4930 HAGLEY HALL emerges from Dinmore Old Tunnel

Dinmore Tunnel is the name given to two railway tunnels located on the former

Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway The Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway was an English railway company that built a standard gauge line between those places. It opened its main line in 1853. Its natural ally seemed to be the Great Western Railway. With other lines it formed a rou ...

(S&HR) line between Hereford station and Leominster station. The first tunnel (currently the 'up' tunnel) was built in 1853, with the second tunnel (the 'down' tunnel) being added in 1891. Both are still in use and are jointly the 15th longest tunnels on the former

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. To the south of the tunnel was

Dinmore railway station Dinmore railway station is located on the Main line in Queensland, Australia. It serves the suburb of Dinmore in the City of Ipswich.Hope Under Dinmore Hope under Dinmore is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. The village is on the A49 road, south of Leominster and north of Hereford, and on the Welsh Marches railway line. The railway passes under Dinmore Hill through the sp ...

and tunnels under Queen's Wood Country Park & Arboretum.

Construction

When the S&HR was opened in November 1863, it was a single track throughout. However, all infrastructure was made wide enough to accommodate twin tracks throughout apart from the Dinmore Tunnel which, owing to the uncertain rock strata, was left as a single bore. The engineer, Mr Pollard, recommended that if the line were to be doubled, then a second tunnel should be constructed. When the S&HR became a joint line of the London & North Western and the Great Western and

West Midland Railway The West Midland Railway was an early British railway company. It was formed on 1 July 1860 by a merger of several older railway companies and amalgamated with the Great Western Railway on 1 August 1863. It was the successor to the Oxford, Worces ...

s, they pursued the second tunnel option. The tunnels are split-level - the track on the up line to

Leominster Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster is t ...

being at a higher level than the down line to

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, both are long and the line speed through both is .

References

External links

Photographs of the tunnels and geographical references

Tunnels in Herefordshire Railway tunnels in England {{England-rail-transport-stub