Queensbury Tunnel, West Yorkshire (December 2014)
The Queensbury Tunnel is a disused railway tunnel that connected Holmfield, Halifax with Queensbury, Bradford. It stretchers for a length of 2287 metres through the hillside that the town sits upon and owned by the Department of Transport. there are currently plans to abandon and fill in the tunnel but a rival campaign is seeking a way to bring the tunnel back in to use as a cycle path. More can be found out on the following link,
Work on the tunnel was started in 1874 with completion in July 1878 allowing for a railway connection between Queensbury and Holmfield, and further beyond to Bradford, Halifax and Keighley. Whilst goods trains started to use the line from October 1878 passenger services did not start until the following December due to concerns about the incompleteness of work. During the tunnels operational history it was found to have many defects in the arch and sidewalls caused by poor workmanship, subsidence and water ingress. Water has always been a problem with the tunnel and since the Strines cutting at the Halifax end was infilled the southern portal floods regularly with the water sometimes reaching as far up the tunnel has half way.
The pictures were taken with a Polaroid is2132 bridge camera on the 28th December 2014. They can be seen below and on Clickasnap.
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| Brow Lane Bridge, used to carry the railway down from Queensbury in the direction of Keighley. |
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| The gated northern Queensbury Tunnel portal. |
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| Former trackbed looking towards the site of what was once Queensbury Railway Station. |
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| The flooded southern portal and remains of Strines Cutting. |
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| This former aqueduct used to carry Strines Beck over Strines cutting which ran approx 59ft below the beck. It now forms part of a flooded pool in the now infilled Strines Cutting. |
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All the pictures remain the copyright of Colin Green.
