It never ceases to amaze me to see the craftsmanship displayed in the construction of tunnels and bridges in Britain! These were basically short line railroads with the dreams of grandeur and big profits. In the early days of American railroading they built everything out of wood, and when or if the railroad made money they redid the bridges in iron and made their stations bigger and better. Some of the early RRs in the northeastern US used massive stone viaducts, but the westward expansion was done on the cheap. Yet British railroads started with high quality construction right from the beginning. Did you know that a lot of America's railroads (and industries) were partially financed by British investors?
The effort they put in for ghe railways in the late 1800s was quite stupendous. They must have expected HUGE financial returns. And they were so well built that they have withstood nearly 100 years of neglect. Thank for the videos
Thanks guys this is the area of disused railway I've been researching and now I can see it. It's a bit far from New Zealand just to pop up and see it for myself. Cheers 🚂🛤😎
Really great to see you back up North. Hopefully at some point you may take in the wonder that is Wharram Percy? Deserted village on the Yorkshire Wolds with its own station and tunnel. Highly recommended (again 😁)! Lovely footage. 👍
Great to see you in West Yorkshire. Beeching was very busy round here so there's loads of disused railways all over the place, many turned into cycle tracks, many built on and many left to re-wild. I think you probably found one of the better ones in this episode though.
Great video as usual. I do enjoy you both joining forces with other interesting partners. I have now also signed up for Darren’s site. Keep up the good work
I did what you told me last video and subscribed to Darrens channel. This video was fantastic all those beautiful tunnels. The culvert was stunning. I so enjoyed that. Thanks for taking me along and p,ease stay safe
Really superb content, enjoyed it very much. That infrastructure was so well built. 70 years on from closure and 150 years from when it was built and it still stands, despite the encroachment of nature. A testament to all involved in its construction.
Great to see a full explore of this line. I did recce parts of it when I used to do courier work in the area, with a view to making a model of the Queensbury Triangle.
Hi I'm new to your channel. Very interesting episode. Especially the viaduct. Love trains and tunnels. Safe travels God bless you from Bakersfield California USA.
Many stunning locally quarried sandstone viaducts on this line, locally taken for granted when driving about but it is a beautiful area to explore... Huddersfield also has many stone viaducts to boast of...
The stones around the perimeter of an arch are called voussoirs. The most important voussoir is the key stone at the apex of the arch. The springers at each side of the arch where it meets the abutments are also important.
Another enjoyable and informative video, thanks guys. It was interesting about the inverted tunnels, I did not know about that reason. Often low tunnels were built on the insistence of the landowner who didn't want to see trains across their land. Incidentally, in the tunnels the recesses as you call them are known as refuges.
@@pwhitewick you all are. Thoroughly enjoy your videos. Me and the mrs were watching you and the wife last night on some old canal videos. You have created the best job in the world for yourselves 👍🏻
What a cracking day out. Thanks guys. And, you ventured north this time. Very brave. Next time Causey Arch, maybe? The older, surviving, single arched railway bridge in the world. Bob
Absolutely loved the stonework tunnels little streams beautiful flowers 🌺 and your lovely wife as well! The bull was very intimidating 🐮😈😳 I've been watching Martin Zeros videos and found you guys in one of his episodes! 👍🏻
Hi, if you like abandoned railway bridges and viaducts, you could visit the lobb wood/lobb ghyll viaduct near Bolton abbey in Yorkshire. It is massive and amazing. Plus you could also visit the near Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for the rest of the day
My area is this. Looked around that area quite a bit although not as much as you did. The area around Denholme approaching Doe Park Res is always boggy. As a kid we used to play on the Hewenden viaduct before it was covered in tarmac. My friend used to live in one of the Station Cottages. The Wilsden Station though is a mile or more from the village so not surprised it closed in the late 1950s early 1960s. There are some good photos of the station on line though and the village history website.
My daughter lived in Cullingworth and then Denholme. We used to like walking to and on the Hewenden Viaduct - which also could be seen from her cottage in Denholme. Only 150 miles to Fontburn.
Hi Paul/Rebecca, really enjoying your videos, love the camera work! Just a thought but maybe a map screenshot with POI's at the beginning of the videos might be useful for the viewer?
