History courtesy of Forgotten relics, top site 
Ashby Tunnel was originally opened as a tunnel in 1804, As a cheaper way of connecting the Coventry canal from Bedworth to mining districts around Moira, Leicestershire than extending the Canal.
Work on the tunnels cutting was authorised in 1799 and It was a requirement that the tunnel's walls at the sides must be a minimum of 18" thick, the arch 13" and the invert 9". The width of the tunnel was also required to be 11 feet wide. Traffic first passed through the tunnel in late 1802. Two years later, the possibility of creating a shaft to provide more light in the tunnel was looked into but thats as far as it went.
In 1845 the Midland Railway came along, looking to remove any possible competitors from the Leicestershire coalfields, and bought the Ashby canal for @£110,000 (roughly @£12,000,000 in todays money). They immediately worked towards building a line from Swannington and Leicester, at Coalville, through Moira to the newly acquired Birmingham-Derby route at Burton upon Trent. There was a clause however, "keep the canal intact and in good repair for the purposes of trade until the completion of the railway and as long after as may be deemed expedient". After 20 years, The Midland obtained an Act to extend its Worthington branch into Ashby-de-la-Zouch where it would meet up with the Leicester-Burton line. The majority of this was laid on the track bed of the Cloud Hill Tramway, only coming away from the tramway in places where they needed to realign the line to ease curvature. The tunnel was rebored to be able to have a standard gauge line to run through it. As well as widening the tunnel, the workmen shortened the tunnel at its western end. When it reopened as a rail link, it was just 308 yards long.
The section of track from New Lount Colliery to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, passing through the tunnel, lost its usual traffic prior to the second world war but used by the Army. The route returned to the London Midland Scotland Railway (LMS) on 1st January 1945 but traffic didn"t return. The last train through the tunnel looks as though it was a rail tour on 28th June 1952 and the tunnel had its second official closure on 9th may 1955.
A gradient of 1:355, falling to the west, the tunnel is straight with a ˜horse-shoe profile. The west portal is land-filled, possibly in the 80s when a dairy was built requiring the embankment to be dismantled. Water coming into the tunnel has been a problem right through its history. That was evident on the visit, very evident. There were weep holes bored at the bottom, whilst the tunnel was in use, to deal with this problem. Although the tracks being long gone, indentations from the sleepers are still apparent.
I found myself at a lost end one Sunday afternoon in the Derby area and decided to actually visit another one of the old Railway Tunnels i"ve had on my list for ages, and here it is
Nothing noteworthy about the visit apart from over attentive not very happy Farmers & unlike West Yorkshire Railway Tunnels there"s not a multitude of dangerous security defences preventing access....just a block wall at the Eastern Portal that"s er had attention
Unlike previous reports the tunnel was mostly dry (for an old railway tunnel at least a slight mist issue @ halfway but nothing major. This must be the first time my gait actually matched the distance between the remaining mounds of ballast from between the sleepers which was nice for a change. Unfortunately there"s limited colours inside ( needs a few more years of water ingress
As i"d exhausted my new Torch these were lit via the Lenser Headtorch and a P7.2 FYI
Enjoy fellow Tunnel fans
Eastern Tunnel Portal
Behind the retaining wall is the spoil, reaching almost to the top of the arch, but fully filled in beyond. I always feel sort of sad when a Tunnels lasted over 100 years only to be partially filled in
Ashby Tunnel was originally opened as a tunnel in 1804, As a cheaper way of connecting the Coventry canal from Bedworth to mining districts around Moira, Leicestershire than extending the Canal.
Work on the tunnels cutting was authorised in 1799 and It was a requirement that the tunnel's walls at the sides must be a minimum of 18" thick, the arch 13" and the invert 9". The width of the tunnel was also required to be 11 feet wide. Traffic first passed through the tunnel in late 1802. Two years later, the possibility of creating a shaft to provide more light in the tunnel was looked into but thats as far as it went.
In 1845 the Midland Railway came along, looking to remove any possible competitors from the Leicestershire coalfields, and bought the Ashby canal for @£110,000 (roughly @£12,000,000 in todays money). They immediately worked towards building a line from Swannington and Leicester, at Coalville, through Moira to the newly acquired Birmingham-Derby route at Burton upon Trent. There was a clause however, "keep the canal intact and in good repair for the purposes of trade until the completion of the railway and as long after as may be deemed expedient". After 20 years, The Midland obtained an Act to extend its Worthington branch into Ashby-de-la-Zouch where it would meet up with the Leicester-Burton line. The majority of this was laid on the track bed of the Cloud Hill Tramway, only coming away from the tramway in places where they needed to realign the line to ease curvature. The tunnel was rebored to be able to have a standard gauge line to run through it. As well as widening the tunnel, the workmen shortened the tunnel at its western end. When it reopened as a rail link, it was just 308 yards long.
The section of track from New Lount Colliery to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, passing through the tunnel, lost its usual traffic prior to the second world war but used by the Army. The route returned to the London Midland Scotland Railway (LMS) on 1st January 1945 but traffic didn"t return. The last train through the tunnel looks as though it was a rail tour on 28th June 1952 and the tunnel had its second official closure on 9th may 1955.
A gradient of 1:355, falling to the west, the tunnel is straight with a ˜horse-shoe profile. The west portal is land-filled, possibly in the 80s when a dairy was built requiring the embankment to be dismantled. Water coming into the tunnel has been a problem right through its history. That was evident on the visit, very evident. There were weep holes bored at the bottom, whilst the tunnel was in use, to deal with this problem. Although the tracks being long gone, indentations from the sleepers are still apparent.
I found myself at a lost end one Sunday afternoon in the Derby area and decided to actually visit another one of the old Railway Tunnels i"ve had on my list for ages, and here it is
Nothing noteworthy about the visit apart from over attentive not very happy Farmers & unlike West Yorkshire Railway Tunnels there"s not a multitude of dangerous security defences preventing access....just a block wall at the Eastern Portal that"s er had attention
Unlike previous reports the tunnel was mostly dry (for an old railway tunnel at least
a slight mist issue @ halfway but nothing major. This must be the first time my gait actually matched the distance between the remaining mounds of ballast from between the sleepers which was nice for a change. Unfortunately there"s limited colours inside ( needs a few more years of water ingress As i"d exhausted my new Torch these were lit via the Lenser Headtorch and a P7.2 FYI
Enjoy fellow Tunnel fans
Eastern Tunnel Portal
Behind the retaining wall is the spoil, reaching almost to the top of the arch, but fully filled in beyond. I always feel sort of sad when a Tunnels lasted over 100 years only to be partially filled in
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