# Dudley Railway Tunnel. Birmingham. June 12.



## Black Shuck (Jun 24, 2012)

Dudley Railway Tunnel is a railway tunnel located near to the former Dudley railway station in Dudley, West Midlands, England. It was opened in 1850 to allow the Oxford-Worcester-Wolverhampton Line between Stourbridge and Wolverhampton to pass for several hundred yards beneath a hilly area of Dudley which would have been difficult if not impossible to have constructed a railway through. At Dudley the OWWR and South Staffordshire Line to Walsall met.
The tunnel was regularly used by passenger trains until 1964, when the town's station closed along with the remaining passenger stations on the line, although goods trains were still allowed to use the line. It finally closed to all trains on 19 March 1993, when the section of railway between Walsall and Brierley Hill was closed after 143 years in use. A cable laying train passed through the tunnel on 2 July 1993 - nearly four months after the line was officially closed.
As of early 2010, the tunnel is still closed and Steel gates have been placed at both ends. Network Rail hopes to have goods trains passing through the tunnel again in the next decade, although the imminent Midland Metro expansion will not make use of the tunnel. The re-opening of Dudley tunnel and the railway on which it runs would also make an ideal diversion route for passenger trains if the need arose, although the idea of re-introducing passenger trains on the route (as was proposed back in 1997) seems unlikely to proceed. Taken from Wiki. After a 3 hour journey, my longest for an explore yet, we arrived at Blowers Green Station Building at the side of an extremely overgrown approach cutting.. the pics....







Here's what's left of the booking office and station building at Blowers green on the old OWWR Route. There was a path down to the platform at the bottom of the cutting.






Looking down the approach cutting, towards the south portal of the 944 yard Dudley Tunnel






There was once a large gasworks situated above the tunnel, this is all that remains of that gasworks crossing what's left of the double track line. The track is still in situ albeit throttled by vegetation






Blowers Green Tunnel and station back in it's heyday






And again with the gasworks in the background and two venerable old ladies.






South Portal, Dudley Tunnel.






Lightpainted in the dark.


























Thanks for looking people.


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## urban phantom (Jun 24, 2012)

Nice work mate love the pics


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## Black Shuck (Jun 24, 2012)

Thanks Phantom, I was really in my domain here. I love old railway tunnels and lightpainting too.


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## night crawler (Jun 24, 2012)

Nice work there, I love old railways as well though I have yet to find a tunnel.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 24, 2012)

Thanks Nightcrawler. This one has been on my to do list since last November.I would have walked it but I became ill.


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## UE-OMJ (Jun 25, 2012)

Tunnel pics are awesome - yours have come out really well. Was suprised to see the actual railway still in there too.


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## UrbanX (Jun 25, 2012)

Nicely documented, craking pics too!


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## flyboys90 (Jun 25, 2012)

See you found it okay and no trains! great photos.


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## Andymacg (Jun 25, 2012)

nice work there shuck


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

UE-OMJ said:


> Tunnel pics are awesome - yours have come out really well. Was suprised to see the actual railway still in there too.



So was I mate. I have been keeping an eye on this one for a while now. Don't think it's been on DP before as far as I know.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

UrbanX said:


> Nicely documented, craking pics too!



Thanks X, coming from you that's a real complement.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

Andymacg said:


> nice work there shuck



Thanks Andy. I have a real passion for these!.. Lightpainted they really do look awesome.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

skeleton key said:


> I really like this shucky as a tunnel lover Too
> Cheers for posting



Thanks SK. I do love these. I remember joining DP as a mere Shuck pup back in 2008 and seeing these lightpainted from the likes of Big Loada and the rest of the boys, and thinking " How the hell did they do that"?.... Guess it inspired me big time, I always had a passion for old railway urbex right back to the late seventies at a local station site when I was a nipper. Natural progression I guess!


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## Munchh (Jun 25, 2012)

Excellent shucky, still like yer tunnels then. Good to see the tracks still in place although it's unusual, they're normally removed. Lucky boy. 

Good work on the old pics too, great for context.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

Munchh said:


> Excellent shucky, still like yer tunnels then. Good to see the tracks still in place although it's unusual, they're normally removed. Lucky boy.
> 
> Good work on the old pics too, great for context.



Indeed I do Munchh. Haad this on the radar for some time mate.


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## boxfrenzy (Jun 25, 2012)

Ahhh, the Dudley Railway tunnel. I'm glad that you got along there. Nice shots of the place.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 25, 2012)

boxfrenzy said:


> Ahhh, the Dudley Railway tunnel. I'm glad that you got along there. Nice shots of the place.



Thanks Box! Your pics from here were the reason I wanted to do it. We went in from the south portal.


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## godzilla73 (Jun 25, 2012)

Ah Shuck my boy - good to see your work again. Marvellous railway goodliness!
Godzy


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## Black Shuck (Jun 26, 2012)

Thanks GZ... I do my best!


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## Carlh (Jun 26, 2012)

Tunnel looked well spooky! great shots


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## oldscrote (Jun 26, 2012)

Good stuff Shucky,the photography is up to your usual impeccable standards,unusual to find the track still there


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## Black Shuck (Jun 26, 2012)

Carlh said:


> Tunnel looked well spooky! great shots



Thanks Carl, to be honest with you, this one was one of the easiest I've ever walked!.... There was a lovely breeze blowing right through from one end to the other which aided ventilation. I've walked tunnels in Lincs that were much more stuffy and had a bad case of no oxygen!


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## Black Shuck (Jun 26, 2012)

oldscrote said:


> Good stuff Shucky,the photography is up to your usual impeccable standards,unusual to find the track still there



Thank you OS. I always remember when I first started and all I knew was the flash !!..... never realised it's better to use a tripod and bump the shutter seconds up. Some of these were taken with a 30 sec exposure and lots of arm knackering torch waving in the darkest bits. Tunnels always seem to eat up every single bit of light and are not easy to illuminate. Without the torches and head torches too, this is absolutely pitch black. Very serene though and quiet. We could hear the cars and sirens passing above as we walked through.


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## gushysfella (Jun 26, 2012)

Ohh I like that, well worth the long drive, thanks for posting GF


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## Black Shuck (Jun 26, 2012)

Definatly,,, there will be another very soon.


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## nobbyn (Jun 27, 2012)

night crawler said:


> Nice work there, I love old railways as well though I have yet to find a tunnel.



Catesby Tunnel on the old Great Central in Northants is walkable and it is about 1.5 miles long.
Walked it several months ago, but you do need a very strong torch after a while.


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## Black Shuck (Jun 27, 2012)

I'd imagine you would. That baby has got some serious yardage!


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## nelly (Jun 28, 2012)

Love that


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## Black Shuck (Jun 28, 2012)

Thanks Nel.... it was a long trip, but so worth it!


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## alex76 (Jun 28, 2012)

nice stuff nice bit of railway porn there bud will have to have a little mooch of this one i thinks


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