# Pencaedrain Tunnel, South Wales - September 2012



## cunningcorgi (Sep 22, 2012)

*HISTORY*

Authorised by an Act of Parliament on 3rd August 1846, the first section of the Vale of Neath railway to open was the main line to Gelli Tarw Junction. Its first traffic rumbled over the broad gauge line on 24th September 1851. Mixed gauge arrived in 1863, with standard gauge completely taking over on 11th May 1872.

Mr Ritson was superintendent and contractor for the construction of a curved 526-yard tunnel near Cefn Rhigos. Although its eastern entrance is now buried beneath the Heads of the Valleys dual carriageway, the west portal survives. Like the bore's sidewalls, it is a masonry structure. Inside, the crown of the arch is brick.

A stream now runs down the middle of the tunnel and the standing water is ankle deep at the portal. There are several refuges and close to the centre is the entrance to a passageway which might have been driven as an intermediate access gallery during construction.


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## UE-OMJ (Sep 22, 2012)

Looks awesome


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## the_man_1984 (Sep 22, 2012)

That's pretty cool. Cheers for sharing.


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## muppet (Sep 22, 2012)

i do like a nice tunnel thanks for the post


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## PaulPowers (Sep 22, 2012)

Nice, how far does the tunnel go?


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## cunningcorgi (Sep 22, 2012)

Officially, 520 yards but whoever came up with that measurement must have had a six pack with them when they did.

It looks, feels and defiantly is, longer. I'd say closer to 600 yards from portal to infill.

Its bloody huge in width though. You'd easily get three standard guage rails in there no problem.


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## kevsy21 (Sep 23, 2012)

Its really hard going lighting a tunnel,good work.


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## jaket (Sep 23, 2012)

is there any of the other portal left? or has it been totaly demolished?
nice photos thanks for sharing.
j


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## Dark Descent (Sep 23, 2012)

loving pic 9 great post, thanks for sharing


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## cunningcorgi (Sep 23, 2012)

jaket said:


> is there any of the other portal left? or has it been totaly demolished?



Completely gone and buried to build a road unfortunatly.


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## godzilla73 (Sep 23, 2012)

Liking that - I'm always amazed at the width of some of these tunnels that looked like they were built to take an entire junction and most of the time only took single line traffic. Great pics, thanks for sharing.
GDZ


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