Howard Street Tunnel (Baltimore, Maryland)

 tunnel, railway tunnel

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CSX freight trains enter the tunnel at this point, emerging at the north end of the city at Mount Royal Station. The 7,340-foot-long single track tunnel is the country’s longest soft-earth tunnel. Built in the 1890s, train operations began in 1895 with electric traction. The tunnel is not cleared for double-stack equipment.

The tunnel connects Cincinnati, Chicago and the southeast with Philadelphia, New York and New England. It is a critical link in the CSX rail network serving 25-40 daily freight rail trains, many a mile long.

On July 18, 2001, a major fire occurred in the tunnel when part of a 60-car CSXT
freight train derailed. The major source of the fire was the 52nd car, a tank car loaded with tripropylene. The fire ignited adjacent cars loaded with paper, pulpwood, and plywood. A break in a 40-inch water main almost directly above the derailment
hampered emergency response efforts. A subsequent inspection found no significant structural damage to the tunnel, allowing train traffic to resume. The first freight train passed through the tunnel on July 24.