Tytherington Tunnel, Glos - Mar 2015
History.
There is a huge amount of history online about the Yate - Thornbury branch line which the Tunnel is on, so I have included some links to those at the bottom of this section. The tunnel's history has been pretty uneventful although in 1954 a train driver reported an incident to the Yate stationmaster that a quarry worker had been hit by the train in the tunnel as he was taking a shortcut home from work. Amazingly he only received minor injuries and completely recovered. It later turned out that the worker was deaf and simply hadn't heard the train approaching!
The branch line opened in 1869 but was not completed until 1972 due to the last two and a bit miles of track needing two tunnels to be created. The longer of the two at 224 yards was to be found 5 miles from the start of the branch and very close to Tytherington Station which gives the tunnel its name.
Tytherington Station
The shorter tunnel at only 167 yards was closed to passengers on 19th June 1944 and goods a few years later in 1966. Unfortunately this tunnel is very solidly bricked up and in unaccessible.
Grovesend
(c) Weirdoldhattie
The line still carried small amounts of freight but with the quarry closure and the section of track from the quarry to thornbury being dismantled the line has been declared 'Out of Use' from mid 2013. Although this designation is officially temporary it doesn't look like it'll reopen in the near future in spite of a few local councillors geting all excited about it.
Links
http://www.tytheringtonroots.co.uk/Yate_to_Thornbury_Railway.htm
http://sms.thornburyroots.co.uk/Railway.htm
The Visit.
This place holds a special place in my heart as it was the subject of my first post on 28. While not having any decent camera equipment on us the first time I always wanted to go back and do it justice. As I have just made full member status I thought I'd share the revisit.
It was a somewhat overcast day and with a slight modification to the original access route we got in and out without any bother and a good deal quicker to boot. When we arrived we saw that quite a lot had changed and maybe my assumption that the line wouldn't be going back into service may of been a little hasty!
Just me and FIX1T on this one.
The Pics.
Looking back down the track towards the Quarry.
Tytherington Portal
Looking Back Out
The Brickwork lining only extends a short distance
Looking back towards the Thornbury Portal
Things were very different this side from the previous visit about 8 months ago, lots of old railway debris and junk had been removed and the vegatation which was out in force had been completely removed!
Looking in
Internals
Some really nice calcite dribbles, lots of this all over the tunnel
FIX1T helping with the lighting.
Quite a lot of repair work, not new though
Stunning air shaft
Quick Pano of the Quarry on the way out
Thanks for looking!This place holds a special place in my heart as it was the subject of my first post on 28. While not having any decent camera equipment on us the first time I always wanted to go back and do it justice. As I have just made full member status I thought I'd share the revisit.
It was a somewhat overcast day and with a slight modification to the original access route we got in and out without any bother and a good deal quicker to boot. When we arrived we saw that quite a lot had changed and maybe my assumption that the line wouldn't be going back into service may of been a little hasty!
Just me and FIX1T on this one.
The Pics.
Looking back down the track towards the Quarry.
Tytherington Portal
Looking Back Out
The Brickwork lining only extends a short distance
Looking back towards the Thornbury Portal
Things were very different this side from the previous visit about 8 months ago, lots of old railway debris and junk had been removed and the vegatation which was out in force had been completely removed!
Looking in
Internals
Some really nice calcite dribbles, lots of this all over the tunnel
FIX1T helping with the lighting.
Quite a lot of repair work, not new though
Stunning air shaft
Quick Pano of the Quarry on the way out