Cental Pacific Railroad's "Tunnel Zero" near Clipper Gap/Applegate, CA




This is the east entrance (exit?) of the C.P.R.R.'s Tunnel Zero at mile marker 132.69 (Oakland is zero), near the Clipper Gap/Applgate area in California.
It was built in 1873, and later abandoned for an around the hill cut instead.
This tunnel is interesting, as it is horseshoe shaped. You can still see the soot overhead inside.
From the CPRR.org website:
Tunnel #0 – Driven in 1873 as part of the line change to eliminate Deep Gulch trestle. This tunnel is East of Clipper Gap, abandoned in 1942. It is horse-shoe shaped, lined with granite from the Rocklin quarries. Following its abandonment, it was used for a while as a growing garden for mushrooms, however that venture was not successful financially. West of the tunnel face 100 yards was found a rail chair in 2002, as well as several original construction spikes.

Another CPRR tunnel page: http://cprr.org/Museum/Tunnels.html

A local "Goofy take" on the tunnel: http://www.ruralmysteries.com/tunnelzero.shtml

Why did I do this? Curiosity mostly. I thought it would be cool to see such an old tunnel.
To get there, I parked my car along Applegate road next to where the westbound (now U.P.) tracks cross the road adjacent to Merry Ln., and hiked west about 1 to 1 1/4 miles in along the tracks.
There are a number of other tunnels along here for the eastbound trains, all have stones dated 1909.