1. The History
Back in 1961 British Rail opened a four-and-a-half mile single-track branch line to the newly opened Bevercotes Colliery. It linking to the network at Boughton Junction on the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (LD&ECR) line between Chesterfield Market Place station and Lincoln. Bevercotes was described as the first fully-automated colliery and also the first to be fully equipped to load coal into Merry-go-round trains . Trains were fed by four 35-ton weigh hoppers fed from a 4,000-ton storage bunker built by Head Wrightson.
The branch left the LD&ECR about a kilometre west of Boughton and turned north. Half of the line was in a cutting, half on a bank (thw former to preserve farm land) pand included bridges over the River Maun and River Meden and 2 roads and seven bridges over the railway. The 350 yards (320 m) long Broughton Brake tunnel (known locally as Mummies Tunnel) was just over two miles along the branch. It had portals of brick whilst the interior was near-vertical brick side walls incorporating regular refuges and a segmental arch concrete roof.
The line closed temporarily between January 1962 and August 1965 and saw its last train on 18th June 1993 when the colliery closed, after the removal of coal stockpiles. The branch, including the tunnel, was brought back into use as part of a Network Rail test track during the summer of 2012. The tunnel was to be used as a training environment for on-track machines but the need for re-ballasting meant this never happened and the track was lifted some time in 2017.
2. The Explore
Found myself passing so decided to have a shufty in the fading December light. Sadly, I missed the boat with this one a bit as the track was lifted last year. It’s a very straight tunnel and both portals are non-distinct. However, the cutting the railway is set in is quite impressive and worth the scramble down to.
3. The Pictures
The road bridge:
img9992 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Under the road bridge:
img9987 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Graff under the road bridge:
img9986 by HughieDW, on Flickr
The northern portal:
img9997 by HughieDW, on Flickr
...and looking back out:
img9998 by HughieDW, on Flickr
At the mid-way point in the tunnel:
img0012 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img0023 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Not too sure what this is:
img0025 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img0024 by HughieDW, on Flickr
img0029 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Graff at the southern end:
img0009 by HughieDW, on Flickr
The southern portal:
img0004 by HughieDW, on Flickr
The steep-sided cutting to the south of the tunnel:
img9999 by HughieDW, on Flickr
Back in 1961 British Rail opened a four-and-a-half mile single-track branch line to the newly opened Bevercotes Colliery. It linking to the network at Boughton Junction on the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (LD&ECR) line between Chesterfield Market Place station and Lincoln. Bevercotes was described as the first fully-automated colliery and also the first to be fully equipped to load coal into Merry-go-round trains . Trains were fed by four 35-ton weigh hoppers fed from a 4,000-ton storage bunker built by Head Wrightson.
The branch left the LD&ECR about a kilometre west of Boughton and turned north. Half of the line was in a cutting, half on a bank (thw former to preserve farm land) pand included bridges over the River Maun and River Meden and 2 roads and seven bridges over the railway. The 350 yards (320 m) long Broughton Brake tunnel (known locally as Mummies Tunnel) was just over two miles along the branch. It had portals of brick whilst the interior was near-vertical brick side walls incorporating regular refuges and a segmental arch concrete roof.
The line closed temporarily between January 1962 and August 1965 and saw its last train on 18th June 1993 when the colliery closed, after the removal of coal stockpiles. The branch, including the tunnel, was brought back into use as part of a Network Rail test track during the summer of 2012. The tunnel was to be used as a training environment for on-track machines but the need for re-ballasting meant this never happened and the track was lifted some time in 2017.
2. The Explore
Found myself passing so decided to have a shufty in the fading December light. Sadly, I missed the boat with this one a bit as the track was lifted last year. It’s a very straight tunnel and both portals are non-distinct. However, the cutting the railway is set in is quite impressive and worth the scramble down to.
3. The Pictures
The road bridge:
Under the road bridge:
Graff under the road bridge:
The northern portal:
...and looking back out:
At the mid-way point in the tunnel:
Not too sure what this is:
Graff at the southern end:
The southern portal:
The steep-sided cutting to the south of the tunnel:
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