feature
COLOUR PHOTOS: FOUR BY THREE
Graeme Bickerdike reports...
Taking
the strain
It might have been a washout Leicester. It too involved a tunnel - the thanks to the terrain. Joining Glenfield
weatherwise, but Britain did at least second on a passenger railway - but at Tunnel as the route's most notable
spend half of August basking in a golden 1,796 yards, Glenfield really pushed the features were a self-acting incline and a
glow. Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, boundaries, involving techniques which second, steeper incline worked by a
Christine Ohuruogu and another two were then virtually untried. Stephenson's stationary engine.
dozen Olympians flew back from Beijing son Robert, himself on the verge of an A trio of contractors lead by Buxton's
with gold medals in their clutches, extraordinary career, rose to the Daniel Jowett sealed their deal to
rewards for confounding the sceptics. And challenge of building it. excavate the tunnel on 26th November
we rightly celebrated them. Yet the Kent's pioneering railway went the way 1830. Much would rely on their
spotlight was soon switched off those of many others during the 1950s. Tyler experience. But they soon fell behind the
who came creditable runners-up, such as Hill Tunnel lay forgotten until the earth ambitious schedule. Trial borings, upon
cycling's deliciously named Wendy above it moved in 1974 - a 30-yard which estimations had been made,
Houvenaghel. Obscurity has beckoned section had collapsed, causing a university pointed to the presence of solid rock and
once again. Because that's what happens, building to subside. Much of that passage no requirement for a lining. Reality was
isn't it? Do you remember the second has since been backfilled. To ensure no proving different.
conqueror of Everest or the chap who similar fate befalls Glenfield, 38 concrete Towards the western end, running sands
>
followed Yuri Gagarin into space? rings have recently taken the strain, the
product of a half-million pound project by
Pushed the boundaries its owners, Leicester City Council.
On 3rd May 1830, an inaugural train
rode the undulations between Canterbury Marked a tipping point
and Whitstable on Britain's first passenger Local coalmasters were the force behind
railway. To be fair, it wasn't the only the Leicester & Swannington Railway; its
claimant to that title. With greater construction marked a tipping point in
confidence, the C&W could boast the their battle with rivals further north who
world's first tunnel on a passenger were enjoying the logistical and economic
railway, a half-mile hole cut through Tyler benefits offered by the canalised River
Hill. Responsible for the engineering was Soar. The 16-mile line opened an artery
George Stephenson who went on to raise into the county town from a coalfield to One of the
the capital for a route through the East its west - a journey which was previously tunnel's tighter
Midlands, bringing people and coal into impractical for loads of any volume, ventilation shafts.
october 2008 | the rail engineer | 43
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