# Queensbury tunnel



## phill.d

Word on the grapevine was the badly flooded West portal of Queensbury tunnel was being drained to allow for some much needed maintenance work to be carried out. It was interesting enough news to get me out of urbex semi retirement and go take a look for myself 





The good news was the tunnel had indeed been drained, at one time the entire West portal of Queensbury was totally submerged under water. 
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, the long lost portal was once again visible after many years 





The bad news is there was still three foot of vivid blue water blocking access into this part of the tunnel 
Oh well, you can't beat them all, it was good to see the lost portal of Queensbury for the first time. 

You can see this end of the tunnel is in poor condition, several big stones in the tunnel roof lining are hanging on by a thread. As far as I can work out the blue lagoon is caused by the crushed limestone aggregate they used to fill in the cutting. The main active ingredient of agricultural limestone is calcium carbonate, It's the calcium carbonate which is responsible for turning the water vivid blue. Most blue lagoons are often to be found in old quarry sites e.t.c. It can't harm the water too much though, we saw a good few fish swimming about in it.





There was even the remains of one of the old Great Northern Railway telegraph poles complete with Bakelite insulators attached.





This is how the West portal used to look when the line was still in service. Two spoil heaps from the air shaft excavations are visible on top of the tunnel. 





And this is the same view with the portal totally submerged under water before it was drained.





Now that's what you call serious flooding!

With access to this part of the tunnel a no go, the only thing left was to take a look at the Eastern portal on the other side of the village to see if the well fortified gates were a little less well fortified than when I made my last visit. 





So we headed off over the hill and through the village to descend down the very rough and bumpy dirt track called Station Road. Queensbury tunnel when built in 1878 was the longest tunnel on the Great Northern Railway system at 1 mile 741 yards. It held that distinction until 1910 and was also said to be one of the deepest in the country.

I'm not surprised Queensbury is one of the deepest tunnels in the country, anyone who has visited Queensbury will know it's situated very high up at 1,150 ft above sea level. A little bit of trivia about Halifax and it's hilly nature, and at times dangerous roads can be traced back to the invention of the cats eyes we still have built into our roads. One evening in 1933, Percy Shaw was driving home to Halifax from the Old Dolphin pub in Queensbury, West Yorkshire. At around 300m above sea level, the A647 was foggy and damp. Previously, Shaw had relied on the reflections of his car's headlights on the metal tramlines to guide him, but the trams had recently been discontinued and the lines dug up. That evening, his headlights were reflected in the eyes of a cat, giving him the idea for his 1935 cats eyes invention 







After plodding through some serious muddy quagmire, and fighting a few overgrown trees we found the portal to be still firmly gated! 
These gates had metal sheets welded to them around three years ago, since then no more photos have come out of this tunnel at all. 

It was a shame not to be able to get any photos of the flooded end of this tunnel after making the effort to get here. All wasn't lost as we had another lead to check out in the area that turned very promising, more of that to come at a later date. So I'll used some of my older photos of Queensbury to do this report as I don't believe I ever did one at the time.





Not cooking with gas!

There always seems to be a discarded oxy acetylene bottle to be found around disused railways, we didn't see the ubiquitous shopping trolley that always seems to go with them on this occasion. Note my co-explorers totally unsuitable exploration fashion pants 





Here's a shot of the East portal in the 1940's.





Plate layers at the junction with Queensbury tunnel in the background. Taken circa 1905 and all the men lived in Small Page, Queensbury.





And a very different look to the portal in 2012. The Gothic graceful arch of Queensbury tunnel has to be my favourite portal of all time. The lush vegetation adds to the sense of mystery. Behind the fortified gate lies a monster 2501 yard long tunnel below the village of Queensbury. The tunnel itself runs under the entire length of the village.

A big problem in the tunnels history was giant icicles forming on cold winter nights over this portal. A steam engine used to be parked here overnight to prevent this in later years. The line used to be known as the Alpine route due to it's hilly nature.





On the right side of the wall, you can see why ice was a big problem in the winter months in this section of tunnel, water pours in here like a power shower!





