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November 2007:

It has been a while without any new updates or exciting news to post. I don't have much of anything new to post right now. My wife and I are searching northeast Ohio for a house, so that is consuming a lot of our time. There have been several submissions of photos and stories that I will hope to post on this website in the coming months. I am thinking these updates will be added during the winter months of 2008. Until then, I wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas holiday and New Year. Blessings, Ray.

July 25, 2007:

Though I don't have a lot new to post here this month, I did want to let you know that I have received emails regarding the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy group's website. Their website is currently offline and will be until further notice. Their old website can be reached at this link. They are in the process of working on their plans and funding for the abandoned turnpike. What will become of their website is not unknown that this time. I will post a new website location when they get back online at some point in the future. In the meantime, please continue to support the work of the Pike to Bike group, who is assisting in the work for the old turnpike. I have it on a reliable source that Murray and the group who do the tours of the old turnpike do a great job and really give a good tour.

The website now has a new name and URL ... www.rays-hill.com/turnpike is now available as: www.AbandonedTurnpike.com as well as www.AbandonedPATurnpike.com. While the website will continue to function at any of the three addresses, the Abandoned Turnpike references should make it easier to track down and share with others. The new name better implies the purpose and theme of the website. Please share this with your family and friends.

Without a doubt, this has become one of the three most-visited websites on the Internet dedicated to the history and publicity of the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike (the others of course being the Pike to Bike group's website and the other being Adam Prince's Gribblenation website). This is in less than two years and because of the continued help of the website's contributors and researchers. None of this would have been possible without their help! This site has received more than 18,000 hits since going online. And to think, this started as just a minor little hobby for me :)

Until the next time that I have new updates for you ...

Blessings,
Ray :)

July 13, 2007:

I wanted to add a quick message here to let you know that I am still in the process of preparing further updates to the website. However, life has been very hectic for me and my new bride over the past month or so. There probably won't be any updates posted to this website until later in the summer, August probably. I have received two really good emails that contain a lot of information regarding the status of the S.A.C. and the Friends of the Pike to Bike group. There will also be an update on Laurel Hill Tunnel as well. Until I can update the website again -- I wish all visitors and contributors a safe and happy summer.

Blessings,
Ray :)

May 22, 2007:

Best wishes to all visitors to this website between now and July 2007. Thank you for your patronage and contributions. I will continue to receive emails, pictures and articles submitted via email to the webmaster address throughout the next month or two. My wedding is 18 days away and time is ticking down quickly. It is shaping up to be the best day of my life, not to mention the married life that will begin that day.

That's all for now. Oh ... if anyone finds out what happened to the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy website or where to contact them for updates on the abandoned turnpike projects, please email me.

Blessings,
Ray :)

May 5, 2007:

The past month has been good to this website. The webmaster has received about five emails from different people regarding the abandoned turnpike. One came from someone who happened upon the website while searching for another Pennsylvania interest. Another came from someone who is the parent of a one-month old baby who may be on-record as the youngest visitor to Sideling Hill. Two additional emails came from an author who has been very good to this website. This past month, he shared another photo recently taken, as well as information helpful to the site. And finally, another visitor wrote to say what an awesome website we have assembled here. Being the usual humble person I am, I said "thank you" and that this website is the collective product of many peoples' photographs, historic information, and knowledge. I just humbly assemble it in a manner that shares it with the Internet community.

Most likely, this is the final update for a while. My wedding is a month away. Things are coming together with regards to our blessed event. I have not got the "cold feet" yet, but instead I am getting anxious and looking forward to forever with my sweet Holly :)

By all means, if you have stories to share or photographs, please continue to share them. Updates will probably be made again, starting in July.

All my best to you!
Ray :)

April 3, 2007:

I have added what will probably be the last updates for the next couple of months. New pages have been added for the Cove Valley Service Plaza and the western/eastern ends of the abandoned roadway. Two broken and outdated links have been removed.

If anyone out there has photos or links to share, I will continue to receive emails during the next few months, so updates are possible. Thank you for your patronage of this website.

Have a blessed Easter season ... Ray :)

March 28, 2007:

A few new updates ... I got carried away this morning in working on the website, so I decided to add what I have of new and updated content. No information has surfaced yet on the absence of the S.A.C. website.

