Kilsby and Harecastle - why tunnels?

[Philip]

Just intrigued if anyone knows why long tunnels were dug at Kilsby and Harecastle on what are mainline routes and not very early railways? Neither tunnel goes under particularly high ground and in the case of Harecastle we now know that a diversion around the hill wouldn't have added much to the route length. Even allowing for a straight course through the small hills, would a cutting not have sufficed at Kilsby and Harecastle?

Also in the case of Kilsby, why were so many ventilation shafts kept open and what is with the two huge shafts?

 

[swt_passenger]

Isn’t it sometimes because the local landowner insisted the railway be buried?

 

[pdeaves]

As swt_passenger implies, the local landowner at the time of construction often had certain requirements, e.g. mustn't be able to see the railway from the posh house, structures like vents or tunnel mouths must be decorative, that kind of thing. That may be the case in these examples.

 

[InOban]

At Harecastle there's the issue of the canal tunnel. And there must be a good reason - didn't they bore a new tunnel when the route was being wired.

And I understood that from the top of Camden Bank, which was designed around the use of a stationary engine or at least a banker, the ruling gradient from there to Birmingham was 1:999 or something incredibly small. A modern railway on that route would go over Kilsby.

 

[S&CLER]

At Harecastle there's the issue of the canal tunnel. And there must be a good reason - didn't they bore a new tunnel when the route was being wired.

And I understood that from the top of Camden Bank, which was designed around the use of a stationary engine or at least a banker, the ruling gradient from there to Birmingham was 1:999 or something incredibly small. A modern railway on that route would go over Kilsby.

1 in 330, I think; not sure what the OP means by "very early", but the London & Birmingham dates from 1838, so it would qualify as early, if not exactly very early, in my opinion. Any line opened before the Mania of 1845 has a fair claim to be an "early" railway.

 

[A0]

At Harecastle there's the issue of the canal tunnel. And there must be a good reason - didn't they bore a new tunnel when the route was being wired.

Correct to a point ! There are / were 3 railway tunnels at Harecastle. The 'north' one was retained but the middle and south ones weren't suitable for 25kv wiring, so a new one was bored.

This Wikipedia article has more and a picture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harecastle_railway_tunnel.

 

[InOban]

Thanks for the correction. I knew it was very low.

 

[Philip]

1 in 330, I think; not sure what the OP means by "very early", but the London & Birmingham dates from 1838, so it would qualify as early, if not exactly very early, in my opinion. Any line opened before the Mania of 1845 has a fair claim to be an "early" railway.

It says 1847 for the opening of the Trent Valley line?

I mentioned not early because later railways would have used improved construction techniques, meaning a cutting more likely to be dug rather than building a costly tunnel where the land shallow enough.

 

[S&CLER]

It says 1847 for the opening of the Trent Valley line?

Yes, but Kilsby's on the L&B

 

[MadMac]

As swt_passenger implies, the local landowner at the time of construction often had certain requirements, e.g. mustn't be able to see the railway from the posh house, structures like vents or tunnel mouths must be decorative, that kind of thing. That may be the case in these examples.

Same reason that Barncluith (between Hamilton and Motherwell) was tunnelled under the Duke of Hamilton's estate. In 1976, a train from the Royal Ordnance Factory at Bishopton containing five tons of cordite detonators derailed in the tunnel, and I recall it being mentioned that the Duke of the time came fairly close to ending up with a cutting whether or not he wanted one.....

 

[InOban]

I believe that the tunnel between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane was also at the insistence of the landowner.

 

[InOban]

It says 1847 for the opening of the Trent Valley line?

I mentioned not early because later railways would have used improved construction techniques, meaning a cutting more likely to be dug rather than building a costly tunnel where the land shallow enough.

And steam engines were more powerful so gradients could be greater.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Just intrigued if anyone knows why long tunnels were dug at Kilsby and Harecastle on what are mainline routes and not very early railways? Neither tunnel goes under particularly high ground and in the case of Harecastle we now know that a diversion around the hill wouldn't have added much to the route length. Even allowing for a straight course through the small hills, would a cutting not have sufficed at Kilsby and Harecastle?

Also in the case of Kilsby, why were so many ventilation shafts kept open and what is with the two huge shafts?

I am intrigued as to why you have chosen these two tunnels in particular as they have very little in common in many ways.

Kilsby was the longest rail tunnel in the world when built and the aerodynamics and ventilation of such a project were very little understood. The location was a geological nightmare and a cutting (over 100 feet deep) would hardly have been an attractive prospect either. Robert Stephenson was not against cuttings where appropriate. Tring is the obvious example, being one of the largest excavation projects in history to that era. The multiple (and large) shafts were partly on account of the construction difficulties. Late and well over budget was the result.

