Berwyn Tunnel is the longest single bore tunnel on any preserved line in the UK.
It is 689 yards long and has no smoke ventilation shafts. It is brick lined throughout
due the the nature of the rock and the legacy of lead and other ore mining pits in
the hillside above. The tunnel leaks water through the brickwork in wet seasons due
to these mining pits.
Left: Berwyn Tunnel East Portal before the brushwood was cut back on 10th Jan 2009
Right: The view of the Dee Valley from the top of the tunnel portal on the same day
Picture - John Rutter
Left to Right: What it looked like before we started. Cutting the ivy down. The Train
to get us and the tools there. Clearing a larger piece of brushwood. Finished, the
gang line up for the record. A quick look at the West portal before home.
Brushwood clearing is an essential and regular activity on any railway. It’s amazing
how quickly nature tries to take things back. The original cutting was done here
in 1987 and what is cleared is the copice wood which has grown from the stumps.
The stumps are left in to grow again to maintain bank stability.
The gang were (pic 5) : Colin Cooper, Gary Roberts, Charles Wilson, Dan Thomas, Ian
Ross and Mike Watts
with Roger Hodgkinson and yours truly off the picture.
Pictures - John Rutter
Three unusual views of Berwyn Tunnel West Portal during brushwood clearing on 7th
February
All Photos - Peter Robson
A very unusual sight - the headlight on a DMU illuminates giant icicles growing in
Berwyn tunnel, rather like stalactites in ancient caves. The tunnel has a prevailing
wind blowing through it; there are also a number of points where water drips through
the roof, particularly after very wet weather. In the right conditions, the water
coming through the ceiling is chilled by the wind and frozen before it can fall to
the ground. Specimens reaching right down to the ground have been seen when no trains
have run for a few days.
Also visible if you look closely, is one of the refuges, almost at the right-hand
edge of the picture. These are recesses in the tunnel wall, built to enable people
working in the tunnel to wait safely whilst a train passes. At the very far right-hand
side of this picture can be seen one of the mileposts (in this case, a plate screwed
to the wall) which are placed every quarter of a mile along the track. This one is
'8': eight miles the junction of our line with the main line near Ruabon. Most of
the others are fixed to posts, visible from the train. (John Joyce)
Above Left - Tracklaying into the Tunnel from the west Nov 1989
Above Right: Track in the tunnel Dec 1989
Left: The first “train” through the tunnel - the Neptune at the west portal Dec 1989
Below Right: The first steam loco into the tunnel since 1964. Odney Manor gently
eases into the East Portal Dec 1989
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