Haddon Tunnel (1,058yds) Midland Railway.
Massive Thanks to HughieD for use of his history write up and research on Haddon Tunnel, Really appreciated
History - Haddon Tunnel is located in the English county of Derbyshire. It was built by the Midland Railway in 1863 as an extension of its Buxton branch-line, into the Peaks, linking the afore-mentioned Buxton with Matlock. The line was born out of the Midland Railway’s rivalry with the London & North Western (LNW) to secure a strategic rail route between London and Manchester. The first section was the 15-mile extension of the Rowsley line into Buxton, authorised in May 1860. The 1,058-yard long tunnel was constructed to hide the railway from the view of the Duke of Rutland where the line passed Haddon Hall. The tunnel is close to the surface and was, in the main, built by the 'cut and cover' method. So much so that towards its southern end, it is now possible to walk alongside the tunnel at track level, such is the shallowness of the fill and gradient of the slope. It included five ventilation shafts with one being the full width of the double-track tunnel. Shortly after the headings met on Tuesday 2nd July 1861, an arch collapsed killing three men and a boy, wounding another so seriously that he died the following day (see picture below). John Millington, George Buckley, James Bird, James Clarke and the young Alfred Plank are honoured by a simple memorial in the churchyard at Rowsley. The railway paid £100 (equivalent to £8,781 in 2016) compensation to each of their families. Unsurprisingly the 1963 Beeching Report saw the withdrawal of the local Matlock-Buxton/Manchester services. The line’s complete closure to through traffic was determined by a confidential 1964 study into ‘duplicate’ trans-Pennine routes (April 1966, saw the introduction of electric haulage for Manchester-Euston services on the West Coast Main Line). From October that year freight and parcels were diverted instead via the Hope Valley line. The announcement about the cessation of passenger expresses followed soon after and on Saturday 29th June 1968 the last passed through Haddon Tunnel. The Up line was lifted just a year later in June 1969 and the recovery of the Down line the following summer. Following closure, the track-bed and tunnel was reincorporated into the Haddon Estate. A long campaign by Peak Rail and others culminated in a feasibility study by Derbyshire County Council in 2004, the Haddon Estate being a major opponent of the plan. Peak Rail still plans to extend their heritage rail services via both "Rowsley railway station" and a proposed "Haddon" Halt towards Bakewell. This would require additional restoration of the old tunnel itself and both Rowsley and Coombes Road Viaducts, plus reinstating the Bakewell station site to its original condition by the year 2016.
Early March 2020 and I found myself in the stunning Derbyshire countryside after a failed attempt to record images from Haddon Tunnel... I returned early one morning walking the old trackbed from Rowsley it didn’t take long to reach the small but impressive southern portal of Haddon Tunnel extremely well hidden from the nearby busy A6 road, on a previous visit it was noted standing water against the blocked up northern portal was approximately 5/6ft deep and having walked all the way through the water was pouring in through 2 holes in the block work however the internal drains seems to be coping well... at this end anyway, quite unnerving looking through the hole and the water is at eye level pouring through! The two outer sections of the tunnel walls are stone and fairly low where as the middle section constructed from brick is a lot higher, there’s 5 Air Shafts all still open and at various depths, the central ones being the deepest, only a single railway sleeper with rail chairs remains with the odd fishplates laying about, loads of refuges all of various designs, as you’ll see from the images there’s one particular section that’s covered in white limestone residue really impressive, and finally the southern portal had lots of standing water running out via the door, Hope you enjoy the images was hard to select a reasonable amount to upload from the 100s I took in this occasion.
Early March 2020 (Before Lockdown)
Thanks for looking
Massive Thanks to HughieD for use of his history write up and research on Haddon Tunnel, Really appreciated
History - Haddon Tunnel is located in the English county of Derbyshire. It was built by the Midland Railway in 1863 as an extension of its Buxton branch-line, into the Peaks, linking the afore-mentioned Buxton with Matlock. The line was born out of the Midland Railway’s rivalry with the London & North Western (LNW) to secure a strategic rail route between London and Manchester. The first section was the 15-mile extension of the Rowsley line into Buxton, authorised in May 1860. The 1,058-yard long tunnel was constructed to hide the railway from the view of the Duke of Rutland where the line passed Haddon Hall. The tunnel is close to the surface and was, in the main, built by the 'cut and cover' method. So much so that towards its southern end, it is now possible to walk alongside the tunnel at track level, such is the shallowness of the fill and gradient of the slope. It included five ventilation shafts with one being the full width of the double-track tunnel. Shortly after the headings met on Tuesday 2nd July 1861, an arch collapsed killing three men and a boy, wounding another so seriously that he died the following day (see picture below). John Millington, George Buckley, James Bird, James Clarke and the young Alfred Plank are honoured by a simple memorial in the churchyard at Rowsley. The railway paid £100 (equivalent to £8,781 in 2016) compensation to each of their families. Unsurprisingly the 1963 Beeching Report saw the withdrawal of the local Matlock-Buxton/Manchester services. The line’s complete closure to through traffic was determined by a confidential 1964 study into ‘duplicate’ trans-Pennine routes (April 1966, saw the introduction of electric haulage for Manchester-Euston services on the West Coast Main Line). From October that year freight and parcels were diverted instead via the Hope Valley line. The announcement about the cessation of passenger expresses followed soon after and on Saturday 29th June 1968 the last passed through Haddon Tunnel. The Up line was lifted just a year later in June 1969 and the recovery of the Down line the following summer. Following closure, the track-bed and tunnel was reincorporated into the Haddon Estate. A long campaign by Peak Rail and others culminated in a feasibility study by Derbyshire County Council in 2004, the Haddon Estate being a major opponent of the plan. Peak Rail still plans to extend their heritage rail services via both "Rowsley railway station" and a proposed "Haddon" Halt towards Bakewell. This would require additional restoration of the old tunnel itself and both Rowsley and Coombes Road Viaducts, plus reinstating the Bakewell station site to its original condition by the year 2016.
Early March 2020 and I found myself in the stunning Derbyshire countryside after a failed attempt to record images from Haddon Tunnel... I returned early one morning walking the old trackbed from Rowsley it didn’t take long to reach the small but impressive southern portal of Haddon Tunnel extremely well hidden from the nearby busy A6 road, on a previous visit it was noted standing water against the blocked up northern portal was approximately 5/6ft deep and having walked all the way through the water was pouring in through 2 holes in the block work however the internal drains seems to be coping well... at this end anyway, quite unnerving looking through the hole and the water is at eye level pouring through! The two outer sections of the tunnel walls are stone and fairly low where as the middle section constructed from brick is a lot higher, there’s 5 Air Shafts all still open and at various depths, the central ones being the deepest, only a single railway sleeper with rail chairs remains with the odd fishplates laying about, loads of refuges all of various designs, as you’ll see from the images there’s one particular section that’s covered in white limestone residue really impressive, and finally the southern portal had lots of standing water running out via the door, Hope you enjoy the images was hard to select a reasonable amount to upload from the 100s I took in this occasion.
Early March 2020 (Before Lockdown)
Thanks for looking
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