Harecastle was excavated much later on by a relatively small local company and not really seen as a 'main line' at the time. It was dug in an area where much of the local labour skill set lay in coal mining, so not really seen as a big problem. Large scale earth moving on the other hand was not as well developed.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

As swt_passenger implies, the local landowner at the time of construction often had certain requirements, e.g. mustn't be able to see the railway from the posh house, structures like vents or tunnel mouths must be decorative, that kind of thing. That may be the case in these examples.

That applied at Shugborough on the Stafford-Rugby line.
If you look hard in the winter when the leaves are off you can glimpse the approach to Shugborough Hall where the Earl of Lichfield lived (now NT).
The railway tunnel portals have extra decoration to please the Earl.

Kilsby is under the Cotswold ridge.
When the Northampton loop was built later, they built a shorter tunnel close by at Crick under the same ridge.

Harecastle (actually 3 individual tunnels) paralleled two canal tunnels through Harecastle ridge (the Trent/Mersey watershed) and its difficult geology.
The new tunnel for the 1965 BR bypass also had construction difficulties but is much shorter/steeper.
The old railway tunnel is for sale if anyone wants to own a mile-long tunnel and can afford the maintenance obligations.
It also spawned a BBC drama "The Last Train Through the Harecastle Tunnel", but sadly they didn't find an actor from the Potts to star in it.

 

[billio]

On the line from Radcliffe Central to Manchester Victoria (now Metrolink) Heaton Park Tunnel was a cut and cover construction at the insistence of Lord Wilton, the land owner. Apparently in places the roof arch is only a few feet below ground.

 

[xydancer]

At the summit, a cutting at Kilsby would have needed to have been 120ft deep (Tring cutting is only a third of that). That's well past the point at which tunneling is the cheaper option. That's why Stephenson went for it.

His problem was that there was a layer of quicksand that didn't show up in the test bores. Whether he didn't know or ignored warnings is a moot point. I live only a couple of miles from Kilsby and that quicksand has been known about for generations. The previous canal builders were certainly aware of it as they changed plans to avoid it. There are also records of Stephenson being warned about it by Dr Anrold, the Head of Rugby School.

The tunnel was indeed late (although even so only took three years to construct) and well over budget. The original contract to a J Nowell & Sons was for £99,000 (that's around £11.3 million today). They gave up after a year, the railway company taking it on themselves. It eventually cost £320,000 (£37 million).

As an aside, although the tunnel itself was not affected by landowner objections, the route through Rugby was. The original plan was to run slightly south of the present approach from Weedon, which would not have required an embankment, then curve left and run south of the town centre and Rugby School, rejoining the eventually built line at Long Lawford. Rugby School thought that a bit close and objected - and they had clout!

As for the huge air vents, they were apparently a response to worries about people in trains suffocating. A local story tells how three drunken navvies plunged to their depths one night when attempting to jump one of the then unprotected openings.

I suggest anyone interested in Kilsby (or indeed any of the history of the London-Birmingham line) takes a look at 'The Train Now Departing: Notes and Extracts on the History of the London and Birmingham Railway' on the the Tring Local History page - https://tringlocalhistory.org.uk/Railway/index.htm. Chapter 7 deals with Camden-Cheddington, Chapter 8 Cheddington-Birmingham and Chapter 9 the Euston extension.

 

[Taunton]

Vertical shafts are commonly more convenient leftovers from construction than specifically provided for ventilation. There are plenty of lengthy tunnels without any ventilation at all, particularly bad for single line bores. Combe Down, on the S&D out of Bath, 1 mile long, no shafts, single line, 1 in 50 uphill from a standing start, most services double headed, in almost continuous use on summer Saturdays, and at right angles to the prevailing wind, was the worst of all worlds.

 

[CW2]

One of the benefits of the large shafts in Kilsby tunnel was that it enbled individual 60-foot rails to be turned to even out the wear. The rail would be unclipped, trollied to the vent shaft, rotated, trollied back, and clipped back in. That was a much easier option than having to trolley the rails right out of the tunnel.

 

[johnnychips]

There is a tunnel at Haddon Hall between Bakewell and Matlock as I think the Duke of Cavendish - not sure about the correct aristocracy here as they were interbred with the Devonshires - would not have liked it going through his front garden, where it could have had an almost flat profile.

Ironically, there have been successful objections from Haddon Hall to extending the Monday Trail on the old trackbed from its current finishing point down an obscure lane in Bakewell, on to Rowsley.

 

[Dr Hoo]

One of the benefits of the large shafts in Kilsby tunnel was that it enbled individual 60-foot rails to be turned to even out the wear. The rail would be unclipped, trollied to the vent shaft, rotated, trollied back, and clipped back in. That was a much easier option than having to trolley the rails right out of the tunnel.

I heard that too, when I was on BR's LMR London Division in the 1970s but was never entirely convinced. I don't think that rails were generally 60-foot long in the 1830s and in any event why not simply transpose rails locally?

