PHOTOS: BEN SALTER/DAVID VOUSDEN

Rail Engineer • February 2016 • February Engineer Rail

Healing 1 reopening the disused railway the disused reopening that connects them? Could campaigners bring rebirth to two South by valleys Wales

Wounds BRIDGES & & BRIDGES Rail Engineer • February 2016 2

efore the advent of Xboxes and all-singing smartphones, kids signed up to a vivid, multi-sensory game accessed (Opposite, main picture) through a portal at the far end of the kitchen, known as ‘outdoors’. In the black and white era - albeit slightly rose- The epitome of bleakness: Btinted - this was unfettered by health and safety, the dress code comprising short trousers, grazed knees, cheeky a Seventies view of the grins and cockeyed fringes. The social backdrop was industrial, as was parenting. Woe-betide any child who got under tunnel’s now-buried east mother’s feet. So, after breakfast, they were swept into the real world to learn about life through the unique experiences portal at Blaencwm.

it flung at them. That culture shaped today’s generation of retirees and those, like me, who still remember coalmines. BRIDGES & TUNNELS (Opposite, top) The western Also amongst the latter is Stephen Mackey who grew The decades that followed brought industrial decimation entrance at Blaengwynfi. up at the head of the Fawr valley, blessed with to the once-thriving upper Rhondda. Though the physical The only shaft can just be an adventure playground on his doorstep. But there was scars have now healed - revealing a spectacular landscape seen above the portal’s one particular place that drew him back time after time. A - economic deprivation still blights the area. Stephen felt left-hand wing wall. short walk from home was a railway tunnel, two miles in this personally a couple of years ago when he was made length, through which there was no traffic on a Sunday. So redundant. With such events comes the need to refocus, a he’d take a candle, put it in a tin, and venture forth into the process that often benefits from a good walk. And so, on darkness. Near its midpoint, the tunnel abruptly widened a late summer afternoon, he found himself in Llwynpia, a for a few yards, a spot he knew as ‘the church’. Here he couple of miles from home, wondering what to do next. would sit for hours, reflecting on the courage and resolve The answer came to him as he passed some blackberry of those who had pushed this passageway through the hill bushes, his attention being drawn to something in the 80 years earlier. For reasons he never fully understood, he undergrowth. It was a moment of bizarre happenstance. felt at one with them. Pulling back the branches, revealed to him was the cover Confrontation with officialdom was an ever-present stone he had painstakingly repainted 40 years earlier. Life threat, but this diminished in 1968 when passenger traffic since has been unrecognisable. ceased, disenfranchising communities in this remote corner of . With the help of two mates and Go west a 40-foot rope, Stephen repainted the commemorative Through the 1870s, increasing coal production in the cover stone cemented into the east portal’s headwall, Rhondda severely tested the handling capabilities of its appending his name and the request “please open me”. monopoly carriers, the and Cardiff Docks. Then, in 1980, with locals persistently breaching the Return journeys typically took two days. This background of tunnel’s protective blockwalls, the county council arrived crippling congestion spurred the merchant folk of to infill the approach cuttings, bulldozers burying their - where new coal shipping facilities had opened - to liability beneath tonnes of earth. Stephen watched on with develop proposals for the Rhondda & Swansea Bay Railway a lump in his throat as part of his childhood vanished. As (R&SBR). Incorporated on 10 August 1882, it established a he headed home, he looked back and shouted: “I’ll open shorter export route via the Afan valley but, to reach it, the you one day” - the sort of thing you do as an impassioned line would first have to overcome a 1,700 feet high natural youth before the burdens of being a grown-up barrier, Mynydd Blaengwyfni. Set that come to bear. task was engineer Sydney William Yockney; his father, Samuel Hansard Yockney, had acted as engineer (Left) Bulldozers bury the and manager for the contractor east portal in 1980. at , bringing him to the attention of Brunel for whom he (Below) The commemorative went on to fulfil a number of other cover stone with its plea for

tunnel projects. the tunnel’s reopening. PHOTOS: STEPHEN MACKEY STEPHEN PHOTOS:

