This was a return visit to a place i've visited a few times in the past, the last being about 4 years back with my son who at that time was reluctant to go in, so we just walked the trackbed outside to watch the Kestrels. This time round it was his idea, i had plans to do another site but couldn't resist taking my boy up on his request, so off we went with along with theterrorwheel for a nice long walk on a gorgeous evening. Black Shuck has been waiting impatiently to walk this tunnel but had work commitments, gutted you couldn't make it but don't worry dude, time will soon pass for the next journey 
.
Withcall tunnel is situated on the old Louth to Bardney railway, tucked away under the beautiful landscape of the Lincolnshire Wolds. The line was opened for goods traffic in 1874 by an independant group of capitalists, but was later sold to Great Northern. It was closed to passengers in 1951, but continued to be used for freight until the late 1950's. The length of the tunnel is an impressive 971 yards & is now a SSSI for hibernating bats during the winter months. No bats were in the tunnel at the time of our visit.
A couple of hundred yards along the track from the East portal lies a bridge which was built by engineers to allow a farm track to run underneath. On the Eastern side lies a Kestrel nesting box, but none were home at the time unfortunately. On with the pics, & my compact is rubbish for capturing long shots in dark tunnels but TTW will post up his at some point.
The bridge along from the Eastern tunnel portal
Walking down the trackbed to the East portal
East portal
Into the darkness
Sleeper
Signalling pulleys
Not sure what this was but it looked like a tall (6') thin tombstone/gatepost
Brickwork
Stone marker 21, there are 40 in total
Huge amounts of calcification all over the place
Nuts
Nearing the Western portal, the boy decides to do his glowing hands trick
Approaching the West portal
Looking out the West portal
Exterior shot of the West portal before making our return back through to the east were we left the motor
.Withcall tunnel is situated on the old Louth to Bardney railway, tucked away under the beautiful landscape of the Lincolnshire Wolds. The line was opened for goods traffic in 1874 by an independant group of capitalists, but was later sold to Great Northern. It was closed to passengers in 1951, but continued to be used for freight until the late 1950's. The length of the tunnel is an impressive 971 yards & is now a SSSI for hibernating bats during the winter months. No bats were in the tunnel at the time of our visit.
A couple of hundred yards along the track from the East portal lies a bridge which was built by engineers to allow a farm track to run underneath. On the Eastern side lies a Kestrel nesting box, but none were home at the time unfortunately. On with the pics, & my compact is rubbish for capturing long shots in dark tunnels but TTW will post up his at some point.
The bridge along from the Eastern tunnel portal
Walking down the trackbed to the East portal
East portal
Into the darkness
Sleeper
Signalling pulleys
Not sure what this was but it looked like a tall (6') thin tombstone/gatepost
Brickwork
Stone marker 21, there are 40 in total
Huge amounts of calcification all over the place
Nuts
Nearing the Western portal, the boy decides to do his glowing hands trick
Approaching the West portal
Looking out the West portal
Exterior shot of the West portal before making our return back through to the east were we left the motor
