User:NoAmGeogSoc/Sandbox28

Cumbre Tunnel was the summit tunnel on the Ferrocarril Nor-Oeste de México(Mexico North-Western Railway), a railroad in Chihuahua, Mexico.

(Need the mountain range where the Cumbre tunnel is) (Need the initial construction date and length of the tunnel) (Need the Lat.long. location of the north and south entrances to the tunnel)

(Check all the following with Frederick Katz book)

In February 1914 in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Madre in Chihuahua, during the extremely turbulent period of the Mexican Revolution and following a battle near El Valle, Chihuahua (present day _________) a group of Mexican bandits were being pursued by troops of Pancho Villa. On the [use initials of railroad] just north of the Cumbre Tunnel, the bandits surprised and captured two freight trains. One freight train was used to carry the bandits south beyond the tunnel toward Madura, Chihuahua, but the other train was placed in the tunnel and wrecked to form an obstruction to prevent further pursuit of the fleeing bandits.

The following is from the Wikipedia article "Maximo Castillo" "the tragedy at Cumbre Tunnel. On February 4, 1914, a gang of bandits had deliberately caused a passenger train to plow into empty freight cars that had been detained and set on fire in the Cumbre railway tunnel in Chihuahua. Upwards of fifty-five people, including over twenty Americans, died in the conflagration. The United States government interrogated Castillo but was unable to connect him to the tragedy. Pancho Villa, at this time strongly opposed to Castillo and his radical reforms, threatened to murder Castillo if he was released. Villa's wife, Luz Corral y Villa, however, who had once been befriended by Castillo, denied his guilt. In an interview, she stated that, "I cannot believe that that man with the gentle face and smiling eyes could have committed such a crime." [7] Modern historians agree that Castillo was innocent.[8]"

Thereafter a passenger train going south toward Maduro (?sp) on the {XXRR} carrying upwards of 55 crew and passengers, 20 of which were American citizens, entered the tunnel and collided with the freight train, causing an explosion and/or fire, which caused the death of all the passenger trains passengers and crew.

A replacement tunnel had to be constructed east of the former tunnel.