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Bee Rock Homecoming
By: Ron Flanary
July 18, 2006
 | | Ron Flanary |
The residents of my hometown of Appalachia, Virginia always laid claim to having the “world’s shortest railroad tunnel.” None other than Ripley’s Believe It or Not (hardly an authoritative source) had proclaimed 47 foot, 7-inch Bee Rock Tunnel, on the L&N’s Cumberland Valley Division, as holder of that title. Alas, it just wasn’t so. The L&N discovered it had an even shorter tunnel on its Scottsville Branch, out of Gallatin, Tennessee. Westmoreland Tunnel, located in the community of that name, was just 46 feet in length. Sorry, folks, but the record holder was somewhere else—if not in another spot on the globe, at least in Tennessee on another L&N line.
Bee Rock was still a curiosity, though, and besides, it was far more photogenic than the Westmoreland tunnel. The Virginia tunnel was bored through a rock fault in Stone Mountain in 1890, in the water gap formed by the Powell River between Big Stone Gap and Appalachia. This route was L&N’s CV Division then under construction between Corbin, Kentucky and an N&W connection at Norton, Virginia. Further south, near Big Stone Gap, Southern Railway predecessor South Atlantic & Ohio had punched a similar bore through a larger rock fault on the same side of Stone Mountain, and just a mile south of Bee Rock. But the L&N tunnel was the shorter of the two, and apparently Ripley’s syndicated feature felt it might qualify as the “world’s shortest.” But again, there was no attempt to verify this claim.
In 1985, the volunteer members of the Kentucky Railway Museum in Louisville completed restoration of L&N K2A Pacific number 152, a 1905 product of the Rogers Locomotive Works in Patterson, New Jersey. I was aboard the first successful break-in run from KRM’s old site just south of Anchorage to Lexington and back in October 1985. Immediately, I began working with my KRM friends on a long-distance excursion that might bring L&N steam back to my home turf.
The gods of good fortune indeed smiled, and a year later—on October 11, 1986—I was standing in the coal bunker of 152 as she barked upgrade toward Bee Rock. It was an emotional homecoming of sorts, and as we approached, I fired off a few shots looking across the top of the cab. The photo runby about three hours later, as we headed back to Harlan, Kentucky was captured by a host of photographers, but this one was mine alone—a unique view of a genuine L&N steam locomotive steaming toward Appalachia’s major claim to fame in the world of railroading (however bogus it might have been).
Copyright © Ron Flanary. All Rights Reserved.
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User Comments on this Article:
Posted by railrunner01 on July 19, 2006:
Loved the story, great shot. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by Louis Becker on July 19, 2006:
Great shot, great story. Look forward to seeing more articles in the future:-)
Posted by Bart Davis on July 19, 2006:
Very cool. Like to see more like this.
Posted by George Rader on July 19, 2006:
Ronnie, I am proud of you and Appalachia is equaly as proud. Thanks much, you do good work.
George & Judy Rader
Posted by Brock L Kerchner on July 21, 2006:
Awesome New Feature. Ron, I very much enjoy your shots and your book is also a great testament. I picked it up while railfanning the natural tunnel. Thanks for sharing your work.
Posted by Glen Ellyn on July 22, 2006:
that's a hell of a story! I love it! BTW Nice Shot!
Posted by Ray Peacock heartlandrails.com on August 18, 2006:
great shot, great story Ron.
Posted by Don Dopf on February 17, 2007:
Hey Ron! Great article. However, I'm afraid we have your short tunnel beat out here in Idaho. The Idaho Northern route from Nampa to Cascade features a solid rock tunnel measuring 37 feet. The line is now occupied by an excursion. See www.thundermountainline.com for details. Keep up the good work! - Don
Posted by bigspike on May 29, 2007:
Ron, your rail pictures are always interesting and remind us of all the great days of our youth living around the Appalachia Area. Patty and I salute you for your continuing effort to instruct, demonstrate, and enlighten us on the efforts of all the railroads and their employees of the past years. We love to look at the pictures and read the very interesting articles. Thank you for all of your hard work. Without your paintings and photographs, a lot of our personal history would also have been lost. John D. and Patty Collier
Posted by Alex Moss on September 9, 2008:
Very nice article there Ron. Its very fun to be able to work on #152 and this article really helps me understand what it was like back in '85 when they ran.
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