Wow that’s got even worse at Well Heads tunnel since I was there in 2000. The Thornton portal was easy to get to even tho I did it near midnight?Freaked me out i cam tell you. The other end I attempted too (in daylight) but was beaten back when my foot went into a rusty old drum which contained ? Got pics somewhere. Did the others too but never went in and Queensbury and Lees Moor. Lea Bank I missed but did Old Lane and Wheatley. Not all the viaducts were open then . Totally fascinated by the Queensbury lines as I have the books on them and various magazines (back track and steam days). I believe there is/was a plan for the trail to go through Well Heads but I suppose this now might depend on how the Queensbury debacle turns out ? Fantastic footage 👍
Some interesting and unusual engineering items. Very attractive stonework on the bridges where many companies would have just used brick. It’s not often you actually see the brick invert (inverted arch foundation) in a tunnel as they are often buried under the ballast and dirt. Not all tunnels have them though, only where there is a risk of ground heave. Another good video, thank you.
The architecture changes as you travel along. The really class stuff gives way to plainer brickwork by these not quite cut and covered tunnels- I wonder if they were an afterthought due to unstable cuttings. Or maybe they ran out of money. A lot of tunnels have inverts. I think the failure of it may be the cause as to why Grantshouse Tunnel collapsed during the ECML electrification and people killed. I think it was being deepened to allow for overhead. It's about 20 miles north from Berwick on Tweed. I'm a bit hazy on detail but the rock was inherently unstable and naturally fractured anyway. There is a plaque on the narrow road above that you can get to off the A1. The tunnel was ultimately buried and the line detoured so neatly around in a cutting that the route is really difficult to spot from a train. The really odd thing is that the tunnel was that near the edge of the hill that it seems like it could have been bypassed during construction.
As I'm sure you recall, this is very much my home territory - how great to see it in all its glory (I've not seen lots of it but the Hatherden/Hewenden viaduct was always a lovely sight). Will you also go further north on this line? (Lees Moor tunnel, the old track into Keighley etc.) - I really enjoyed this, thanks a lot gang!
Just came back here, because I was looking a bit further into the historic Great Northern Railway. Well, the one that went from London King's Cross (which it built) up to Doncaster and York. But the Great Northern this video is about, apperas to be different one. Or at least the route seems to have been a branch line or so, but definitely not part of the the original Main-line route.
I suggested on Darren's last video with Martin that they should cover the Queensbury Tunnel saga, and at one point you were less than a mile from it - future video perhaps?
Hello Paul and Rebecca, thank you for another lovely video, I wonder, have you considered the old cattle drovers routes as a subject?, I don't know how many are still rights of way, or if there are any near you guys, but, I suspect that like the disused railways, a lot of them have been lost, although it is another possibility, anyway, stay safe, all the best from Scotland, Stephen.
The main contractor on the building of the GNR was Abraham woodiwiss a distant relation of mine, as an employer he certainly had blood on his hands but was very wealthy.... don't know what happened to the fortune but do know I don't have it. He also did a stretch of the Settle Carlisle. Probably never used a shovel in his life but could obviously organise a big job.
Some of those tunnels and viaducts were amazing, great video. Just wondering with the Patreon thank you at the end which is a great addition, how come my name isn’t there just wondering ?
Since watching a British film called Ghost Stories ( actor from The Office & the long film about Goblins etc ) I just couldn’t enter a Railway Calvert . Another British Movie called Sightseers features maybe that very aqueduct ...very funny film. Beats watching southampton fc at least 😁👍
4.48 - I was looking on Google Maps the other evening and there were a few very short tunnels that they built because they couldn't stop landslides. It looks as if one of the tunnels has collapsed from above.