GRAEME BICKERDIKE 3 Rail Engineer • February 2016

Duck or grouse From the hydraulically-powered comfort of the twenty- first century, not one of us can realistically imagine what life was like for the workforce. However, a visiting newspaper reporter did his best to paint a picture. “Taking our places on some temporary seats, the horses started at a brisk walk along the tram-line, and soon we were entering the tunnel. Generally the tunnel was narrow and one had to exercise care in passing one’s arms within the strict limits of the little track, or the jagged points which stuck out here and there would give one a sharp and unpleasant reminder, while an occasional cry of “heads” from our guide warned us of the necessity of sometimes disposing this part of the body somewhat suddenly

BRIDGES & TUNNELS BRIDGES between our knees. At more than one place however we saw signs of operations already on foot for the purpose of ‘opening out’. We were informed however there is no immediate necessity for this, the great object being to bore the tunnel, and in a very short time a hundred or so gangs of men can quickly enlarge it to the required size for the passage of trains.” “The side and the roof generally presented a most substantial appearance, the roof particularly being for quite half the distance a level mass of rock. As one passed along, a hissing sound indicated the passing of the air which kept the tunnel even three-quarters of a mile in quite nice and cool. At last the waggons came to a sudden stop and a short walk over the boots in mud took us to a solid wall of rock, which effectually blocked our progress. Not so that of the excavators. Against this solid wall were six men hammering with pickaxe and crowbar, as though their lives depended on it,

PHOTOS: STEPHEN MACKEY and though their progress will be slow, they will eventually clear a passage through which it is hoped that millions of passengers and countless tons of coal will pass from the Rhondda to the port at the mouth of the Tawe.” Work on the R&SBR was split into three contracts, No.3 being Tick tock awarded to William Jones of . Included within it was Despite the miners’ industry, alarm bells started ringing the construction of Rhondda Tunnel, the second longest in early in 1887 when progress started to slip; according Wales at 3,443 yards, for which the resident engineer was to William Jones, this was the function of a manpower William Sutcliffe Marsh. shortage and the underground springs encountered at the Ground was first broken on 30 May 1885, completion east end of the tunnel. Reluctantly, the company pushed being due within three years. However, delays in securing back the contractual completion date to 31 July 1889. It “Against this land at the eastern end prevented any substantive wasn’t until 16 March that year, with only 20 weeks to go, progress there for another 15 months. Yockney’s reports that the headings finally met, Yockney recording that the solid wall to the company directors were initially positive, with good levels were out by just half-an-inch whilst the line was ground conditions encountered and little water ingress. perfect. In celebration, the contractor entertained a hundred were six men The headings were being driven through sandstone at a navvies to supper, song and recitals at a nearby hotel. rate reaching 240 yards per month, the miners working This constructional high-point acted as a counterbalance hammering from shafts in the approach cuttings at either end and to the lows that inevitably attended. John Harris, 24, killed another just in from the western entrance. by an explosion; William Shod, a haulier, run over by a with pickaxe With ground cover exceeding 900 feet, the conventional wagon and fatally injured; Isaac Watson, 36, succumbed approach to expediting progress in lengthy tunnels to dynamite. And then, on 22 January 1889, news of a and crowbar, - the sinking of intermediate shafts - was deemed huge rock fall spread across the district; seven deaths impractical. However, the miners did benefit from rock were reported. Although an exaggeration, the reality - as though their drilling machines, operated by compressed air which was two victims - proved no consolation to the families of generated by a pair of horizontal engines and stored in George Lever, a 28-year-old miner, and labourer George lives depended an iron tank before being passed into the tunnel. The Smitherham, known to everyone as “Soldier”. Gangs of machines’ exhaust acted as effective ventilation at the men laboured for many hours to extricate their bodies on it...” working face. from the debris. Rail Engineer • February 2016 4

