake.

[@Imrfilms]

+Joe Thank you! I'm glad you liked it!

[@lucinda1857]

Joe don't go there.

[@cbalducc]

The camera was probably under ranked, making the action look faster.

[@Utubin]

You are 100% correct. Great comment!!!!

[@Imrfilms]

You're very welcome! Thanks for watching and the comment.

[@davidfenton607]

gramps worked for the RR and lived just down the road , he was killed in the tunnel as a track walker in 1940 being crushed by a train passing thru , wonder if he is any of these ?

[@Aleiria13]

Probably a good thing I don’t live close-bye, because I might be killed in the tunnel as a trespassing track-walker.

[@peterbenson3776]

Fascinating

[@ZAV1944]

cab forward locomotives would have been a possible solution for the smoke, at least on freight trains.

[@Colraine]

Still, they are called general Electric Electric LOCOMOTIVES even if you like it or not. Even if symantics would dictate otherwise. take it up with GE.

[@billrobbins5874]

Awesome footage. Much appreciated. 👍

[@Imrfilms]

Thank you!

[@cats0182]

Interesting off-center headlights on the motors.

[@elizabethhjenkins6172]

Fantastic . Thanks.

[@SpeakerPolice]

I guess they added the sound later, onto the silent film?

[@Rebel9668]

Whoever did it did a fair job, but the sound of the steam locomotives, even idling being pulled is missing as well as wheel flange squeal and other sounds one would associate with a moving train.

[@GP9railfan]

Wow! Great footage! Thanks for posting this.

[@Colraine]

If you want to be specific... Box Cab Electric Locomotives... Is that precise enough for you!

[@bljennison]

As the captions state, these are "motors," not engines. As railway historians, we of all people should not be careless in our use of terminology.

[@ispepski]

Very cool. Thanks for posting!

[@admiralbenbow5083]

0.44 Looks like it was `bring your pet to work` day.

[@bruno68berretta53]

👏👏👏

[@Colraine]

Loco" can also mean in palce of, or in lieu of. To place something". my favorite is "Motive" is to "cause". So, that being said my Latin scholar it means to "cause motion" i like spanish Spanish which means "CRAZY MOTION".

[@ThomasWLalor]

We know from context what means "loco"

[@ArtStoneUS]

When a steam locomotive isn't pulling the train, isn't it still putting out carbon monoxide?

[@Imrfilms]

Yes, definitely to a degree. A big reason they did this was also to cut back on the thickness of the smoke inside the tunnel. The locos were still "burning", just not as severely as they were without the electrics. Thanks for the comment!

[@richardp.nathhorst9317]

So these electric "motors" were made by Westinghouse Baldwin and not General Electric even with General Electric's large corporate presence in Massachusetts. There is a photo of one of them wrecked on another site. It is a shame that the B&M did no consider electrification on the whole Fitchburg line. I wonder if the calculations were done on the economics of electrification? I also wonder how the level of air pollution present in the tunnel even today is tolerated.

[@fordson51]

I still wonder why railroads just did not go full electric rather than waste the time with stopping to couple the electrics on at stations.

[@Imrfilms]

I'm not sure, but would guess that it all came/comes down to how much it would cost to install catenary wires/poles etc. and maintain it all.

[@ArtStoneUS]

The United States has a lot of oil and coal. Adding in the extra step of generating electricity reduces the efficiency of the energy contained in the fossil fuels. In places like the Pennsylvania Railroad Northeast corridor, they had access to hydroelectric power. Most of the country does not.

[@bradbrazil6628]

Where do depressed trains run? THROUGH PROZAC TUNNEL!! Yuk,yuk, yuk!!

[@ThomasWLalor]

The term "Mexican" refers to a pistol. The term "Brazilian" refers to a hairless cunt.

[@Utubin]

That's a good one Curly. yuk yuk yuk.

[@interstellarphred]

If we could get Ex-Milwaukee Road GE bipolars, we could have Ozzy Osbourne do the narrative.