Welcome to hell! :icon_evil

Abandon hope all ye who enter, we switched on the search lights to see this rather forbidding outlook awaiting us in the depths of the tunnel. Water cascades down the first air shaft continually. At one time an effort had been made to cordon off this rather dodgy looking part of the tunnel 





All the Queensbury air shafts continually pour water down them, even in the driest Summer months.
I bet they're are some great photos to be had with icicles in this tunnel during Winter time. 





Be prepared to get yourself soaked navigating past the first air shaft, but some nice photos are on offer once you get to the other side.





A surprising find, and rather sad looking section of 20' track panel is the only reminder that trains ran through this tunnel. No trains have run over these tracks since 1955, and the whole track was lifted by 1956. Why this small section remains is a bit of a mystery.





This is the view of Queensbury tunnel just over half way in. The small glow of blue at the end is daylight radiating through the gates at the portal. The pile of bricks have come from the top of the air shaft above, the tops of the shafts were usually demolished, and capped off with concrete when they closed. I guess it was easier to simply let the bricks fall into the tunnel, rather than clear them away from above. 





It's best not to think your stood 379' below the village of Queensbury at this point!
These air shafts ventilated the tunnel, and allowed the smoke from passing steam trains to clear. They were originally built as construction shafts, rubble, and materials would have been raised and lowered in cages. It's amazing to think that construction went on with nothing more than candlelight. In total eight shafts were sunk during construction. The deepest being 379 below ground level, five shafts were eventually used for ventilation, the other three were filled in. I'm not really sure what the chains are for seen on this shot, as far as I can recall these ones in Queensbury are the only ones I've seen in a disused tunnel. 





These refuges were built as a place of safety for any track gangs working in the tunnel. It must have been quite alarming standing back hard pressed to the wall as an express train speed passed you literally feet away in the darkness. 





A rather strange, but non the less historically correct piece of graffiti to be found inside Queensbury.





This is just over a mile inside the tunnel, large amounts of mineral deposits had coated the walls here. This section of tunnel was very dry compared to the wet Bradford end, the trackbed crunched nicely under foot. A few old sleepers could still be found scattered about, the indents where they used to be laid clearly visible. A little further down the tunnel becomes completely flooded. From this point we began to hear a rhythmic thud, and the whine of a generator getting louder. Where it was coming from remains a bit of a mystery. 





This was as far as we could get inside the tunnel. The tunnel runs down hill on a gradient of 1' in 100', and from this point the water quickly gets deeper, a little further down the water touches the top of the tunnel roof. The whole portal in the Strines cutting is totally submerged. I had two powerful lamps shining down there to try see how far the tunnel extended, but there appears to be some sort of arch support, or solid wall/roof collapse blocking the torch beams. This is 109 chains inside the tunnel, and the furthest I've ever ventured inside Queensbury tunnel.

All being well, and the pump keeps working, the long lost end of Queensbury tunnel will be ready to explore again in the next few weeks, it's one worth keeping your eye on in the future guys!


----------



## Ace247

Proper stunning pictures, best pics I've seen on any forum... in fact they are awesome...


----------



## phill.d

Ace247 said:


> Proper stunning pictures, best pics I've seen on any forum... in fact they are awesome...


Thank you good sir!


----------



## night crawler

This makes the other tunnels pail int insignificance, another master report Phill, look forward to the next on the lost end.


----------



## phill.d

night crawler said:


> This makes the other tunnels pail int insignificance, another master report Phill, look forward to the next on the lost end.


Thanks, Queensbury as well as Gildersome are by far the two best tunnels in Yorkshire to look at as far as photography goes. Cheers!


----------



## Faing

fantastic report,thank you for sharring,wonderfull pics.


----------



## godzilla73

That is excellent Phill. Those shots of the flooded tunnel are awesome - great history too. I hope this encourages more people to do railway stuff, which is fascinating but massively underrated by a lot of folk.

Godzy


----------



## PaulPowers

They are corkers 

Anyone got a boat?


----------



## TK421

Phill, top class as usual my friend, good to see a report from you and that you have come out of semi retirement, somewhere I find myself these days too!

cheers


----------



## Andymacg

great pics .and an even better report


----------



## oldscrote

One of the best reports in ages.Thanks


----------



## flyboys90

Cracking detailed report & photos.


----------

