The Harecastle railway tunnels are three consecutive tunnels on the

North Staffordshire Railway The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire. The company was based i ...

Kidsgrove Kidsgrove is a town in the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, on the Cheshire border. It is part of the Potteries Urban Area, along with Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. It has a population of 26,276 (2019 census). ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England. Opened to traffic in 1848, two years after being authorised, the tunnels carried the

line between

and Tunstall. The older Harecastle Canal Tunnels ran so close that vibrations from the trains allegedly affected their integrity. The Middle and South tunnels have been disused since the realignment of the railway in 1965 as their limited size made them unsuitable to install overhead electrification apparatus. In 2013 it was announced that the disused tunnels, which have continued to be maintained, would be sold to a public body.

History

Construction of the Harecastle railway tunnels was authorised by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1846. An alternative route for the tunnels had been considered, but was discarded, partly because of objections from Thomas Kinnersley of Clough Hall but also because the alignment had gentler gradients. Another benefit of the alignment was that construction would be aided by using shafts driven from the pre-existing

canal tunnels The Canal Tunnels are a pair of single track railway tunnels in north London which connect the East Coast Main Line to London St Pancras International Thameslink. Their name comes from the Regent's Canal, which they pass closely beneath. Con ...

. The

commenced boring the tunnels almost immediately. Three tunnels were built on the alignment between Tunstall and Kidsgrove, commonly referred to as the North, Middle and South tunnels. Each carried a pair of tracks throughout, the North tunnel was the shortest at 130 yards, the Middle was 180 yards and the South tunnel, the longest, was 1,766 yards. The North tunnel was constructed using the

cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube constr ...

technique, unlike the other two bores. During 1848, construction of the Harecastle railway tunnels was completed. Harecastle tunnel

According to Basil Jeuda, the tunnels were a key link in Britain's rail system. The arrival of the railway negatively impacted the canal tunnels. In 1914, the oldest of the two canal tunnels was permanently closed by a partial collapse of the bore, allegedly caused by vibrations generated by trains passing through the railway tunnels. Bathpool railway

In the 1960s, work was undertaken to electrify the

West Coast Main Line The West Coast Main Line (WCML) is one of the most important railway corridors in the United Kingdom, connecting the major cities of London and Glasgow with branches to Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Edinburgh. It is one of the busiest ...

. The Harecastle railway tunnels posed a challenge. The North tunnel was opened out using

flying buttress The flying buttress (''arc-boutant'', arch buttress) is a specific form of buttress composed of an arch that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey lateral forces to the ground that are necessary to pu ...

es. The South and Middle tunnels were unsuitable for electrification because of their limited size and the line was diverted onto a new alignment running to the west through the Kidsgrove Tunnel that was bored to carry the diversion. The diversion starts about 300 metres south of

Kidsgrove railway station Kidsgrove railway station serves the town of Kidsgrove in Staffordshire, England. The station is north of Stoke-on-Trent railway station, Stoke-on-Trent. The station is served by trains on the Crewe to Derby Line which is also a Community rail, ...

, and rejoined the original line just to the west of Tunstall (roughly where the A527 crosses the line). The last trains to use the original alignment were run in 1965. In early 2013, the British Government directed the

Department of Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport matters in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland that have not been devolved. The d ...

to put the disused tunnels up for sale. It was stipulated that the new owner must be a public body and that they must continue to receive appropriate maintenance. The southern bore is reportedly flooded because its drainage is not maintained.

References

External links

1940s 1 inch to 1 mile map

Geograph photo of steam train on the diversion
{{coord, 53.0697, -2.2322, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Railway tunnels in England Tunnels in Staffordshire Transport in Staffordshire Tunnels completed in 1848

History

References

Further reading

External links