# Glenfield Railway Tunnel Leicestershire Oct09



## diehardlove (Dec 14, 2009)

sorry this is late being put on but im behind with my reports

Glenfield was the site of the first station from Leicester West Bridge on the Leicester and Swannington Railway opened on 17 July 1832 as the world's third steam railway. Just before reaching the station the line passed through Glenfield Tunnel, which at 1 mile 36 yards long was at the time the world's longest railway tunnel and was built by Robert Stephenson. The Glenfield end of the tunnel can still be seen.

A public footpath in Glenfield passes close to the western entrance to Glenfield tunnel, , which has been bricked up. The eastern entrance to the tunnel has been buried, while the tunnel as a whole was sold to Leicester city council for a nominal sum, though the council has never decided what use to make of it. The tops of several brick ventilator shafts can be seen among the houses of the estate above the tunnel,; some are in the back gardens of the houses. The tunnel itself underwent in 2008 a retrofit to install strengthening rings that are hoped to prevent a collapse of the extant tunnel shaft. The £500,000 reinforcement project was commissioned by the Leicester city council

the far end has a cover at the top of a ladder that must be on someones drive or backgarden,
i tried to get a gps signal at the very top of the ladder with the gps device next to the metal cover but could not get a signal shame as i would have loved to have found it






this is the work carried out by the coucil theya are all the way to the end of the tunnel




cut in




got to say ive never had so much fun in a tunnel as this vent is right in the middle of a council estate and there were kids up there taking so i started shouting up to them and ended up with stones being chucked at my lol




far side blocked up with ladder going up




ladder with manhole cover at the top









then a long walk back to the big metal gates




vent covers


----------



## night crawler (Dec 14, 2009)

GPS don't work underground or under a metal cover. Shame you did not try to snee the lid open. Nice report that


----------



## diehardlove (Dec 14, 2009)

the lid is tight as anything,ive had gps signals before under manholes in drains !!!! by putting my gps(proper one not a sat nav) reciever next to the metal cover

thanks for that it was a long walk and very muddy but it had to be done


----------



## Goldie87 (Dec 14, 2009)

Nice one, good to see other people getting in there


----------



## RichardB (Dec 15, 2009)

The Beeching's Ghosts website reckons the manhole must be here, you might be able to peer over a wall and see it, although I'd probably keep it padlocked and covered up if it was in my garden.


----------



## Artypie (Dec 15, 2009)

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=stephenson+court+glenfields&sll=52.653455,-1.195455&sspn=0.001147,0.002047&gl=uk&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Stephenson+Ct,+Glenfields,+Leicester+LE3,+United+Kingdom&ll=52.653423,-1.195793&spn=0.002294,0.006137&t=h&z=18

Aerial version of the map.


----------