Updates: recent videos, courtesy of YouTube.com, have been added of the Sideling Hill Tunnel and a September 2003 visit to the western portal of Laurel Hill Tunnel has been posted as well. New photos found publicly on the Internet have been posted regarding the removal of the old turnpike bridges near Breezewood. Corrections to five page titles have been made. Previously, these titles have referenced the wrong tunnel.

March 20, 2007:

I really don't have anything new to update this website with at this time, but I wanted to let everyone know that I have not forgotten about it. Life has been keeping me busy over the past two months. I have been traveling every weekend to a different church as part of the Passion play that I perform in. We're in our 30th season ... Tetelestai 2007.

I probably won't be able to visit the old turnpike until late in the summer this year, as I am getting married in June.

Does anyone out there know what happened to the
Southern Alleghenies Conservancy group's website?

Please update me if you do. I can be reached at the webmaster email address at the bottom of most pages on this website.

January 5, 2007:

Happy New Year! Welcome to Ray's Hill.com. Since the last noticeable update to this website, we have added a few new features. These include a functional search engine to allow you to search the website, as well as some home movies found on the Internet. The home movies include both Ray's Hill and Sideling Hill as they appeared inside and out in 1953 while the Turnpike was still using them. Several other original tunnels (all two-lanes, of course) are also presented in the movie clip. The movie can be found by following this link or by looking under the tunnel information section in the left frame: Home Movies of the Tunnels, 1953

We have been sent and given permission to use some additional photos that visitors to the abandoned tunnels have taken in the past six months. Those will be added to a future album.

All my best to you in 2007 ...
Ray :)

NOTE:

This website uses several font type faces for the Windows XP operating system that not all computers seem to have. Please click on the following and download them to your computer, so that you may be able to properly view all of this website. Download and paste each of these files into your C:\WINDOWS\FONTS folder. That's all you need to do!

Font #1 Font #2 Font #3 Font #4

May 17, 2006:

The website is back online and working again. I needed to restructure the way my website was built at the core level. I use this domain for a variety of things that interest me and many of the pages within each area were sharing unorganized space. This was creating a problem, however, my solution caused more problems. As time allows, I will be verifying each webpage to make sure all content is included. There are still problems with files that did not link-up to a respective webpage during the moving of the contents.

Topic of discussion this week for the Yahoo! group or writing to the webmaster of this site ... have you visited any of the abandoned turnpike recently? I have posted pictures that a visitor to Sideling Hill took on his cell phone back in March.

Take care ... Ray :)

April 16, 2006:

With some revisiting of JavaScript code across the Internet, I was finally able to reproduce a search engine to allow visitors to search Rays-Hill.com, as well as the general Internet from within this website. The results so far have been positive. Feel free to use this search engine. That's about all that is new for this week. With the nice weather and the warming up that is finally occurring, please let me know if you have any stories and photographs of your visits to the trail and the tunnels.

A blessed Easter season or Passover to our Christian and Jewish friends as they celebrate this week.

Welcome to the new website layout!

March 30, 2006:

I have not been working a lot at updating this site since it's big upgrading two weeks ago. There have been a few minor corrections and updates uploaded today. Two people have wrote to me the past two weeks and have pointed out error they noticed. Russell wrote to me to note that the a commonly-seen photo on the Internet that I re-used on this site is NOT an aerial view of Laurel Hill Tunnel's eastern portal but instead an aerial view of Ray's Hill Tunnel, western portal. If you find factual errors or data that is not correct, please feel free to write to us. Your help is always appreciated. As always, the "suggestion box" is available. Please email the webmaster via the links on the lower left panel if you have suggestions or information to share.

New this week: Recent Visitor to the Tunnels
Pictures Most Recently Taken of Sideling Hill Tunnel

March 15, 2006:

Welcome to the new website layout!

The browse around window in the left frame has been completely restructured and is now menu-driven. Links shown in red print are brand-new pages. Grayed-out links are for future expansion and will be added as time allows. Some websites have moved or disappeared since they were previously included on our site, therefore they have been deleted.

The order of interest on the browse around window has changed as well. First, you will learn about the abandoned tunnels and their abandoned roadways. Then, you will learn about the remaining tunnels that are still used, never built, or never used by the turnpike. From there, we move into sharing additional on-site and off-site information about the abandoned turnpike areas, as well as websites dealing with related (including the South Penn Railroad and the Southern Alleghenies Conservancy/Pike-2-Bike Trail). After that, the page concludes with the opportunity for you to share your stories and photographs with us for future website uploads. The help from hobbyists and turnpike-related historians that we have received so far has been incredible! In fact, so much information exists that I will be a while creating new pages for it all.