Really interesting reading the Wikipedia about the Queensbury lines. If you've travelled on the Worth Valley line you have travelled on the last remaining section of the lines (a short distance though). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensbury_lines
There’s still something o see at all three ends of the line. If you look to the East shortly before reaching Ingrow West Station you can see the abutments of a bridge which would have carried the main line into Ingrow East. At Halifax the third platform still exists, and now has some sort of children’s place on it, not sure exactly what it is, nursery, playgroup, something like that. At Bradford it’s still just about possible to make out where the line ran. The present day lines from Halifax and Leeds into the Interchange join at Mill Lane Junction. Just before this junction the line from Queensbury came in from the West and passed under the Halifax line before joining the line from Leeds at St. Dunstan’s, where there was once a Station. This is very close to where the huge tyre fire was a few months ago. Interchange was built on the site of an old goods station. The tracks used to pass under the road to the right of it to enter the old Exchange station on the site where the law courts are now.
Hey peeps. Go visit Darren's channel here: ua-cam.com/users/AdventureMe
The Whitewicks subscribe!
Another great video 😀 Paul and Rebecca
Channels like this are more entertaining than anything coming out of Hollywood these days.
Paul, Rebecca, Darren, thank you so much for this video. Absolutely so enjoyable. Great piece of Bank Holiday Monday viewing.
Thanks Andrew. Glad you enjoyed it
It never ceases to amaze me to see the craftsmanship displayed in the construction of tunnels and bridges in Britain! These were basically short line railroads with the dreams of grandeur and big profits. In the early days of American railroading they built everything out of wood, and when or if the railroad made money they redid the bridges in iron and made their stations bigger and better. Some of the early RRs in the northeastern US used massive stone viaducts, but the westward expansion was done on the cheap. Yet British railroads started with high quality construction right from the beginning. Did you know that a lot of America's railroads (and industries) were partially financed by British investors?
.......and vice versa. There was a fair bit of American money in Britain's railways, particularly the London Underground lines.
@@2H80vids Indeed, Charles Yerkes from Philadelphia was the main man.
@@owencarlstrand1945 Certainly one of them.👍
One of your best guys. Thanks to Darren too. Marvellous video - so much history. Great camera work. Amazing viaducts
The effort they put in for ghe railways in the late 1800s was quite stupendous. They must have expected HUGE financial returns. And they were so well built that they have withstood nearly 100 years of neglect. Thank for the videos
Agree wholeheartedly. They built every single piece of that to LAST. And last it has.
Wish I could of played out as well. great video 👍
Next time!..... twas very short notice.
Thanks guys this is the area of disused railway I've been researching and now I can see it. It's a bit far from New Zealand just to pop up and see it for myself. Cheers 🚂🛤😎
Great to see you guys in collaboration creating a wonderful video, thanks guys.
Those lines must of been impressive in their hay day.
Paul Rebecca Darren great video once again very interesting all them tunnels and viaducts on a fairly short stretch of old railway line
Nice to see you up north! I kept on expecting Martin Zero to appear!
One day soon we shall meet again
I particularly liked the underground bits. And the music! Very Cocteau Twins.
Thanks for another quality video i already subscribe to Darrens channel as a lot of it has been local to me
Really great to see you back up North. Hopefully at some point you may take in the wonder that is Wharram Percy? Deserted village on the Yorkshire Wolds with its own station and tunnel. Highly recommended (again 😁)! Lovely footage. 👍
Wow, Thornton viaduct is amazing, absolutely amazing.
Great to see you in West Yorkshire. Beeching was very busy round here so there's loads of disused railways all over the place, many turned into cycle tracks, many built on and many left to re-wild. I think you probably found one of the better ones in this episode though.
Hi I happen to live near Keighley and I have cycled over the hewendon viaducts many times. As usual a great video!
great content as usual i already sub to darrens channel from when he did the vid with martin stay safe and keep em coming
Awesome thank you!
Superb railway architecture as so often on your channel!
Great video as usual. I do enjoy you both joining forces with other interesting partners. I have now also signed up for Darren’s site. Keep up the good work
Cheers Phil. He's very thorough.
Great explore , thanks all
I did what you told me last video and subscribed to Darrens channel. This video was fantastic all those beautiful tunnels. The culvert was stunning. I so enjoyed that. Thanks for taking me along and p,ease stay safe
Thanks Linda. Very much appreciated
Wow, Hewendon viaduct is impressive. Superb.
Great content guys, as usual
Much appreciated!
