Question On Tunnels.

[PinzaC55]

Hi all, I am a member of the Yorkshire Wolds Railway who hope to reopen part of the former Malton & Driffield Railway which had Burdale Tunnel as a its' only major engineering feature.The unusual feature of the tunnel is that the south portal is 2 track made of stone and yet the north portal is made of brick and is single track! Apparently this is because although most M&DR structures were built to take twin track, they ran out of money and so the bulk of the tunnel was only built for one track.
SO, my question is...does anyone know of any other tunnel in the UK similar to this?

North Portal - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/83192

South Portal -

[CVR1865]

not a tunnel but the Audley End to Sudbury line via Haverhill North was built to twin trackbed but only ever laid single.

How close are you on re-opening?

[PinzaC55]

Still at the early stages - securing trackbed, meeting councils etc. However the tunnel would not form part of our plans for many years because it is very poor condition.Personally I think should be Listed.

Have a look at our website http://www.yorkshirewoldsrailway.org.uk/

And discussion Forum http://www.yorkshirewoldsrailway.org.uk/forum/

[L&Y Man]

Hi all, I am a member of the Yorkshire Wolds Railway who hope to reopen part of the former Malton & Driffield Railway which had Burdale Tunnel as a its' only major engineering feature.The unusual feature of the tunnel is that the south portal is 2 track made of stone and yet the north portal is made of brick and is single track! Apparently this is because although most M&DR structures were built to take twin track, they ran out of money and so the bulk of the tunnel was only built for one track.
SO, my question is...does anyone know of any other tunnel in the UK similar to this?

North Portal - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/83192


Perhaps not quite in the same vein, but Whitehaven's Bransty Tunnel has two tracks coming together in its north portal, and is then single track all the way to its southern portal at Corkickle. The line is then single as far as Sellafield, with a passing loop at St Bees.

Best wishes for re-opening.

L&Y Man

South Portal -

[PinzaC55]

Thanks for that L&Y Man - so it's not the only one! Apparently the other unusual thing about Burdale is that they dug 7 construction shafts and started digging to 2 track width at the bottom, but ended up connecting them by single track tunnels.I spoke to an old railway enthusiast years ago who drove his car through the tunnel before it was bricked up in 1961 and he said his headlights picked out the "alcoves" - very scary!

[manna]

G'Day Gents

On one of Col Stevens light railways they built two twin track tunnel mouths, a single track through it and Never even dug out the the earth for the second track, it was left for a later date, which never arrived, and is still like it today. It's down in Kent, read it on Nick Catfords, Disused Railways, website.
manna

[PinzaC55]

I am building part of the line in Trainz 2009 rail simulator and here are the early stages of the North Portal -

[PinzaC55]

Here's a shot of a Class 124 Transpennine DMU leaving the south end of the tunnel and passing Tunnel Cottage in Trainz rail simulator 2009. I had to use a bit of "artistic licence" as the line closed in 1958 and the 124's were not built until 1960.

[Bryan]

Does the Artistic licence include wrong line running?

I would have thought it was entering the tunnel.

[52D]

Could the Headcode on the DMU be slightly off region?

[PinzaC55]

"Does the Artistic licence include wrong line running?"

Wrong line running is impossible on a single line. The other line (rusty track) is a long dead end siding from Burdale Station.

[PinzaC55]

BTW Bryan, I believe you mentioned in the Manors Station thread that you had sme NER or LNER line diagrams. Do you have any diagrams or gradient diagrams for the Malton & Driffield by any chance? I already have the Siding Diagrams for most of the stations but I am stuck on the short section of falling gradient after the line left the north portal of the tunnel.

[Bryan]

Forgot about the siding bit.

Line diagrams sorry I don't have that one.
The Malton and Driffield is one of the elusive lines. I don't think many copies survived.
If any one has a copy it will be the NERA
http://www.ner.org.uk/
But a number of years ago I was informed that that was one of the ones they were short of themselves. This may have changed since.

[PinzaC55]

Cheers for that. I used to have an NER all line gradient book but sadly I sold it. I believe I know who has the "M&D Br" Zero post plate from Malton but he won't let it go.