{"id":3066,"date":"2012-08-16T11:56:36","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T11:56:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetimechamber.co.uk\/beta\/?page_id=3066"},"modified":"2022-05-23T12:37:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T12:37:00","slug":"catesby-railway-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thetimechamber.co.uk\/beta\/sites\/underground-sites\/catesby-railway-tunnel","title":{"rendered":"Catesby Railway Tunnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Great Central Railway was the last of the mainline railways to be built by the Victorians, it connected Marylebone Station with Manchester and ran through the centre of the country.\u00a0 The line was built to a very high standard, avoiding sharp curves and steep gradients, allowing for the trains to have a much smoother ride.\u00a0 In building the London Extension, the Great Central Railway had ambitions to extend the line to coast and into France.\u00a0 With this, they designed the line so that it could be adapted into the Continental gauge, allowing freight trains to run directly from Europe.\u00a0 The project massively over-ran and eventually cost 3.5 million to construct.<\/p>\n

The Catesby Tunnel was originally planned as a cutting, but due to it running through a wealthy land owners estate, it was insisted that the cutting be turned into a tunnel.\u00a0 It was designed as an ‘egg shape’ tunnel with eight ventilation shafts along its length.\u00a0 It was lined with Staffordshire Blue brick, and over 30 million were used in the 3km length.\u00a0 The tunnel began to decline in the 1950s when the line was suffering from both economic difficulties and through a merger with the Midland Main Line.\u00a0 The decision was made to shut the line to passenger traffic, starting with the express service.\u00a0 With the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, the line was eventually closed closed in 1969.\u00a0 This was the largest single closure of the Beeching Era and caused som controversy as it was the most profitable freight line in the county.<\/p>\n

The tunnel now stands derelict and empty, although there have been a number of proposals to reopen the lines in the past 20 years, although these have not come to fruition.<\/p>\n