real time web analytics
Report - - Wapping Railway Tunnel, Liverpool - January 2016 | Underground Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Wapping Railway Tunnel, Liverpool - January 2016

Hide this ad by donating or subscribing !

BrainL

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
The Explore
So after a few unsuccessful attempts in the city centre and a brief visit to Newsham Hospital morgue we headed to meet a friend to explore some underground tunnels. Something very different for me as only ever really explored buildings but the history of this tunnel was a great place to start. Visited with @The Man In Black

The History
Running to Crown Street Station, 1829. Built by George Stephenson, a single track tunnel 291 yards long was bored from the deep cutting at the Edge Hill junction to Crown Street, to serve the world's first passenger railway station. However the tunnel is: The dilapidated state of the Cutting today. The left 1846 tunnel is used for parking trains. The others tunnels are disused. The dilapidated state of the Cutting from the air. Looking from the east The 1846 Tunnel at the bottom - looking from the west. The cutting is at the top.

  • The oldest rail tunnel in the world running under streets
  • The second oldest rail tunnel in the world after the very short 1804 tunnel at Pentrebach, Merthyr Tydfil.

Being too far from Liverpool city centre, the passenger station was abandoned in 1836 in favour of Lime Street. The area was converted for freight use.

An additional two track tunnel was bored through to Crown Street from the Edge Hill cutting in 1846, to increase traffic to the freight yard. The head of this tunnel was initially cut to about 3 metres deep in 1829 and used as a store room. The freight yard was closed in 1972 along with the original 1829 Stephenson tunnel. The Crown Street portal is landscaped over showing no trace of the tunnel at Crown Street apart from an incline of grass near the tall brick Wapping tunnel ventilation shaft, which was initially in the passenger station and then freight yard.

The historic 1929 Crown Street Tunnel is partially collapsing at the Crown Street end, due to lack of maintenance, as the subsidence in the street surface above indicates.


This is how the tunnels looked back in the day...

24166976215_daf19b7540_b.jpg


24084371821_ccbfff7634.jpg


Things aren't quite as grand now unfortunately...

24050159332_8798f3cde2_k.jpg


23531305873_18194dcd5c_k.jpg


24050019962_cf6684631e_k.jpg


24050013352_552a61aae3_k.jpg


Looking directly up the air shaft

24132002506_1f9de366e2_k.jpg


23862450760_051a40d63f_k.jpg


And finally the still used track were trains are occasionally backed in and parked

23529882584_d04c6d8214_k.jpg


23531294863_e9cb1ecaba_k.jpg
 

ACID- REFLUX

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Er ......what"s happened to the rest of the Wapping Tunnel Brian :confused:

I"m a little lost ? (probably my Migraine) You say Wapping Tunnel in the report header (which is what"s shown in your pics) but all of the report text concerns the Crown Street Tunnel which you then don"t show any pics of. But there"s no information on Wapping tunnel at all :confused:

They were both still there when myself and Choo-Choo @stranton left them ;) although you will need chest waders to reach the end of Wapping Tunnel (as you"ve probably found out :D
 

stranton

subterranean explorer
Regular User
Well done for getting through the cutting & in the tunnel, :thumb
but the threads very confusing info on Crown Street but Shots of Wapping?
The last 2 shots of the head shunt ,
you will of walked thro the 1846 crown Street tunnel but no shots of it?
Try to get the information to match the photographs,
on your new threads.

thanks

sure some folk use the like button by habbit rather than meaning ;)
 

BrainL

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Sorry guys, maybe I was misinformed, I was under the impression that the Wapping tunnels were a combination of Crown Street tunnel and a few others. There were two tunnels were we went but only ventured into one of them..

Probably best I stick to the buildings in future... :)
 

stranton

subterranean explorer
Regular User
Wapping is the middle & lllloooonnnngggg, original crown street is the right & short.
1846 crown street is the left, live & used as a head shunt.
 

BrainL

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Wapping is the middle & lllloooonnnngggg, original crown street is the right & short.
1846 crown street is the left, live & used as a head shunt.

That explains it then, the guy that showed us there said we'd been in the Wapping tunnel and it was the middle one I went into.. shame its too late to edit the history notes now :(

Thanks for clearing that up :)
 

stranton

subterranean explorer
Regular User
That explains it then, the guy that showed us there said we'd been in the Wapping tunnel and it was the middle one I went into.. shame its too late to edit the history notes now :(

Thanks for clearing that up :)
yeah the wapping is the middle :thumb
 
Top