This is my first post so . . . lets not be too harsh eh! 
Now this tunnel I have wanted to do for some time now, finally got round to it recently with two non - members.
The weather on the actual day was great! It was only 5 degrees but the sun was beaming. The downside to the day was that we have had some terrible rain recently so the walk to the tunnel was just a bog, the tunnel was also massively flooded. If anyone goes here wellies are essential, luckily two of us did.
This tunnel is massive! You cannot truly appreciate the length of it until you walk through, an hour each way it took us, we were stopping for photos though. I live near Oxendon tunnel's which are on an a public walk way and I used to think they were big at the longest of the two being 422m, Catesby stands at a massive 2,740.5m!
Unfortunately the pictures were taken on my Galaxy S4 and an experia as I don't have a camera yet, my friend used his dslr but I wont get my hands on the pics for awhile so these will have to do for now. A couple of the pics were taken on a different trip when I didn't go inside.
Some history taken from 'The Wombats' report (Thank you) -
Built in 1897, and closed in 1966 was on the great central railway from London to Sheffield. The line was the single biggest closure of the Beeching axe, and the most controversial. It was built not because of gradient, but because the rich owner of the Catesby estate didn’t want a railway blighting his landscape.
27 feet wide x 25 feet high, Ventilation is provided by five shafts. Four of these are 10 feet in diameter but the northernmost - 1,250 yards from the entrance - is 15 feet wide to provide greater air flow. Plans to use it as part of HS2 have now been shelved.
The line to the tunnel
Remnants of the past on the line
Then after some time . . . there she is! The south portal.
These are the pictures from the most recent trip when we went in, someone had stacked fresh wood outside?
This is how bad the flooding was . . .
And we were in.
Newbie using a Nikon
One of the 5 vents, no flash.
Flash.
'HALF WAY' we only found this as we walked back to the south portal
Like a scene from Aliens
The north portal, not a great photo but it shows just how flooded it is, about a foot deep.
From above, the first vent.
And one last one just to show the sheer size of this place!
Well that's it, i know this place has been done to death recently, it's an awesome easy mooch.
Yes the pictures are very amateur, it's all I can do at the minute.
I will have more to come soon hopefully
Oh and if you do go be careful of the open drain's that are every 100 feet or so, especially in the flooded parts (you can't seee them), don't want to be falling down the "holey holey's" as we put it
Cheers!!!!!
Now this tunnel I have wanted to do for some time now, finally got round to it recently with two non - members.
The weather on the actual day was great! It was only 5 degrees but the sun was beaming. The downside to the day was that we have had some terrible rain recently so the walk to the tunnel was just a bog, the tunnel was also massively flooded. If anyone goes here wellies are essential, luckily two of us did.
This tunnel is massive! You cannot truly appreciate the length of it until you walk through, an hour each way it took us, we were stopping for photos though. I live near Oxendon tunnel's which are on an a public walk way and I used to think they were big at the longest of the two being 422m, Catesby stands at a massive 2,740.5m!
Unfortunately the pictures were taken on my Galaxy S4 and an experia as I don't have a camera yet, my friend used his dslr but I wont get my hands on the pics for awhile so these will have to do for now. A couple of the pics were taken on a different trip when I didn't go inside.
Some history taken from 'The Wombats' report (Thank you
) - Built in 1897, and closed in 1966 was on the great central railway from London to Sheffield. The line was the single biggest closure of the Beeching axe, and the most controversial. It was built not because of gradient, but because the rich owner of the Catesby estate didn’t want a railway blighting his landscape.
27 feet wide x 25 feet high, Ventilation is provided by five shafts. Four of these are 10 feet in diameter but the northernmost - 1,250 yards from the entrance - is 15 feet wide to provide greater air flow. Plans to use it as part of HS2 have now been shelved.
The line to the tunnel
Remnants of the past on the line
Then after some time . . . there she is! The south portal.
These are the pictures from the most recent trip when we went in, someone had stacked fresh wood outside?
This is how bad the flooding was . . .
And we were in.
Newbie using a Nikon
One of the 5 vents, no flash.
Flash.
'HALF WAY' we only found this as we walked back to the south portal
Like a scene from Aliens
The north portal, not a great photo but it shows just how flooded it is, about a foot deep.
From above, the first vent.
And one last one just to show the sheer size of this place!
Well that's it, i know this place has been done to death recently, it's an awesome easy mooch.
Yes the pictures are very amateur, it's all I can do at the minute.
I will have more to come soon hopefully
Oh and if you do go be careful of the open drain's that are every 100 feet or so, especially in the flooded parts (you can't seee them), don't want to be falling down the "holey holey's" as we put it
Cheers!!!!!
