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Catesby Tunnel is a disused
railway tunnel Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
in
Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
on the route of the former
Great Central Main Line The Great Central Main Line (GCML), also known as the London Extension of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR), is a former railway line in the United Kingdom. The line was opened in 1899 and built by the Great Central Railw ...
. Its northern portal is about south of Catesby Viaduct and west of
Upper Catesby Upper Catesby is a hamlet in the civil parish of Catesby, Northamptonshire, about southwest of Daventry. The hamlet is about above sea level, at the top of a northwest-facing escarpment. The population is included in the civil parish of Helli ...
, with the tunnel ending at
Charwelton Charwelton is a village and civil parish about south of Daventry in Northamptonshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population (including Fawsley) as 220. The villages name means ' River Cherwell farm/settlement'. The prese ...
to the south. In terms of both length and
gauge Gauge ( or ) may refer to: Measurement * Gauge (instrument), any of a variety of measuring instruments * Gauge (firearms) * Wire gauge, a measure of the size of a wire ** American wire gauge, a common measure of nonferrous wire diameter, es ...
, Catesby Tunnel is unusually large, at wide, high, and long. The tunnel was completed in 1897, and was closed in 1966 when the line was made redundant by
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...
. After lying abandoned and flooded for over 50 years, proposals were granted in 2017 for the conversion of the wide, straight tunnel into an aerodynamic test facility for road and race cars.


Description

The tunnel, its portals and air shafts are all lined and faced with hard
Staffordshire blue brick Staffordshire blue brick is a strong type of construction brick, originally made in Staffordshire, England. The brick is made from the local red clay, Etruria marl, which when fired at a high temperature in a low-oxygen reducing atmosphere ...
and a total of about 30 million bricks were used. The tunnel has five
air shaft In manufacturing, an airshaft is a device used for handling winding reels in the processing of web-fed materials, such as continuous-process printing presses. Airshafts—also called Air Expanding shafts—are used in the manufacturing processes ...
s; four are in Catesby parish and each has a diameter of . The fifth is in the neighbouring parish of
Hellidon Hellidon is a village and civil parish about south-west of Daventry in Northamptonshire, England. The parish area is about . It lies – above sea level on the north face of an ironstone ridge, its highest point, at Windmill Hill, being sou ...
, and has a diameter of for greater airflow. About of material was dug out to make the tunnel, which is straight throughout due to the GCR being built for speed and on a rising gradient of 1:176 to the south.


History


Construction

The
Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
intended its London Extension to pass through Catesby parish in a cutting. However, the occupant of Catesby House, Henry Attenborough, owned much of the land in the parish and insisted that the line pass beneath it in a tunnel to preserve the landscape. Thomas Oliver & Son of
Horsham Horsham is a market town on the upper reaches of the River Arun on the fringe of the Weald in West Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Nearby ...
was the contractor to build the — section of the line. The first from the north portal were dug using
Cut-and-cover A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
, with the remainder built by sinking nine construction shafts in 1895 (a
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
cinerary urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape o ...
was found in one shaft), and completed the tunnel in May 1897. Unlike the tunnel construction of the earlier Victorian era, excavation was able to be accelerated through the use of Ruston steam navvies instead of being entirely dug by hand. The first services to use the tunnel were
coal train Rail freight transport is the use of railroads and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...
s, which started running on 25 July 1898. The line opened fully on 15 March 1899.


Operation and closure

On 4 January 1906 a rail on the
Down Down most often refers to: * Down, the relative direction opposed to up * Down (gridiron football), in American/Canadian football, a period when one play takes place * Down feather, a soft bird feather used in bedding and clothing * Downland, a ty ...
track broke and derailed an afternoon express from to with about 50 passengers aboard. The train was travelling at about and tore up about of track before it came to a halt. All five coaches were derailed and the last coach fouled the Up track, on which a goods train was due. The crew of the express acted to protect their train: the driver placed a
detonator A detonator, frequently a blasting cap, is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the last two being the most common. The commercial use of explosives uses electr ...
on one rail of the Up track and the guard sounded the train whistle, both of which gave the crew of the approaching Up goods enough warning to stop short of the wreckage.
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...
ways closed the Great Central Main Line through the tunnel on 5 September 1966, and the track was lifted shortly thereafter. With the withdrawal of a maintenance regime after closure, a blocked drain exacerbated water ingress such that a foot or more of floodwater filled some parts of the tunnel.


Redevelopment

Numerous reopening proposals for sections of the GCML have featured Catesby Tunnel. In 2000,
Chiltern Railways Chiltern Railways, formally The Chiltern Railway Company Limited, is a British train operating company that has operated the Chiltern Railways franchise since July 1996. Since 2009, it has been a subsidiary of Arriva UK Trains. Chiltern Rai ...
expressed an interest in reopening the route to passengers as far as
Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...
or even Leicester, though this never came forward. The trackbed was also included in failed proposals by Central Railway to build a new
intermodal freight Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation (e.g., rail, ship, aircraft, and truck), without any handling of the freight itself when changing ...
line from
Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
to Europe. It was also part of a possible alignment explored during the planning phase of
High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
; the preferred route ended up following a course several miles further west. Proposals emerged in 2014 to convert the tunnel into a vehicle testing facility. The planning approval was granted in February 2017. The facility will allow performance, aerodynamics, air cooling and emissions to be analysed in a controlled environment at full scale, the only facility of its type for hire anywhere in the world. With the ends of the tunnel being preserved for roosting bats, about in the centre is available for testing. Cars will be able to maintain for about 40 seconds before braking. Public access to the tunnel will be offered on Sundays for
cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from tw ...
. Engineering work for conversion to a wind tunnel, including renovation of the drainage, was started in 2020 with a projected cost of £13 million. The facility is due to open as a test facility in summer 2021.


References

;Sources * *


External links

* {{coord, 52.2232, -1.2287, display=title West Northamptonshire District Derailments in England Great Central Railway Railway accidents in 1906 Railway tunnels in England Tunnel disasters Tunnels completed in 1897 1838 in London