All of the topographical map pages and aerial photography pages have been updated. They have received a new color scheme much more pleasing to the eyes than that old light green background I have been using since last summer. Inaccuracies have been found and corrected. New maps and color aerial views have been added as well.

New pages have been added for "fast facts." These are provided for new visitors who are not familiar with the abandoned turnpike and tunnels to quickly learn some information about them.

More than a few mistakes and file-linking/photograph-linking issues were discovered this evening as it took several hours to upload the new website. Many filenames were changed and nearly every picture received a new directory home and filename during the move. Updates will be made to correct mistakes as they are encountered -- trust me, there are a lot!

Please email the webmaster of this site if you have any suggestions or additions that you believe will improve the functionality or content of this website.

This website has passed 3500+ hits since it's inception in June 2005. Thank you!

Take care ... blessings ... Ray

March 10, 2006:

The completion and uploading of the new version of this website has been delayed. I have been ill since Thursday evening with a cold and the flu as an added bonus :(

I will keep working on the new version as time allows and as I continue to feel a little better each day. I appreciate your patience and continue to thank you for your patronage of this website.

Due to a lack of patience with Google and their changing of search parameters/scripting, I have removed the search tool from the website. I have emailed their technical people but did not receive a reply. It's okay though -- it was sort of like giving them free publicity anyway :)

Several people have emailed me since my last update with new pictures to share, as well as more information about Laurel Hill Tunnel and their visits there long before Chip's racing team moved in.

Looking forward to March 15th as a potential upload date.

Thanks again! Ray :)

Updates for March 6, 2006:

The month of March so far has been very busy for me, your humble webmaster. With the Passion musical play that I am participating in, along with work and travel, I have not been able to get the newest version of my website finished for a full uploading yet. Many of the updated pages are ready to upload, but I am still working out a lot of kinks and bugs in the scripting for the new home page. My plans for the new home page include grouping related information together, as well as making it menu-driven, including dynamic tool tip windows that help guide a new visitor through the website. My goal is to have the first version of the new home page up and running within the coming week. As always, if you have any turnpike/tunnel-related stories or photographs that you would like to share with us for this website, please email them to the webmaster (the link is at the bottom of this page). Your interest in the old turnpike and your visits to this website are much appreciated. Thank you again -- the hit counter shows this website having 3300+ hits since last summer when it first went online. Mike N. -- I noticed this week that I never answered your email from January! Sorry about that -- I will be in touch!

Take care ... blessings ... Ray

News and updates for February 21, 2006:

I have been home sick for two days now, so I have had some time to update the website. Just a few minor changes are being uploaded this week. Five new pages have been created which will be uploaded next week. They will give new visitors to this website some quick facts about the abandoned tunnels and roadway areas.

It seems that so many people who frequently travel the Pennsylvania Turnpike have no clue that part of it has ever been moved or abandoned. Many people also do not realize that three tunnels are bypassed and that the sky blue color of the twinned modern tunnels was not the original color or style of the single-tube tunnel entrances. These new pages will give new visitors a quick introduction to the tunnels and roadways.

Three more sources have emailed this website to confirm that Laurel Hill Tunnel is indeed being used by the Chip Ganassi Racing Team. Therefore, I will be updating the current usage page to confirm the information.
Starting sometime next week, the website will undergo a major upload.
The new website will feature additional information and updated pages.
The new home page will feature point-and-click menus on the left side and a new color scheme.
The currently used navigation frame on the left side has a lot of links and information, but a visitor is not going to find the main points by the way I have it organized right now. The new navigation frame will be split into three or four pages and correctly link related items together:
- Abandoned Turnpike Tunnels
- Abandoned Turnpike: Laurel Hill Area
- Abandoned Turnpike: Breezewood Area
- Tunnels Still Used by the Turnpike/Tunnels Never Built
- Additional Information (including FAQs, Southern Alleghenies Conservancy, S.P.R.R., etc)
Russell has been sending me a lot of information about the South Penn Railroad and how it differed from the routing chosen by the turnpike. I will be working on a new page and updating information based on his information.

As I say, I hope to have most, if not all of the new page updates loaded during the week of March 5.

