Locomotive 231

Update 11/20/2022 - This video went private more than a year ago due to changes at KZbin. It's now back and posted public. The tunnel entrances have long since been covered so it's amazing to have it documented here.
Update 05/30/2021 - Wow. I posted this almost a decade ago as a place to keep a project my classmates and I worked very hard on. It's wonderful seeing the interest and feedback.
IN 1925. . . AN UNSTEADY EARTH GAVE WAY TO A TRAGEDY THAT HAS SINCE BEEN BURIED FOR DECADES. THE CHURCH HILL TUNNEL IS A STORY OF EXCITEMENT. . . RUIN . . . AND FEAR THAT CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE OF A CITY. . . AND ENTOMBED LOCOMOTIVE 231 AND TWO LABORERS INSIDE THE TUNNEL. . . THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN BUILT.
STUDENT DOCUMENTARY WCVE VCU MASS COMM 2011

[@richardfoster9499]

We have the skills and the equipment to go in there and dig it out.

[@christopherstimpson6540]

With all that water and mud, I would guess the train rusted to dust by now.

[@vikkimilam9752]

Thomas Joseph Mason was my great grandfather, the engineer that they were able to retrieve from the engine cab.

[@markmiller7529]

I really want to go inside there and explore the tunnel, ill volunteer

[@robertkeeton2149]

Even if you could get in you cant go anywhere it's full of sand and water and mud. I tried

[@markmiller7529]

@@robertkeeton2149 yea that sucks

[@78FullSizeBronco]

If there's anything left of the locomotive at all, it's probably mostly rusted away by now. It's basically buried in a marsh.

[@Thepilot-yj6mw]

And the boiler exploded

[@dre4011]

The Western Portal is pretty much "off limits" now too being that the old Richmond Cold Storage building has been renovated into apartments now...unless you feel like parking on Cedar St. and walking down either side of the arch...I remember clocking-out @ Village Exxon just past midnight Summer of '06 when I was 24...and grabbing a sub from Aladdin's and driving up to the hill and sitting in my GTI and watching them work

[@anasiacameronelijahedcpndc4324]

They should use a metal detector and some locating devices so they can find and dig up and lift C&O #231 out of the tunnel. and they will cosmetically restore it for the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland with a sign saying, this engine was buried in the Church Hill tunnel for 100 years and has now dug and cosmetically restored and displayed here.

[@Thepilot-yj6mw]

Getting the train out is almost if not fully impossible they would have to break a concrete wall ensure that the tunnel will not collapse and apparently they filled the area where the train was with sand and scrap metal and the train boulder exploded so the train is little more than rubble after the boiler explosion.

[@THEJOBANDTV]

Great short documentary. Cool soundtrack!

[@kernalva2484]

I visited the tunnel and it was completely boarded off

[@froggy41u]

Very well done. Is this part of a longer documentary?

[@TheCrocfiles]

I was planning to introduce this story to youtube. It's one of my favorite untold stories. Damn you...great documentary though.

[@dre4011]

There's more people that know about it than you think.....

[@felandowaller7181]

My brother brother told me stories about this thing around 25 years ago and I believed him then didn't...Then we visited it and kept hearing voices and train sounds and nothing was there it will pick up and then as we walk away hear the voices and train sounds and we would run..!!

[@howdoiputthecheeseintheove8437]

Pssh, digging out the train Just make a replica of it inside of a replica of the time before the tunnel collapsed

[@checkyoursix5623]

I didn't hear whether you were talking at the 17th St. end, or the Fulton end, of the tunnel. I'd guess 17th St.

[@Jess078925]

Yes. It’s where the cold storage lofts apartment is now

[@danellawrence4201]

I went there yesterday

[@lennoxpurinton9059]

*very sad story

[@Jess078925]

@YellowSkunk I have no idea. I'll try to fix it. Thanks for letting me know !

[@Jcus10iscool]

If the engine is not that far in then why don’t they recover it?

[@rvalyfe7780]

Did the railroad compensate the families for their loss?

[@vikkimilam9752]

they did not compensate my great grandmother. I do not know if they did others

[@secretagentviper8382]

@@vikkimilam9752 can I ask why? Is it a technical thing or race issue

[@Stoker58]

They'd best get it out the longer it sits the more it deteriorates.

[@howdoiputthecheeseintheove8437]

Didn't you hear, if they tried to get the train out, more of the tunnel will collapse. So it's impossible to get them and the train out unfortunately

[@slumpdogyt]

if they really wanted it, we could get it out.

[@howdoiputthecheeseintheove8437]

Slumpdog Been tried before, hasen't succeeded or have been given no permission to dig through the tunnel

[@slumpdogyt]

There gonna have to work on that tunnel eventually, as that goes under the city/church hill into parts of the city and it may collapse if they don't do anything, there are already reports of buildings sinking above the tunnel on church hill street.

[@cadespencer6320]

@@slumpdogyt if the buildings are already sinking anyway then we should just get the train and bodies out

[@belleislandwitch8749]

I'm creating a movie/web series that includes the train, Belle Island, the ghouls of VCU and the Vampire of Hollywood cemetery. I would love any help you guys could give me.

[@lennoxpurinton9059]

Trey sad story.

[@moonshinegrrl]

So they got the white guy's body out but not the black worker's bodies

[@howdoiputthecheeseintheove8437]

Different times

[@vikkimilam9752]

according to my great grandmother, they did try to get them out, but the tunnel kept collapsing around them and they could get to them. They did not want any more deaths in the tunnel.

[@davebetts9843]

The number of workers in the tunnel was largely unknown, so they focused on what they DID KNOW . They wanted to retrieve everybody possible , but it was too dangerous.

[@Thepilot-yj6mw]

The guy in the engine was easiest to retrieve because they just needed to get to the engine.

[@dre4011]

The east end of the tunnel is COMPLETELY buried now....I went to look for it a year ago...will be 100yrs 10-2-2025....

[@robertkeeton2149]

No it's not, you can still go in the east side almost 100 yards. West side is completely blocked. East side is in a heavily wooded gulley

[@dre4011]

@@robertkeeton2149 ...guess me & my paranoid brother were looking in the wrong spot...

[@dumdum7786]

They should pull that engine out of there

[@mratsfrailfan1894]

dead bodies

[@Thepilot-yj6mw]

It is impossible to retrieve the engine

[@mopac8233]

Whoever can guess the type of engenie 231 was i will like their comment

[@SolidCold]

Mopac 82 i think its a 2 8, 0

[@dre4011]

It's a 4-4-0....

[@natevince3154]

4-4-0

[@anasiacameronelijahedcpndc4324]

It's a 4-4-0

[@Jcus10iscool]

4-4-0