Those Strange Railroad Underpass Tunnels in W. Pa where you have to stop Blow your vehicles Horn then carefully proceed

 There are at least 3 very strange Railroad under Pass Tunnels in W. Pa  where you must come to a complete Stop . Blow Your Horn  then carefully proceed But Why?

If you have ever Driven Little Deer Creek or Horning Road in Allegheny County or Been to Bolivar in Westmoreland County  Then you have encountered them. 

Strange  low under passes at hard angles going under railroad tracks.


Like here at Little Deer Creek Road in Russelton .

The answer comes down to the Chicken and the Egg and who came first.

In this case the road was there first but it was just a dirt path and the railroad took priority so it did 

not have to have a hard curve in its tracks . Railroads where much more important than roads in late 1800's

Little Deer Creek road was never expected to become the busy paved  road it has become over the years 

So you have this bottle neck and if your a truck driver you know just what a pain it is having to detour around these bottle necks .

Especially in Bolivar since it is an official state route  Pa 259 which goes from US22 to US 30  and a short cut taken by many .


As you can see the road is tight against the river and not much room to make a proper underpass. and the cost to fix this is too high to justify the costs

Now as some railroads have disappeared and turned into rails to trails bike ways the old underpasses have been ripped out and traffic able to flow properly like when the Montour Railroad went out of business .

But there are still plenty of bottle necks out there in rural Pa. to explore 


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