Pretty much the same as the title suggests
#queensbury
hello everyone and welcome to another video um I did turn around and said that I would be doing the hfield to Keeley and a few stations here and there I then ended up reading about the w a lines and um obviously I’ve done ille to arthington Via otley which you will find in my playlist um I will eventually get around to finish in this series it’s just that I come across so much stuff when I’m researching about the railways that um I just decide to bang up a video because I think it’ be interesting for everyone so today we’re going to be looking at the Queens re line and the Queensbury tunnel should I say and the tunnel is owned by the department for transport maintained on its behalf by national highways hisorical Railways estate controversy has surrounded the future of the tunnel for several years the Queensbury tunnel Society supported by cycling groups environmental campaigners and two local councils is seeking to reopen it as part of a Greenway linking Bradford and Halifax however highways England is progressing plans to abandon the structure due to concerns over its condition this would result in some sections been infilled in September 2019 Queensbury tunnel was named the Victorian society’s list of top 10 most endangered buildings in England and Wales for 2019 so going back to its construction Queensbury tunnel was one of several major engineering Feats on the Halifax Thon and kethley Railway one of the so-called Queensbury lines PL fish route were placed before parliament in 1873 with royal Ascent been granted on the 5th of August after several months of debate Benson and Woody whs that’s the right name a company with a longstanding Association for the Great Northern Railway were the contractors the southern end of the tunnel was north of holfield the route was 3.6 kmet of Railway number three to the northern portal just south of the Triangular station of Queensbury trains could diverge to either Bradford Exchange or kefly the Great Northern Railway appointed John Fraser as engineer whilst his son Henry acted as resident engineer work on the northernmost of the construction shafts got underway in May 1874 it was originally intended that eight shafts would be sunk however their spacing was changed at an early stage resulting in number seven shaft not been progressed the contract required the tunnel to be completed within two years but this proved impossible due to significant water Ingress forcing the abandonment of two other shafts including number five which would have been the deepest at 100 26 M in July 1877 Colonel Frederick boremont chairman of the diamond Rock boring company brought a rock drilling machine to Queensbury which was used to speed up the driving of headings which are pilot tunnels from the bottom of number four shaft diffs in improved the productivity of the miners by four or fivefold and resulted in the Breakthrough of a continuous heading from one end of the tunnel to the other on the 2nd of October 1877 are you following me so far everyone although there was still a need to excavate the tunnel to full size and construct the lining the structural work on the tunnel was finished in July 1878 the last brick was inserted by the inspector James Al Al Brighton who had supervised work on the tunnel from the outset the event was marked by the flying of colors from the head gear of number four shaft following which the Great Northern Railway entertained 300 of the workmen to a dinner not that nice of them at least 10 men died unfortunately during construction of the tunnel miners Henry Jones 39 and John coff 40 were killed when the large when the charge exploded as they attempted to withdraw it of the others Richard Sutcliffe was struck by a cage which fell down a shaft John swi was run over by wagons Henry him drowned at the bottom of a shaft Su Cliff Hudson fell down the shaft Richard Jones was crushed by Falling Rock the Welling Jones was injured in an explosion and succumbed to tenus Fredick golden was crushed by a wagon and Captain pickles was struck on the head by large Timber M they all rest in peace and thank you for the Fantastic work you did on the tunnel that is technically Still Standing today Railway number three was inspected by Major General CS Hutchinson on behalf of the Board of Trade on the 11th of October 1878 stating that I must report that the reason of the incom completeness of the work the Halifax Thon and kefly Railway in its Westley Fort cannot be opened for passenger traffic without danger to the public good stren started to use the line almost immediately but passenger Services were not introduced until the 1st of December 1879 in 1882 defects were found in the arch and sidewalls at several locations through the tunnel caused by poor workmanship and the effects of adjacent mine workings this resulted in the imposition of single line working for the first time for the first nine months of 1883 while repairs were carried out subsid and some water Ingress continued to have an impact during the tunnel’s operational period prompting an extensive program of patch repairs to the arch in the 1920s and the relining of number three shaft in 1934 in April 1906 Foreman gang ganger Sam Hurst was knocked down by a train in the tunnel and lost one of his feet on the night of the 24th of March 1944 fan Harry Kilner looked out of the cab as his train approached the tunnel resulting in him striking his head on the brick work he substained lacerations and concussion although passenger Revenue declined due to tram and bus competition Freight traffic remained relatively buoyant until the 1940s however the high cost of maintenance is part duw to the Queensbury tunnel made the line of the Prime candidate made the line the prime candidate for closure as part of post-war economy measures with passenger Services already