Disused Railway Tunnel

Date:

19 Jan 10

Party:

Richard, Big Dave, Mike Jenny, John, Cheryl, Dave J, Roger, Matt, Charlie, Finbar, & Jason

Photos:

In Brief:

The first trip of the New Year saw a good number of us gathering furtively at a street corner in Devonport on a very wet night to make a fairly straightforward trip into disused railway tunnels under Devonport.  

Having successfully negotiated the way in we descended into the two tunnels. The inward trip follows a slight downward incline towards Kings Road (City College) where a rather fine fence prohibits any further progress.

When the Southern Railway arrived in Plymouth from the Tavistock direction it shared the Great Western mainline from St Budeaux through to Plymouth North Road. It soon became apparent that this was not suitable as, obviously, the Great Western, gave their own trains priority. So, in the late 1880’s the Southern Railway began to construct their own route through Ford, across St Levan’s Road on an almighty viaduct and then through two tunnels under Devonport and a road bridge under Paradise Road into a station at Kings Road where City College, Plymouth now stands. This line opened in June 1890 and was double track throughout. 

Continued:

This gives both the tunnels sizeable dimensions. The first tunnel, the shorter of the two, is Ford Tunnel. This begins at the southern end of the Ford Viaduct over the St Levan valley and runs beneath Albert Road for 373 yards emerging in a short cutting beside Exmouth Road. After this cutting the railway plunged into the longer tunnel which ran for 530 yards beneath Devonport Park starting in a southerly direction but gradually turning east towards Kings Road Station.

Write up by Dave Jean

Added 19-01-10