Tunnel of the Fredericksburg & Northern Railway

Gillespie County citizens raised $200,000 in subscriptions, and R. A. Love agreed to build the line, hiring Foster Crane to construct it. The 23.5 miles from Fredericksburg Junction to Fredericksburg were finished on November 1, 1913. Short of money, Love gave his note for $134,070. The 920-foot tunnel was one of six railroad tunnels built in Texas and the only one then in use. The road never paid its way: it was in receivership from October 1914 and sold under foreclosure at the end of 1917.

What the plaque says

Tunnel of the Fredericksburg & Northern Railway In 1913 area residents raised money to build a railroad linking Fredericksburg to San Antonio. The 920-foot tunnel beneath this hill increased the cost by $134,000 and required five months of hard labor. It opened a faster trade route for area merchants and farmers. Each time passenger trains entered the tunnel, small rocks, loosened by engine exhaust, were removed from the track and the windows closed to keep out coal smoke. The railroad operated until 1942 when the trackage was sold for scrap. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Tunnel State Park — steps away
  A railroad tunnel abandoned in 1942 that now shelters up to three million Mexican free-tailed bats, who fly out each evening from May through October.
• Luckenbach — 6.6 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.
• Fort Martin Scott — 10 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• Treue der Union Monument — 11 mi
  An 1866 German-language monument in Comfort over the graves of Hill Country Unionists killed at the Nueces in 1862, its flag of thirty-six stars kept at half-staff.

More markers nearby

• Ferdinand Hohenberger Farmstead — 1.8 mi
• Jakob (Jacob) Brodbeck — 6.1 mi
• Engel Family — 6.7 mi
• The Pinta Trail — 8.6 mi