withdrawn the section of line from hfield to Queensbury West closed on the 28th of May 1956 track lifting through the tunnel took place in 1953 in July 1969 the early prototype of an invar wire strain meter right was installed in Queensbury tunnel as part of research by a team of scientists from the University of Cambridge in to Earth strain following the Project’s conclusion the facility was retained and expanded recording equipment was housed in a hook close to number four shaft and the facility was closed in the 1979 but of random information ner here in 1991 scientists from British rails Research Center carried out experiments into the effectivness of new waterproof grout which was injected through the Linings at locations close to the northernmost shaft Queens sprey tunnel is built on a gradient of 1 in 100 falling to the South due to the amount of water entering the tunnel and the infilling of its Southern approach cutting Sur flooding has affected it since the 1980s during periods of heavy rain the flood water has reached a depth of approximately 11.5 M or 38 ft at the South portal extending into the tunnel by half its length which I’m sure you’ll agree is a lot of water withdrawal of its maintenance regime after closure prompted a considerable de deterioration in the tunnel’s condition in 2013 2014 two portal collapses occurred to the south of its midpoint a number of severe bulges have been recorded as well as deep longitudinal spoing to the south of number four shaft without intervention Engineers assert that this section is likely to further collapse in years to come the institution of C civil engineers listed Queensbury tunnel as a historic engineering work in June 26 and as already mentioned in this video it was listed on the Victoria society’s top most endangered buildings in September 2019 so onto its future not really much clearer I suppose um but highways England submitted a full planning application for the abandonment of Queens spr tunnel in May 2019 the queen spral Society sought public objections against the plans on both Technical and planning policy ground rounds and by the 3rd of March 2020 more than 6,335 objections have been received good on you on the same day Grant shaps MP the Secretary of State for transport at the time told the Telegraph and agus newspaper Queensbury tunnel I’ve taken a specific personal interest in it the plan and official advice was to fill it in but I specifically prevented that from happening to work with local leaders and the combined authority to come up with a better solution he rais the possibility of the tunnel being used either for a cycle route or as part of a local tram light rail network in November 2019 the West short combined authorities submitted a bid to the government’s transforming City fund which included a request for 23 million pound to turn Queens tunnel into a high quality cycling route linking cuerdale and Bradford describing the project as a sign ific opportunity in June 2020 transport secretary Grant Sharps offered Bradford Council 4 million pound towards the tunnel’s repair in return for taking on its ownership they were told that this was the best final offer and they had four days to accept it Council leader Susan hinchliff described the sum as a derisory and nowhere near enough to save the tunnel the council subsequently published a new benefit cost ratio for the proposed at Bradford Halifax Greenway via green Queensbury tunnel concluding that it would return 560 in Social and economic benefits for every one pound invested representing very high value for money again Mr Shotz has written to and urged him for to stand by the previous statements and allocate a sufficient sum from your 2 billion pound active travel fund to give Brad for Council the confidence to take on the tunnel’s ownership and construct a cycle route through it so as you can tell it’s had quite a bit of History I think it’s an absolute travesty that such a you know fantastic feat of engineering is left how it is especially when we can blow money on a load of rubbish but anyway I’m not going to go into a rant I hope that you have enjoyed this video um I’ll see you in the next video I’m not going to say which one it is because to quite honestly ain’t got a clue it’s whatever I’ll come across however if you want me to do a video on anything in particular please leave it in the comments and I will do my best uh there’s also a gentleman that requested that I do the Liverpool overground Railway uh I will get around to doing that um I’m just a bit tied up with things around here at the moment so you know the drill don’t like don’t subscribe don’t share don’t click on the notification button and enjoy the videos until next time take care enjoy the rest of your day and see you in the next video
4 Comments
Its a shame but the proposed greenway will never happen due to the costs involved and how councils are strapped for cash. The only way it may stand a chance is via a gofundme
To simply bury the tunnel would be a tragedy and the loss of a great monument and asset. The 'Two Tunnels Trail' near Bath has been a great success when two long single-bore tunnels were unearthed and turned into a brilliant walking & cycling route. A similar restoration at Queensbury would require more much greater engineering and expense but such investment would surely be worth it.
We could easily save this tunnel if we channelled £££ more appropriately. In the 21st century very little is now beyond the capabilities of man and machine. If work started in earnest to repair Queensbury Tunnel and build a cycle/walkway through it I bet it could all be done within a year.
As with all tunnel structures this was built for useful purpose, and so it should continue to do so even now.
But the question of its overall upkeep has to be agreed upon.
Thereafter will be of benefit to all who transit it.