Wray's Hill Tunnel, Road To Coal

Wray's Hill Tunnel led to coal. The county's 1991 inventory of historic engineering and industrial sites dates it to 1874 and says it was bored through Rocky Ridge to gain access to the coal fields in the upper Trough Creek Valley. B. J. McGrann and Company of Lancaster contracted for the project.

It was one of two tunnels on the East Broad Top Railroad. The federal engineering survey of the railroad says the EBT ran several surveys and ultimately made a serious investment in two tunnels to crest grades. The inventory gives Wray's Hill Tunnel, also known as Rocky Ridge Tunnel, a length of approximately a quarter mile and describes it as unlined and single tracked, though the federal survey says the two tunnels were relined with new timbers during the improvements directed by Robert S. Seibert, the railroad's president and general manager, between 1903 and 1913.

The original portals were dressed stone; new ones of concrete were applied in the early 1900s. Doors were installed on the portals to keep winds from blowing through in wintertime, because bitterly cold temperatures produced by strong winds could ice the tracks with water seeping from the walls and ceiling and lead to derailment. In 1948 a pull mechanism was installed on the eastern approach so train crews could operate the doors themselves, with similar devices at the west portal, and the system let the EBT eliminate the attendants who had worked the doors.

Checked 2026-10-30 · County histories and primary sources, read in full

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