Every Lenten season since 2001, I have participated in a Passion play/musical here in northeast Ohio. Our eight weeks of performances begins this week. If you wonder what else I do in my spare time, feel free to visit our ministry's website:

Promotional Video (broadband only)

As always, if you have suggestions or stories/information that you would like to share with this website, please feel free to email me. Take care ... blessings ... Ray

News and updates for January 27, 2006:

Newly added: Turnpike Exit List (Answer.com and Wikipedia sources used; edited and reformatted).
Google recently changed their script coding, so until I learn the new code, the remaining search engine link will search this website, but has no control over other sites to search.
A few updates have been made to the Laurel Hill Tunnel: Current Usage pages. Two photos posted there were not related to LHT at all and have been removed (thank you Russell for that information!).
Count of visitors to this website since it began last summer passed 2500 this week.
The first of several off-site link advisories has been added to this website. It was pointed out to me this week that some off-site links do lead to photographs that depict graffiti of obscene nature in and around the tunnels. While no harm is intended by the other website authors or myself, we do wish to keep this site as family-friendly as possible.
Thanks to Russell and Mitch for more pictures of Ray's Hill Tunnel and information regarding where S.P.R.R. and the turnpike disagreed on the location of the eastern portal of Laurel Hill Tunnel. More information and postings to follow in February.
Next update of the website will come the first week of February ... until then, thank you for visiting.

News and updates for January 20, 2006:

A lot of changes have been made to the website as a whole. Some changes are quite noticeable while others are totally behind-the-scenes. Many changes involve a better file-handling and organization system. Too many files and pages were getting scattered around my computer. Organization is a wonderful thing!

As you probably noticed above this section, an updated "search tool" has been included on this page. We have seen a lot of good results from the tool so far. If you have a website that you believe should be featured in the list of searchable sites, please contact the webmaster for possible inclusion.

At long last, the LAUREL HILL TUNNEL: Current Usage page is now available.
With all of this website's sources and visitors, we believe the mystery has been solved.

A LOT of people have shared their stories, insight, and photos with this website for inclusion on these Laurel Hill Tunnel pages. As with many web pages, updates and additions, or deletions will need to be made. Any further information that you as a viewer may have to submit would be much appreciated. I have never visited Laurel Hill or it's portion of the abandoned turnpike, so learning about it for this website has been most enjoyable.

[A gentle reminder -- this website does not condone trespassing on the abandoned turnpike and tunnel around Laurel Hill. While it is neat to see what is happening there, it still remains private property and should be treated as such. The tenants of the tunnel should not be disturbed either. No one who has submitted anything to this website regarding Laurel Hill has caused any problems around the area and in fact are just curious hobbyists and road geeks.]

The Laurel Hill, Ray's Hill, and Sideling Hill Tunnel Statistics pages have been updated.

That's all for now. The next updates to this website will be made in February.
Take care ... blessings ... Ray

Updates for January 10, 2006:

A primitive search tool has been added to allow searching of this website and others that deal with the abandoned turnpike -- some bugs exist in it and will be fixed with the next upload to the website

Off-site links added to the "browse around our site" window, including another abandoned area of the original turnpike and an additional link to information about the Quemahoning Tunnel

My target date is January 20th ... to have my new "Laurel Hill Tunnel - Current Usage: Time to Solve the Mystery" page up for your viewing.

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in stories to the webmaster, as well as photographs and links that will appear soon on this website.

Hit counter has surpassed 2000 website visits since it went online on June 29, 2005.

Month of December 2005 ... Wishing you and your families a Merry Christmas or whichever holiday you may celebrate at this time of year. I am taking the month off from working on the website. I am looking forward to the coming year and to updating this website with a lot of new pictures and information. See you in 2006!

Month of November 2005 ... I found a mistake on my "links" buttons on the bottom of the tunnel statistics pages. They were linking to another portion of my website that we use for my local Christian band. Minor mistake there -- corrected as of November 28th.

FAQ page updated 11/16/05.

Month of October 2005 ... I am taking a few weeks off from the website ... updates will resume in November. I continue to be amazed and most thankful for all of the authors, historians, visitors to the abandoned turnpike areas, story tellers and photographers who have been sharing their stories and information with me for both this website and my personal curiosity.
Thank you all very much!

