What's the shortest tunnel in Britain?

[MidnightFlyer]

... Is a thought that came to me yesterday. I know that's there's Headingley Tunnel between Burley Park and Headingley on the Leeds-Harrogate line, classified a tunnel but only 70yds long. Then there's one on Dore South Curve, about 88yds in length. I was just wondering if anyone knew the actual shortest - an actual tunnel please, not a covered way or motorway bridge (sectional appendix or Quail confirmation will be fine). Thanks.

 

[Hydro]

St. Cross tunnel is 62 yards in length, south of Winchester. It used to be a proper tunnel, but has been opened out into a covered way during the W10 re-gauging.

 

[westcoaster]

Don't know the length but Lismore circus tunnel is in reality just a road bridge.

 

[Wyvern]

There's Duffield Tunnel at 52 yards?

 

[westcoaster]

Just checked lismore circus is 110 yards but hampstead tunnel is 44yrds.

 

[Zoe]

Redruth Tunnel on the GWML is 47 yards.

 

[pendolino]

Hoppity Tunnel, Tattenham Corner branch, is 37 yds long.

 

[Oracle]

The M4 bridge on the Brentford Branch is classified as a tunnel...no idea how long it is despite having been under it enough times.

 

[seagull]

Phillot Tunnel, between Dawlish and Teignmouth, is 55 yards - so not as short as some of the others mentioned here, surprisingly.

I notice in Quail that the intriguingly named 'Deadman's Bay Quarry' stub branch off the Cattewater Branch from Plymouth Friary had/has a 20 yard Tunnel marked - while on the Cattewater Harbour branch itself there's a 48 yard tunnel.

 

[petwall]

Could it be Peak Forest Junction Tunnel at 29 yds

Pete

 

[yorksrob]

Hoppity Tunnel, Tattenham Corner branch, is 37 yds long.

I don't know about the shortest but it must be the tunnel with the best name

 

[flymo]

One of note to me is the tunnel just south of Retford on the ECML, Askham tunnel at 57 yds or 52m. This is almost exactly half way between Kings Cross and Newcastle. Nothing really in that as it's not the shortest but just a marker when I'm on the ECML.

Looking at the Baseline Declaration from April 2009, there is a tunnel marked as Birdswood Tunnel just north of Weaver Jcn on the WCML marked as 22yds.

 

[The Planner]

At what point does a bridge become a tunnel ??

 

[Zoe]

At what point does a bridge become a tunnel ??

When the Sectional Appendix calls it a tunnel?

 

[The Planner]

God help us then. There must be a set length where a bridge becomes a tunnel though, not because someone decides to name it as one in the appendix.

 

[route:oxford]

Carmuirs Tunnels are 40M each (shortest in Scotland?)

 

[starlightEXPRESS]

There's a list of tunnels here:

http://deaves47.users.btopenworld.com/Tunnels/Tunnels.htm

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Hoppity Tunnel, Tattenham Corner branch, is 37 yds long.

With a name like that, are you sure that is not a rabbit warren?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There's a tunnel of about 30m (100ft) according to Wikimapia, at Kenyon Lane east of Parkside on the Chat Moss line (about to be electrified). This is the only tunnel between Manchester and Edge Hill.

There's a rather similar one at Birdswood/Preston Brook on the WCML north of Weaver Jn, length 75m (245ft), reputed to be the only tunnel on the original Grand Junction line from Birmingham Curzon St to Warrington. Blink on a Pendolino and you've missed it. The next tunnel north on the WCML is Eglinton St outside Glasgow Central.

Richard

 

[Yew]

I don't know about the shortest but it must be the tunnel with the best name

Must be full of pacers!

 

[Old Timer]

At what point does a bridge become a tunnel ??

The BR convention was that a tunnel was a structure that was tunnelled out of the surrounding environment.

An "overbridge" spanned up to one track length - 24 sleepers.

Once an overhead structure such as a bridge exceeded 26 sleepers i.e. there was at least one whole track length underneath - then strictly speaking it became a "tunnel".

That said there was a degree of latitude applied but this was the general rule of thumb as applied by the Civil Engineers.

 

[bengley]

The tunnel on the Watford North Curve of the Metropolitan Line is the shortest on the Underground, dunno how long it is.

 

[LE Greys]

Isn't the bridge at the east end of Bournemouth officially a tunnel? It can't be longer that 75 ft (the length of a MkIII coach).

<Edit> It's called Holdenhurst Road Tunnel.

 

[chuffchuff]

Tanners Hill 22yds
Between New Cross and St Johns

 

[swt_passenger]

Isn't the bridge at the east end of Bournemouth officially a tunnel? It can't be longer that 75 ft (the length of a MkIII coach).

<Edit> It's called Holdenhurst Road Tunnel.

Quail's map has it down as 50 yds, but the scale on Google maps suggests a little bit less than that, maybe about 45 yds, but still quite a bit more than a coach length...

 

[LE Greys]

Quail's map has it down as 50 yds, but the scale on Google maps suggests a little bit less than that, maybe about 45 yds, but still quite a bit more than a coach length...

Possibly an illusion due to movement, but I'm sure that there was daylight at the front of a 5-WES vehicle at about the same time the back end entered the tunnel.

 

[imagination]

There's a list of tunnels here:

http://deaves47.users.btopenworld.com/Tunnels/Tunnels.htm

"Aberglaslyn No 2" is a tunnel 10 yards long according to that...

 

[Trog]

Conversely the Long Bridge on the Euston - Watford DC line under the City Goods Lines at Willesden is 147 yards long.



This difference between a tunnel and a bridge has more than one answer, as it depends why you are asking the question a bit like 42 and the meaning of life etc.

The list of tunnels in the Sectional Appendix is a list of those structures the operating department wanted their train drivers and signalmen to carry out the rules relating to working in tunnels.

The length qualification usually derives from structures inspection, where over a certain length the inspection is carried out in sections rather than as a whole. Different companies and regions had different standards, so what would be a tunnel to one works section would be a bridge to another.

A more pure Civils definition is based on how the structure was formed.
A tunnel is bored (or tunnelled) through an existing feature.
A bridge is a built structure that spans over something.
A covered way is where a hole is dug and a structure built that is then buried when the hole is backfilled.

 

[PaulLothian]

Roman Bridge Tunnel on the Conwy Valley line is 43 yds, and quite sharply curved as well.

 

[matchmaker]

Carmuirs Tunnels are 40M each (shortest in Scotland?)

Are they still that length since part of them collapsed a few years ago?