In February 1924, the Moffat Tunnel project advanced with hearty meals, new electric locomotives, and significant progress at both portals.
Moffat Tunnel Construction Happenings from 100 Years Ago
The saying of ‘an army marches on its stomach’ has been attributed to both Napoleon Bonaparte as well as Frederick the Great. The saying is also apt for the conditions on both sides of the Moffat Tunnel. Of the West Portal mess hall, the following description was penned by Viola J. Meair, the local manager of The Oak Creek Times newspaper:
“The mess hall is a large, clean, well lighted building where 10 or 12 men are comfortable seated at each table. It requires 3,000 pieces of china to serve one meal. There are five cooks, seven waiters, three dishwashers, three helpers and three watchmen. Things are done so quickly and efficiently that there is no noise, no loud shouting of orders, no confusion. Each man has his place and a certain amount of things to do and they are done quickly and quietly. Everything is clean and neat. All the dining room employes [sic] wear clean caps and aprons. There are 225 men fed at one time.
“There is a baker, who makes 100 loaves of bread each night. They have a portable 100-loaf capacity oven. There are three kinds of vegetable served at dinner and supper and it takes 10 gallons of each of these for each meal. They use 25 pounds of butter a day. It takes one sack of potatoes for each meal.
“There are two kinds of meat, three vegetables, soup at noon, two or more relishes, two or more kinds of dessert served at each meal, also tea and coffee. For breakfast the men are given their choice of four kinds of breakfast food, two cooked and two ready to serve, and their choice of one kind of fruit. Syrup, honey and preserves are also on the table at all times.
“It takes 20 gallons of coffee to serve each meal. On [sic] hundred and forty pounds of flour is required to do the baking each day. It takes 65 pies to serve one meal. Pie and cake are served at last [sic] once a day.
“For those working on shift each man is given four sandwiches, one kind of fresh fruit, pie and cake in his lunch bucket. A room is provided where they may sit down and eat in comfort. At each lunch time a can of hot coffee, together with milk, sugar, relishes, preserves, catsup, mustard, are taken to this building so each man may fix his sandwiches with the many spreads provided and all the hot coffee or tea he cares for.
“On Sunday we ate dinner with the men and they served roast beef and brown gravy, stewed chicken and the platters were garnished with parsley, peas and pimentoes [sic]. I noticed that parsley and lettuce were much used to garnish the dishes, which makes the meal dainty and attractive. We also were served mashed potatoes, string beans, vermicelli with tomato sause [sic], delicious bread pudding with vanilla sauce and various appetizers to tempt one. I think it must have been worse than the Garden of Eden as far as tempting one to eat apples and other fruit. By the way the fruit served is of the very best. The large delicious apples, large oranges and bananas showed they are not at all stingy with any of it.”
If food is one-half of the equation, the other half is undoubtedly improved machinery. February 1924 saw the electric locomotives finally arrive and immediately put into use. “With the electric locomotives there will be no delay in removing the broken rock, which until now has been taken out on cars pulled by mules, a single car at a time. The loading machinery will multiply the amount of material handled, while an electric motor will pull a long train of dirt cars…. The new equipment received included the remainder of the machinery for providing compressed air, and the number of drilling machines will now be increased as rapidly as room can be made for them at the several headings. Each time a new crossover is completed, two additional headings of the main tunnel will present faces for the drillers, and more men will be given employment.” It was estimated that all machinery will be in place and fully operational March 1st. The first electric locomotive was named “D.H. Moffat” in honor of David Halliday Moffat.
Other equipment arrived as well: it was written that the “hospital is equipped with all the very latest and best, even… an X-ray machine.” Both East and West Portal have X-Ray capabilities.
Viola Meair also relayed a mid-February story about the interesting collateral damage from the use of dynamite at West Portal, “The small tunnel is in about 1,500 feet and the outside opening of the big tunnel was almost ready for the ‘collar.’ The big steam shovel is in position on the track and the frame, etc., was almost ready for the first big blast that will start the outside entrance to the big hole. They told me they would blast soon after noon and notified and notified everybody that when the whistle blew three times to run like the dickens, but being a women [sic] and somewhat curious I wanted to be close so as to see the rocks fly. I looked around for a desirable location. Finally some one asked me what I was hunting for and I told them. But when they showed me rocks as big as an ordinary stove that had setled [sic] thru [sic] the roofs of nearby buildings I began to look for a perch near the hospital but I had to leave for the train before the big event.”
By the end of the slightly longer month (after all, February 1924 was a leap year), the published statistics were:
“At West Portal, the water tunnel has been completed for a distance of 1,700 feet into the mountainside. The railroad tunnel proper has been driven 250 feet, and work is progressing satisfactorily on the enlargement of this bore. At East Portal, the water tunnel has been driven 1,350 feet into the heart of the rockies. The main heading of the railroad tunnel has been driven 306 feet, and the enlargement work is progressing rapidly.” It was also noted that drilling operations at the East Portal have pierced through “rich veins of copper and iron ore.” The materials became property of the Moffat Tunnel Commission.
B. Travis Wright, MPS | Preserve Rollins Pass | February 29, 2024
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