Changing a tunnel to a cutting

[Oldddudders]

The original LB&SCR route to Brighton was shared, as far as Redhill, with the SER. Because whisking people to Brighton was their prize, the LBSCR got increasingly pissed-off bored with the SER's trains slowing them down between Croydon and Redhill, so in Edwardian days they embarked on a new route between Coulsdon (called Stoats Nest at the time, as it is again now) and Earlswood, known as the Quarry Line. Just south of Coulsdon it crossed the grounds of Cane Hill lunatic asylum. It was decided that the sight of steam and smoke belching from the cutting might inflame the deranged inmates, so a false covering was put over the track at that point. In subsequent, more enlightened (?) eras the cover was removed, but it still remains known as The Covered Way, and the asylum/hospital has long been abandoned, anyway. And not just by the inmates!

[pH]

And sometimes they can't make up their mind what they want:

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=216354&nseq=19

[Gwiwer]

The original LB&SCR route to Brighton was shared, as far as Redhill, with the SER. Because whisking people to Brighton was their prize, the LBSCR got increasingly pissed-off bored with the SER's trains slowing them down between Croydon and Redhill, so in Edwardian days they embarked on a new route between Coulsdon (called Stoats Nest at the time, as it is again now) and Earlswood, known as the Quarry Line. Just south of Coulsdon it crossed the grounds of Cane Hill lunatic asylum. It was decided that the sight of steam and smoke belching from the cutting might inflame the deranged inmates, so a false covering was put over the track at that point. In subsequent, more enlightened (?) eras the cover was removed, but it still remains known as The Covered Way, and the asylum/hospital has long been abandoned, anyway. And not just by the inmates!

 

Some curiosities arise on that stretch of the Brighton lines.  Ian describes the situation at Cane Hill which today is a brick-walled cutting open to the sky on the Quarry (Redhill avoiding) lines south of Stoats Nest junctions and immediately adjacent and to the west of Coulson South station on the original line via Redhill.

 

South from there both routes pass through the North Downs and are closely parallel in deep soft-rock cuttings.  Ultimately both plunge beneath the Downs in their respective bores of Merstham Tunnel (Old and New for Redhill and Quarry lines, though many sources and individuals refer to Merstham New as Quarry Tunnel).  The cuttings are in the order of two miles in length and up to 100 feet deep.  They have been the site of frequent rock falls since opening and with improving science the detection of instability recently ave rise to an expensive scheme to net and soil-nail the entire area at significant cost.  

 

I can only assume that cost was the original driver to the tunnels not having been longer in the first place since two miles of deep cutting through chalk and friable earth has surely never been an engineer's best solution.  Cost again perhaps precluded the reverse of Cane Hill and having the deeper lengths of the cuttings covered at a later date (which might yet be the only permanent solution to the land slipping) creating longer tunnels.

[kevinlms]

 

, to carry the 16ft wide carriage drive with shrubberies on each side.

I hope it looks nice & not too expensive. Ni.

[John_Hughes]

Not keen on "daylighting".  Part of a regettable trend of making nouns into verbs by brute force. Eg.

 

To podium.  "Racing driver X has podiumed in the last four races."

 

A regrettable trend? Well, if it was good enough for Will Shakespeare, it's good enough for me!

[Gwiwer]

Not keen on "daylighting".  Part of a regettable trend of making nouns into verbs by brute force. Eg.

 

To podium.  "Racing driver X has podiumed in the last four races."

 

"Medalled" also used throughout the most recent Olympic and Commonwealth Games to describe anyone / team successful in winning a medal.  To meddle is to interfere with.  I cannot find a verb "to medal".

 

But never yet come across "Gerrarded" for a tunnel collapse  Perhaps others were "daylight" before reaching the point of failure. 

[kenw]

Corbridge Tunnel was replaced with a cutting in the 1950's and the spoil used for Tyne Yards foundations, the tunnel remains though

Yes, and both portals are visible when passing

[John_Hughes]

"Medalled" also used throughout the most recent Olympic and Commonwealth Games to describe anyone / team successful in winning a medal.  To meddle is to interfere with.  I cannot find a verb "to medal".

 

But never yet come across "Gerrarded" for a tunnel collapse  Perhaps others were "daylight" before reaching the point of failure. 

 

But 'bemedalled' certainly exists!

[Maltazer]

The original LB&SCR route to Brighton was shared, as far as Redhill, with the SER. Because whisking people to Brighton was their prize, the LBSCR got increasingly pissed-off bored with the SER's trains slowing them down between Croydon and Redhill,

 

And not too far away of course is the oddity of the Little Browns (Edenbridge) tunnel on the Uckfield line, broken in two where the line passed under the SER route from Redhill to Tonbridge, although in this case it was built like that.  

http://tinyurl.com/mzx7owv 

 

Mal

[ozzyo]

There is one that I'm surprised that has not been mentioned is in Liverpool Olive Mount.