When Colonel Rich fulfilled his inspection duties for the (Opposite, top) In April Board of Trade on 2 May 1890, Yockney was confident of 2015, engineers entered a tick in the box. He had, though, not accounted for Rich’s the tunnel via an access expectation that the tunnel be fully lined. So, before he shaft, seen under would pass it as fit for passenger traffic, 759 yards of brick construction in the lower arch would have to be inserted, springing off arched- photo from 1980. BRIDGES & TUNNELS PHOTO: STEPHEN MACKEY PHOTO: concrete sidewalls. Operations resumed the following day, Lucas & Aird having already prepared for such an (Left) Master Stonemason eventuality; completion came just 54 days later, allowing Jimmy Reynolds finishes the tunnel to start earning its keep on 2 July 1890. off the cover stone’s new front plate. Shape of things to come Wise practice in mining areas was for railway companies to buy any pillars of coal that supported significant structures. Failure of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway to do so resulted in Bolsover Tunnel sinking by eight feet in 60 years. The R&SBR fell into the same trap of short-term economics, the upshot being areas of worsening distortion resulting from seams being worked both above and below Rhondda Tunnel. Between 1938 and 1953, around 500 steel ribs were With the rate of advance falling to 70-odd yards per installed in an attempt to resist inward movement of the month, the company dispensed with William Jones’ sidewalls and consequential pushing-up of the crown, services in September 1889, bringing in Messrs Lucas & mostly through two sections towards the eastern end. Aird from Westminster. Employing 1,600 men to finish Several lengths of arch were relined as loose brickwork the line, they set about erecting 300 houses at the fell onto the track and speed restrictions were imposed; a Rhondda end and, for four months, workers in the tunnel settlement of 15 inches was recorded in just 12 years. All benefited from new-fangled electric lamps. The venture this was exacerbated by considerable water penetration of was back on track. the lining which extensively washed out the mortar.

Half page ad 5 Rail Engineer • February 2016 PHOTOS: HISTORICAL RAILWAYS ESTATE (Right) Some of the tunnel’s 500 steel ribs and (below) a view up the only shaft. BRIDGES & TUNNELS BRIDGES

Severe distortion was observed near the middle of the tunnel in 1967, close to a geological fault. So rapid was its deterioration that the But one of those 19 had much bigger ideas…to The vision now is ambitious, a catalyst for engineer closed the tunnel on safety grounds reopen the tunnel as a walking and cycling route. the rebirth of the Rhondda and Afan valleys: on 26 February 1968. This was supposedly The initial response of those around the table museum, bike hire, bed and breakfast, a a temporary measure whilst a decision was was one of predictable scepticism; the reality - 18 restaurant in the form of a Pullman car, golf made on the future of the line. After much months later - is that Stephen is now chairman of buggies offering guided tours - the list goes on. prevarication, the Ministry of Transport cited the Rhondda Tunnel Society, a charitable body with More immediate is the hope that the eastern a decline in usage and the provision of a bus more than 3,100 worldwide members. The Welsh portal will be excavated so machinery can be service as justification for the formal withdrawal Government is engaged, starting negotiations for brought in to undertake a full survey, and of of passenger services in December 1970. A cynic the tunnel to be transferred into its ownership and course prove to any doubters that the thing might suggest that the tunnel’s estimated repair commissioning Sustrans to carry out a scoping actually exists. cost of £90,000 also had an influence. study on how a reopening might be achieved. Not Who knows? As Stephen is keen to point out, surprisingly, its conclusion that the economy could this would be the longest cycling tunnel in the Turning the clocks back benefit by as much as £14.4 million over 30 years world for half the year when the 3,963-yard It’s not clear yet whether Stephen Mackey can has uplifted the campaigners. Snoqualmie Tunnel in America closes for bad help to unravel the actions of distant decision- Custodian currently is the Historical Railways weather. He’s become very skilled at public makers 46 years ago. Having unearthed the Estate, part of Highways England. Last April, its relations! But even as officially the second cover stone, he placed an advert on Facebook engineer, contractor Hammond ECS and a mines longest, a consensus is emerging around the and in the local paper, asking for help in moving rescue team made the first official incursion into tourism and connectivity potential a reopened it to a local stonemason for restoration. And so, the tunnel for 40 years via a cramped access shaft Rhondda Tunnel could offer. “It’s a full time job on 9 September 2014, 19 like-minds assembled and drain. The resulting report concludes that “the I’ve got now,” says Stephen breathlessly. It’s at the RAFA Club in Treorchy to hatch a plan. masonry forming the tunnel does not appear to unfortunate that he’s not getting paid for it, but Two days later, the stone was rescued, and it have become any worse since it was closed to rail you can tell he’s enjoying the ride. now sits resplendent on the platform end of traffic” and that it is “not in a condition that would Treherbert Station. prevent future similar examinations.” www.rhonddatunnelsociety.co.uk

+925

‘GOTHIC’ DISTORTION RIBS INSERTED 1938

WORKED COAL SEAM +350 FAULTS

SHAFT T U N N E L 0

3MP 2MP

WORKED COAL SEAM -475

SEVERE DISTORTION ‘GOTHIC’ DISTORTION RECORDED 1967 RIBS INSERTED 1949 AL SEAM WORKED CO -950 FEET