# Sandsend tunnel, Whitby.



## phill.d

Oh we do like to be besides the seaside 




 © Ken mell
A steam engine crosses the now demolished viaduct leaving Sandsend station. The next stop is a short distance away in Whitby. 
The North Eastern railway opened the line in 1883. The line finally closed due to dwindling passenger numbers in 1958. 



The course of the Whitby to Middlesbrough railway is very photogenic. It's quite precarious in places, so much so that part of the proposed route fell into the sea before construction started. Sandsend tunnel was cut through the headland instead.



Sandsend tunnel is marked in white. The two smaller side passages running towards the sea are also marked in white. The course of the Whitby-Middlesbrough line along the coast is marked in purple. The tunnel itself is 1,652 yards long, which is only 100 yards short of a mile. The tunnel is dead straight, except for the Southern end, which has a sharp 300 yard long curve.



Never judge a tunnel by it's portal.
This single track tunnel looks friendly enough from the outside, but a a thick mist looms, and Sandsend has it's own resident skeleton within. I first visited Sandsend in June 2007, the North portal at the other end of this tunnel was in a precarious state back then. It finally did collapse around about the time of the big earthquake in February 2008.



Once inside conditions inside the tunnel change dramitically.
The tunnel is bone dry in places, footsteps make the ambient sound of crunching cinders. In other places it is extremely wet, the tunnel floor is coated with this thick Orange mud. 



Things start to dry out after the first air shaft collapse. The orange splodgefest is replaced with iron calcites coating the walls. 



This view is looking down the first small side passage in Sandsend tunnel. 

There was a pungent smell of diesel creosote/oil in this area, the standing water was jet black in places. It's possible that this was due to the sturdy Oak props supporting the passage. This side passage is around 400 feet long, this passage runs directly from the main bore of the tunnel, venture down there, and you will find yourself perched high above the sea on the cliff face. There are two of these side passages in the tunnel, they are situated directly under air shafts two and four. 

These would have originally been construction adits to tip waste spoil straight into the sea. I imagine rails would have run down these passages, small minning tubs would have been pushed along by candle light. I loved these small passages, I thought there were very reminiscent of smugglers caves. The small blue glow at the end is daylight radiating into the tunnel.



Serious forces are at work here, considerable pressure is pushing the props inwards, some have given up the battle, they've snapped clean in half like match sticks. Horizontal cross braces have been added to try prevent any further movement. I presume these would have been fitted when the line was still in operation, there certainly not the same age as the 1883 original timbers.



The passageway gets more claustrophobic the further down you go. Looking down the passage you can see a ladder will take you up to higher reaches on top of the gallery. A series of precarious planks provides a walkway on top of the props. 



There are five air shafts in total, all were capped off after the line closed, none are visible above ground today.



Skeleton of Sandsend!!
I wonder how long this poor chaps been lurking down here?



This is the second side passage in Sandsend, this passage runs directly underneath air shaft four from the main bore of the tunnel. This passage is wider than the first one, an extra centralised prop helps support this construction, a much neater finish, with close boarding encloses the whole structure. The water is also much deeper in this passage, a loud gush of water pours down the air shaft a few feet behind me, there's lots of strange glooping noises, water drips continuously onto the standing water from above. 



This is looking around the South curve into the impending gloom. The rubble from the collapsed air shaft can be seen in the distance. The brickwork on one side of the tunnel only is an interesting feature. I'm not sure why they deviated away from the stone blocks the rest of the tunnel is constructed with. The gouges in the trackbed are also another unusual feature. I've never seen such clearly defined marks like these in a tunnel before. I can only thinking a raking machine caused them while clearing away the old track ballast. 



Sandsend tunnel was only single track width. This makes it feel very confined, and claustrophobic in places. I was glad to see daylight at the far end by this time. The tunnel is also bone dry at this point, footsteps crushed the floor like cinders. Unlike the very noisy wet parts of the tunnel, this area was deadly silent. 



I took this shot from on top of the roof collapse, the brick retaining wall is around 8' high for a sense of scale, so you can judge how high the pile of rubble is here. 



It's hard to believe that this is actually bent railway track. 



This northern portal was always problematic, It had been strengthened using rings of bullhead rail. Even when the line was open, the portal was under serious pressure. The walls were slowly buckling under the weight from above. Unfortunately the strengthening rails could no longer take the pressure, and around 6 feet of the roof collapsed 51 years after the last train passed through it.



Yikes!



This is a 2007 shot of the portal on my first visit to Sandsend.
Mother nature was slowly squeezing the tunnel into submission, the stone work is literally bieng forced in two. It came as no surprise that this finally collapsed seven months after i took this shot.



You can see the left hand side of the tunnel is being forced in on this archive shot. The area looks very different today, full trees now grow on the old trackbed.



There's some great views over Sandsendness when you get back out into the fresh air! 


Thanks for looking 

All photos © phill.d


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## Labb

Beautilful pictures. Nice landscape as well.


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## night crawler

superb report as always phill and photo's that always make me envious.


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## Alansworld

Absolutely fascinating. A very interesting report and pics.
Many thanks.

A


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## Faing

Fantastic pics of an interesting place. Well done and thanks.


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## Black Shuck

Absolutely brilliant Phillip, what exposure time did you use?


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## phill.d

Thanks for the great comments guys!

Cheers 



Black Shuck said:


> Absolutely brilliant Phillip, what exposure time did you use?


Hi mate.
I use 'max' settings usually for my underground stuff. A massive 1600 ISO and 20-30 second exposures.
It works well with my camera settings and noise reduction. But i guess those settings would destroy a lot of pics on other camera makes. It really is a question of what works best on your individual camera. Trial & error stuff!

Thanks!


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## TK421

Brilliant Phil, another top class report. I was in Sandsend last Monday but could not persuade the missu and kids to walk though........wierdos

I also had a little look in Ravenscar tunnel, it was to satisfy my curosity as to whether my little fenix pd30 torch would cut the mustard, its good, but as I found out, its not that good! Time to invest in a bizillion candle power jobby methinks

Great report mate


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## King Al

Excellent report Phil great write up and pics, the Oak props are fantastic


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## tonyque2

Very interesting report backed up with superb pictures. Thanks for sharing


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## 227angrydonkeys

fab stuff, i used to go through these with my dad when i was a kid. i think we used to go through one at kettleness as well?? this brought back some nice memories for me


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## Krypton

WOW! I cycle along here about 4 times per year, Hartlepool to Robin Hoods Bay and i have never seen this!!! Im gonna have to stop and take a look now!


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## devonian42

Thanks for this Phil.

Just the right blend of archive pics showing the "then" and "now". Storyline is good as you walked through the tunnel as well.

I've been to the Ravenscar area briefly but not at this spot. Unitl I saw this I didn't know there was a closed railway so close to the sea. Thanks for the educational component too


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## swanseamale47

Great explore and smashing pics.


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## smiffy

what a cracking report !.loved the info on each photo .really great stuff ! cheers!


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## Andymacg

fantastic report

love the bent rail pics


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## chris

Superb report


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## hydealfred

Excellent report and superb photography - like those landscape/coastal shots


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## Priority 7

Looks like a great place to wander and relax while taking your pics Phil, shame its so far away from me would love to take a gander myself


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## Simon-G

Excellent photos and report Phil , That tunnel with the support beams gave me the heebee jeebees just lookin at them.


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## muppet1992

wow, looks great. some nice pictures there too. thanks for sharing them.


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