I really like these Peeps, Paul and Rebecca, and their tunnel adventures. I'd like to go walking with them muchly! 😀
Really superb content, enjoyed it very much. That infrastructure was so well built. 70 years on from closure and 150 years from when it was built and it still stands, despite the encroachment of nature. A testament to all involved in its construction.
another good video. Enjoying the countryside, spring flowers and large railroad stone bridges.
Absolutely fascinating.
Chris.
awesome presention. very footwetting......love exploring tunnels and viaducts.. thank you
Cheers Keith.
This explore is my idea of the perfect day out...👍👍👍👍.....i love tunnels
Great to see a full explore of this line. I did recce parts of it when I used to do courier work in the area, with a view to making a model of the Queensbury Triangle.
Hi I'm new to your channel. Very interesting episode. Especially the viaduct. Love trains and tunnels. Safe travels God bless you from Bakersfield California USA.
Thanks Katherine. Welcome to the channel
Many stunning locally quarried sandstone viaducts on this line, locally taken for granted when driving about but it is a beautiful area to explore... Huddersfield also has many stone viaducts to boast of...
Great video as ever cant beat a good tunnel to get inside
Kudos to Rebecca for adding 9her special actions to these videos. ❤
Quite a bit in a short stretch! Well done.
Loads in a short stretch.
The stones around the perimeter of an arch are called voussoirs. The most important voussoir is the key stone at the apex of the arch. The springers at each side of the arch where it meets the abutments are also important.
Thanks Owen
Brilliant video as always. I love those covered sections of track forming a tunnel, always good so see something a bit different!
Thanks for sharing 😀🚂🚂🚂 I enjoy watching your vids 😊
Another enjoyable and informative video, thanks guys. It was interesting about the inverted tunnels, I did not know about that reason. Often low tunnels were built on the insistence of the landowner who didn't want to see trains across their land.
Incidentally, in the tunnels the recesses as you call them are known as refuges.
Very enjoyable vid, one of your best. You actually finding and entering those tunnels makes for great footage!
Cheers
Superb video really enjoyed that one fantastic viaducts thank you
Great to see you in Yorkshire
Pleasure to be here
Love you guys. Especially Darren 😊
Legend isn't he
@@pwhitewick you all are. Thoroughly enjoy your videos. Me and the mrs were watching you and the wife last night on some old canal videos. You have created the best job in the world for yourselves 👍🏻
Again a quick video and very interesting thanks you lot better than the TV
Cheers Charlie. One of our longer ones!
Sorry I meant to say it long one keep it up guys
What a cracking day out. Thanks guys.
And, you ventured north this time. Very brave.
Next time Causey Arch, maybe? The older, surviving, single arched railway bridge in the world.
Bob
Lovely Jubbly, great stuff again, thank you all.....
That was one of your better ones, well done
Thanks Paul
Absolutely loved the stonework tunnels little streams beautiful flowers 🌺 and your lovely wife as well! The bull was very intimidating 🐮😈😳 I've been watching Martin Zeros videos and found you guys in one of his episodes! 👍🏻
Excellent collabrotive video with Darren! This is a very interesting route.
Hi, if you like abandoned railway bridges and viaducts, you could visit the lobb wood/lobb ghyll viaduct near Bolton abbey in Yorkshire. It is massive and amazing. Plus you could also visit the near Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway for the rest of the day
Thank you. That sounds very interesting
@@pwhitewick your very welcome. I would love to see a video on it in the future.
Wow, it's got a lot more impassable since I walked the entire Queensbury route back in 1982! Another great video :-)
hey paul and rebecca , thank you for another cool and really interesting video , really enjoyed it well done :)
Great video
My area is this. Looked around that area quite a bit although not as much as you did. The area around Denholme approaching Doe Park Res is always boggy. As a kid we used to play on the Hewenden viaduct before it was covered in tarmac. My friend used to live in one of the Station Cottages. The Wilsden Station though is a mile or more from the village so not surprised it closed in the late 1950s early 1960s. There are some good photos of the station on line though and the village history website.
Thanks for another interesting video take care stay safe.
Hi that was a great video folks I love the abandoned tunnels
Cheers Andy
My daughter lived in Cullingworth and then Denholme. We used to like walking to and on the Hewenden Viaduct - which also could be seen from her cottage in Denholme. Only 150 miles to Fontburn.
