Malvern Tunnel 1

[Dan Cattermole]

I recently (in the last 6 months or so) discovered that there was a railway tunnel that goes through the Malvern hills.
This tunnel is currently still very active and exploring/walking through it would consider myself to perform an act of complete stupidy.

The original tunnel (tunnel 1) was built long before the active/current tunnnel, in fact it was completed and opened in 1861.
The tunnel has been established to hold a great number of protected bats, so upon visiting, noise levels were to a mininum which resulted in us not disburbing any (protected species act) although no bats were visable throughout the visit thankfully.
Access to the tunnel(s) entrance(s) were/was extremely difficult, very steep slopes and drops, heavily vegitated with evil thorns, brambles, and other nasty spikey things, let alone an interesting potential trips and falls..... and to top this off.... in complete darkness and very limited use of torch light in order to not attract attention from the very near by houses. Summary - Not for the faint hearted.

Upon arrival to tunnel 1... a HUGE disappointment!
There was a locked heavy iron barred gate that secured the entry to the tunnel (at both ends which was later, and pain stakingly established)
So access was a no go unfortunately. So these shots were taken trough the iron bar gate.
Tripod mounted, 40 secs exposure, ISO 200, f/7.1, and illuminated with 200 lumens of cree torches.
Apologies that they are not central.... it was pitch black around us..... and even more so in the tunnel. lol

Thanks for looking

 

[Kev Pugh]

DD I think you done a good job considering the aspects of getting there you are a true hero; and I don't mean that lightly; for those who don't know the area it can easily be a nasty place to venture even in daylight, ok not Everest or Kilimanwhereever but dodgy all the same. Trust me I've spent many hours on the hills so know.....This tunnel is part of the Victorian Railway that runs from Wuzza Foregate the Viaduct I want to Doc to Herford (Hereford) loads of history, nice one DD

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice extra detail Dan. I do like these and the PP you used. The tunnel looks quite narrow, single gauge I guess. How wide is it?

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Thanks KK, Very admirable and appreciative words, many thanks.
We (me and Sheepy) mangaged to get down both ends of the tunnels. but the most difficult climb was the Colwall/Hereford side... Scary! I'm glad there is someone else on board who can aprreciate the things I love doing to get photos! lol.

There is a secret about the airshafts that are supposedly attacthed to the old tunnel...
what I mean by that is that as a general rule, air shaft vents are contstructed above the line of any tunnel. however, The air shafts to 'tunnel 1' are mysteriously poking out of the the ground, not only a few hundred meters up through the hill near the wyche cutting, but a couple hundred meters out of line........ Does this intale more? Does this indicate that there is maybe something else more than just a tunnel in the hill?? never know! lol

Thanks pete, the tunnel was soon getting too low for the ever expanding sizes of the steam trains and there chimney stems.
It was reported that they were scraping, if not hitting and damaging. Whether this was the reason tunnel 2 was excavated I don't know.
It can't be more that 5 meters wide from what I could make out. It really suprised me to see that a train could get down there to begin with!

 

[Pete Askew]

Now what you need is a very long piece of string to dangle the Oly off and a wireless remote and then could 'explore' those mysterious vents!!

 

[Allan Batchelor]

or bolt cutters for the padlock on the gates

nice shots DD

 

[Thomas brookes]

Awesome mate!!!!

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Thanks Tom,
I've just found a shot on the web of the tunnels at the Malvern link side in daylight.
As you can see from the shot, the abandoned one to the right. It isn't covered like the picture deceives.
This is totally not visable at night..... Nor is the drop we came down :/ lol

 

[Dan Cattermole]

I've had a bit of an Alzheimer's moment and realised that I've posted the same shots twice in a different thread called 'The first Malvern tunnel' did have a bit to sip mind, hence the feeble description in that thread compare to this one.
I do apologies