 

[Dr Hoo]

There is a tunnel at Haddon Hall between Bakewell and Matlock as I think the Duke of Cavendish - not sure about the correct aristocracy here as they were interbred with the Devonshires - would not have liked it going through his front garden, where it could have had an almost flat profile.

Ironically, there have been successful objections from Haddon Hall to extending the Monday Trail on the old trackbed from its current finishing point down an obscure lane in Bakewell, on to Rowsley.

OT, but I think that it was the Duke of Rutland (the Belvoir Castle family) or his son, the Marquess of Granby, who owned Haddon Hall. But they were indeed related to the Duke of Devonshire (aka Cavendish, the Chatsworth lot).

 

[edwin_m]

Vertical shafts are commonly more convenient leftovers from construction than specifically provided for ventilation. There are plenty of lengthy tunnels without any ventilation at all, particularly bad for single line bores. Combe Down, on the S&D out of Bath, 1 mile long, no shafts, single line, 1 in 50 uphill from a standing start, most services double headed, in almost continuous use on summer Saturdays, and at right angles to the prevailing wind, was the worst of all worlds.

Indeed.

Report on the Accident at Bath Green Park on 20th November 1929 :: The Railways Archive

Archive of UK railways documents

www.railwaysarchive.co.uk

I am therefore led to the conclusion that both driver and fireman were overcome by smoke and fumes while passing through Combe Down tunnel, and that the engine emerged from the tunnel uncontrolled. Having regard to the falling gradient, it can be shown by calculation that, even assuming the engine was only just moving at the exit from the tunnel, it might well have attained a speed of 50 miles an hour or more at the foot of the gradient, in spite of the guard's brake application.

There is a tunnel at Haddon Hall between Bakewell and Matlock as I think the Duke of Cavendish - not sure about the correct aristocracy here as they were interbred with the Devonshires - would not have liked it going through his front garden, where it could have had an almost flat profile.

Ironically, there have been successful objections from Haddon Hall to extending the Monday Trail on the old trackbed from its current finishing point down an obscure lane in Bakewell, on to Rowsley.

That one is so shallow that much of it was apparently done by cut and cover. The area is on a steep slope and looking at the OS Map I think it would have smashed through the house itself had it been on the surface.

 

[ian1944]

Penmanshiel Tunnel was built through a hill which the road went round immediately to the west , and further west the land is fairly flat. Doubtful if this expense was because of landowner sensibilities, as the tunnel was only a tiny bit of the otherwise above-ground stretch from Cockburnpath to Grantshouse, so maybe the flat land was unsuitable due to waterlogging. But there's no river alongside, only the Pease Burn of no great width. John Miller doubtless had his reasons, but they don't seem too clear now.

 

[johnnychips]

Indeed.

Report on the Accident at Bath Green Park on 20th November 1929 :: The Railways Archive

Archive of UK railways documents

www.railwaysarchive.co.uk

That one is so shallow that much of it was apparently done by cut and cover. The area is on a steep slope and looking at the OS Map I think it would have smashed through the house itself had it been on the surface.

You could have just followed the lie of the land between Bakewell and Rowsley as it is along the River Wye. But it would have split his lordship’s state in two - and given him a crap view.

 

[Dr Hoo]

You could have just followed the lie of the land between Bakewell and Rowsley as it is along the River Wye. But it would have split his lordship’s state in two - and given him a crap view.

As a Duke, "His Grace's", please.

 

[edwin_m]

You could have just followed the lie of the land between Bakewell and Rowsley as it is along the River Wye. But it would have split his lordship’s state in two - and given him a crap view.

With a few short exceptions it's climbing continuously at around 1 in 100 from Rowsley all the way to Peak Forest. Taking a lower line past Haddon would probably also have led to a more convenient station site in Bakewell, but would have created a need for a much steeper gradient further west. The "ruling" (steepest) gradient determines how much load each train can carry and is therefore important for the economics of the line.

 

[furnessvale]

With a few short exceptions it's climbing continuously at around 1 in 100 from Rowsley all the way to Peak Forest. Taking a lower line past Haddon would probably also have led to a more convenient station site in Bakewell, but would have created a need for a much steeper gradient further west. The "ruling" (steepest) gradient determines how much load each train can carry and is therefore important for the economics of the line.

Tehachapi Loop or Brusio Spiral north of Bakewell would have nicely solved things!

 

[Albaman]

In the village of Kilsby ,the house where, apparently, Robert Stephenson lived whilst the tunnel was under construction, has a replica of the tunnel mouth in the front garden.

 

[thenorthern]

With Harecastle the current tunnel was built in 1965 because the older tunnels were too low for electrification and it wasn't good value for money to increase the space for wires.

The Potteries is very hilly and the topography of the Potteries is the reason the railways are like they are.

 

[Tio Terry]

Newmarket tunnel is of cut and cover construction. I was told it was something to do with horses being frightened by the trains and not being able to run over the open lands but I've never seen that confirmed anywhere.