Hi Paul/Rebecca, really enjoying your videos, love the camera work!
Just a thought but maybe a map screenshot with POI's at the beginning of the videos might be useful for the viewer?
Hello from Queensbury! Literally just got back from a walk to Thornton Viaduct. The invasive pink flower is Himalayan Balsam.
Ah yes that was it.
Great one, thanks!
And I have subscribed to Adventure Me 😊
Excellent. Thanks.
Another exciting episode , as our Mavis always said, You have to gan canny for a blocked up Portal
Wow that’s got even worse at Well Heads tunnel since I was there in 2000. The Thornton portal was easy to get to even tho I did it near midnight?Freaked me out i cam tell you. The other end I attempted too (in daylight) but was beaten back when my foot went into a rusty old drum which contained ? Got pics somewhere. Did the others too but never went in and Queensbury and Lees Moor. Lea Bank I missed but did Old Lane and Wheatley. Not all the viaducts were open then . Totally fascinated by the Queensbury lines as I have the books on them and various magazines (back track and steam days). I believe there is/was a plan for the trail to go through Well Heads but I suppose this now might depend on how the Queensbury debacle turns out ? Fantastic footage 👍
Some interesting and unusual engineering items. Very attractive stonework on the bridges where many companies would have just used brick. It’s not often you actually see the brick invert (inverted arch foundation) in a tunnel as they are often buried under the ballast and dirt. Not all tunnels have them though, only where there is a risk of ground heave. Another good video, thank you.
The architecture changes as you travel along. The really class stuff gives way to plainer brickwork by these not quite cut and covered tunnels- I wonder if they were an afterthought due to unstable cuttings. Or maybe they ran out of money.
A lot of tunnels have inverts. I think the failure of it may be the cause as to why Grantshouse Tunnel collapsed during the ECML electrification and people killed. I think it was being deepened to allow for overhead. It's about 20 miles north from Berwick on Tweed. I'm a bit hazy on detail but the rock was inherently unstable and naturally fractured anyway. There is a plaque on the narrow road above that you can get to off the A1. The tunnel was ultimately buried and the line detoured so neatly around in a cutting that the route is really difficult to spot from a train. The really odd thing is that the tunnel was that near the edge of the hill that it seems like it could have been bypassed during construction.
Another great exploration! Shame all these finely-engineered structures are so often buried or closed off
that guy who was with you was on martin zero's channel a couple of weeks back
Yup. Gets around doesn't he
Good video most enjoyable..
Love your videos keep up the great work . ,are you going to to any on the Great central (The London Extension ?
I like the new beginnings
@ 4:05 Ah! Got your nose!
Also, Rebecca, you may not be Queensbury, but you are quite regal.
Excellent video.
Very nice line that.
That Himalayan balsam is a bugger to get rid of, once flowered if you touch the pods they explode sending the seeds feet away.
I'd really enjoy to go on your guys explorations they look load's of fun
looks quite viable to reopen as a through cycle/walk path. Those tunnels were in pretty decent shape
As I'm sure you recall, this is very much my home territory - how great to see it in all its glory (I've not seen lots of it but the Hatherden/Hewenden viaduct was always a lovely sight). Will you also go further north on this line? (Lees Moor tunnel, the old track into Keighley etc.) - I really enjoyed this, thanks a lot gang!
* Harecroft (not Hatherden) - I'm getting phases of my life mixed up!
Cracking video.
Just came back here, because I was looking a bit further into the historic Great Northern Railway. Well, the one that went from London King's Cross (which it built) up to Doncaster and York. But the Great Northern this video is about, apperas to be different one. Or at least the route seems to have been a branch line or so, but definitely not part of the the original Main-line route.
Great Vidio from Colin The Head
Many thanks!
I suggested on Darren's last video with Martin that they should cover the Queensbury Tunnel saga, and at one point you were less than a mile from it - future video perhaps?
We covered Queensbury Tunnel around January time. Have a look back and you'll find it.
@@pwhitewick whoops, just rewatched it, it was actually the first video of yours I watched ;). There's been plenty of developments since....