Week of October 4, 2005 ... after a few weeks away, I have returned ... updates this month include:

Clear Ridge Tunnel (Clear Ridge Cut) page has been added - they forgot to built it :)

Minor updates have begun on pages that have been up since this website was started

Minor typos and factual updates are starting to be fixed

The Laurel Hill Tunnel mystery has some more facts unfolding

Speculation on LHT usage is proving potentially accurate

Be sure to visit a new website that recently appeared: www.Pike2Bike.org

Please keep sending me your turnpike stories -- the page is growing -- thank you!

Hit/visitor counter is over 900 as of this week, website is just four months old

Week of September 5, 2005 ... I am on vacation for two weeks ... but not before posting the Ray's Hill Tunnel and Sideling Hill Tunnel statistics pages. I will no doubt make modifications to them as time goes by. The Turnpike Stories page is now posted. If you have a story to tell about visiting any of the tunnels or exploring the old roadway, please email our site at: . Also posted this week: Laurel Ridge hiking trail (crosses over the tunnel and the bypass route).

Week of August 25, 2005 ... Laurel Hill Statistics page has been updated. More neat and useful information has been sent to me. NOTE: I have found it necessary to update the resolution on this website to 1024x768, so if your resolution is set lower (such as 800x600), the pages will look different and possibly unorganized. I use FrontPage extensions on the server, so Microsoft Internet Explorer is your best bet for viewing the page although others, including Netscape, will work.

Week of August 17, 2005 ... thanks to two very reliable sources, more information has been received about the Laurel Hill Tunnel. See the "Recent Pictures" section under "Laurel Hill Tunnel" link. You'll be surprised at how different the eastern portal looks today. Thanks to another source, some additional facts about LHT have been updated and included on the statistics page. Updates to the Sideling Hill pages, including statistics are in the works and will uploaded during the upcoming week. My "Turnpike Stories" pages are in the works. Hopefully they will be posted in the next week as well. Thanks again to those who have recently added postings to the guest book, as well as the two visitors who have sent pictures and facts for Laurel Hill.

Week of August 10, 2005 ... the website hit counter has passed 500 visitors in two months -- pass the word!

Week of July 24, 2005 ... Sideling Hill aerial photography page updated: new annotations made on the pictures; Laurel Hill and Rays-Sideling bypass road maps posted; Cove Valley Service Plaza and Pump Station Road aerial photos annotated; work continues on the statistics pages for each of the bypassed tunnels - major work remaining. More information on Laurel Hill tunnel has been received - working on another update ... some mysteries solved.

For sale: www.sideling-hill.com domain name. E-mail webmaster for details.

Week of July 17, 2005 ... working on the "statistics" pages for each tunnel (I have a lot of research to complete before they'll be posted); more FAQs included, based on recent questions that have surfaced; the Turnpike "in print" page added, spotlights several books written about the Turnpike and it's history; links to a family's bike trip down the old roadway posted -- great pictures and website; guest book works correctly now; off-site links (WikiMedia) added for all of the tunnels related to the PA Turnpike (including current, remodeled, abandoned, never used or never built tunnels); I received some Laurel Hill Tunnel information this week from a reputable source -- cannot share the source or exact details -- it will shed some light into the real present and former uses of the tunnel; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette included a story this week regarding the SAC's plans for the future of the Superhighway/Pike 2 Bike trail (NOTE: the S.A.C. person I contacted said they are reserving commentary on the Gazette story until after their next meeting); and finally ... www.sideling-hill.com points now to this website, as it would have been too expensive each month to maintain and fund both sites.

Week of July 10, 2005 ... Improved guest book; Sideling Hill picture page uploaded; Ray's Hill picture page uploaded; Laurel Hill picture page uploaded (I need your help, pictures and links please!) complete with explanations, rumors, theories and facts about what may or may not be happening at that location; links posted to the S.A.C.'s website and other Internet users' websites (permissions granted for use) -- thank you all for help; topographical maps posted -- more annotations coming; aerial photography of the tunnels, old roadways and local landmarks posted; compliments of the Weather Channel, current weather conditions for Breezewood, PA are now dynamically posted.

My sister website: www.sideling-hill.com is now off-line. Redirectors will be added this week to point visitors to that site over to Ray's Hill.com.

Week of July 3, 2005 ... Welcome to the new website! The old website link still appears below if you'd like to see what it previously looked like. This is my first-ever attempt at creating and using HTML frames and the programming associated with them. Enjoy! Updates will come probably once a week or as needed.