Seemed like a boatload of Foxglove in the first 8 min. Is that right? Lovely
Good one! Incredible amount of infrastructure out there. What would you say is your ‘go-to’ online resource when planning a visit?
Impressive stuff 👍
Hello Paul and Rebecca, thank you for another lovely video, I wonder, have you considered the old cattle drovers routes as a subject?, I don't know how many are still rights of way, or if there are any near you guys, but, I suspect that like the disused railways, a lot of them have been lost, although it is another possibility, anyway, stay safe, all the best from Scotland, Stephen.
Cheers Stephen. We actually have a few near us so definitely a good idea when we have the time.
The main contractor on the building of the GNR was Abraham woodiwiss a distant relation of mine, as an employer he certainly had blood on his hands but was very wealthy.... don't know what happened to the fortune but do know I don't have it. He also did a stretch of the Settle Carlisle. Probably never used a shovel in his life but could obviously organise a big job.
Some of those tunnels and viaducts were amazing, great video. Just wondering with the Patreon thank you at the end which is a great addition, how come my name isn’t there just wondering ?
That's very odd Simon. Big apologies from us. We will get you added for next week.
Since watching a British film called Ghost Stories ( actor from The Office & the long film about Goblins etc ) I just couldn’t enter a Railway Calvert . Another British Movie called Sightseers features maybe that very aqueduct ...very funny film. Beats watching southampton fc at least 😁👍
Denholme Tunnel is in amazing condition.
Yup, it's was clearly well built and lasted the test of time.
4.48 - I was looking on Google Maps the other evening and there were a few very short tunnels that they built because they couldn't stop landslides. It looks as if one of the tunnels has collapsed from above.
great video guys.when do you think you might get up to the north west love to see a video done up here.
Ah North East.... Very soon. We did a. Purple from Ingleton etc.... Roughly where are you thinking?
The Whitewicks was thinking north west like manchester end would be great😎
@@lockdownlooping9402 ahhhh. Cool. We did a collab with Martin Zero, presume you've seen that one??
The Whitewicks i did indeed thats how i found your channel was very good 👍
@@lockdownlooping9402 ah brill. Ok well we are due to meet the legend once again soon so definitely a trip again soon on the cards
Great video thoroughly enjoyable,just been through Torpantau tunnel,now coffee and cake, feet up watching your film.♥️
Haha. There's a lovely cafe just down the hill from the southern portal
When do you plan to cover the Halifax high level line? I live right next to one of the tunnels.
Good as always but could have been longer as so much to see
Absolutely Paul, gotta leave you wanting more though! Darren will no doubt do a very detailed trip and video.
Those bovine were not happy with you being there 😁
Remember when this route still had rails (rusty) would have made a good avoiding Bradford line for freight as Bradford is a terminus.
Its a shame the Worth Valley/Keithley railway cant have it. If not the Queensbury tunnel then the route through to Bradford.
Dam those Victorians and their prettyness. Never heard of reverse tunnels before :o)
I pedaled a bike along Thornton viaduct wall when i was a kid. God, i was a f$%#ing moron!
Really interesting reading the Wikipedia about the Queensbury lines. If you've travelled on the Worth Valley line you have travelled on the last remaining section of the lines (a short distance though). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensbury_lines
There’s still something o see at all three ends of the line. If you look to the East shortly before reaching Ingrow West Station you can see the abutments of a bridge which would have carried the main line into Ingrow East.
At Halifax the third platform still exists, and now has some sort of children’s place on it, not sure exactly what it is, nursery, playgroup, something like that.
At Bradford it’s still just about possible to make out where the line ran. The present day lines from Halifax and Leeds into the Interchange join at Mill Lane Junction. Just before this junction the line from Queensbury came in from the West and passed under the Halifax line before joining the line from Leeds at St. Dunstan’s, where there was once a Station. This is very close to where the huge tyre fire was a few months ago. Interchange was built on the site of an old goods station. The tracks used to pass under the road to the right of it to enter the old Exchange station on the site where the law courts are now.
do stockport ... have a look
Are they [Sustrans] ever going to complete the Great Northern Railway path?
We certainly hope so.