The Penmanshiel Tragedy
Rail Express|October 2019
Forty years ago, two railway workers sadly lost their lives when a tunnel being upgraded on the East Coast Main line collapsed. David Russell looks at how British Rail coped with the unexpected closure of one of its two main routes between England and Scotland, and managed to have the line reopened in just five months.
The Penmanshiel Tragedy

The year 1979 was a year of majorchanges on the East Coast MainLine. The introduction of HSTs, which had begun the previous year, was due to be completed in May when the full 125mph timetable, using 32 new Class 254 sets, was planned to be effected from the timetable change.

On the freight side, the introduction of new 8ft 6in high containers on Freightliner workings meant that three tunnels on the route required upgrading to provide the necessary clearances. Effectively, this meant carrying out excavation work to lower the tracks by a few inches.

To prevent major disruption and full closure of the line, work on each track was carried out separately, enabling trains to continue to operate through the tunnels under a single line working arrangement.

The first to receive the necessary works was Stoke Tunnel, south of Grantham, the work being carried out between September 10 and October 22, 1978. The first stage to September 30 saw work take place on the down (northbound) line before switching to the up direction. Work then switched to Peascliffe, north of Grantham, from October 22 to December 2 and then it was the turn of Penmanshiel Tunnel, between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Dunbar, in early 1979.

Penmanshiel Tunnel was built by contractors Ross & Mitchell for the North British Railway in 1845/6, initially as a 267-yard (244 metre) single bore.

COLLAPSE

The gauge enhancement work at Penmanshiel began on January 21, 1979 and lowering of the southbound up line was completed on March 10 and work transferred to the northbound down line. A week later, in the early hours of March 17, lowering of the rock floor for this line had been completed and final tidying up was being carried out in readiness for the laying of a concrete base slab upon which the track would run.

Esta historia es de la edición October 2019 de Rail Express.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición October 2019 de Rail Express.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE RAIL EXPRESSVer todo
LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
Rail Express

LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store

The ongoing pandemic restrictions and major engineering works have resulted in the complete withdrawal of the last remaining ‘Electras’ from passenger service, although the plan is to resurrect them in the summer.

time-read
3 minutos  |
March 2021
Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
Rail Express

Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars

A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.

time-read
2 minutos  |
March 2021
Powerscene
Rail Express

Powerscene

Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
March 2021
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
Rail Express

End for Freightliner Class 86/6s

The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.

time-read
1 min  |
March 2021
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
Rail Express

Service reductions as Covid cases increase

An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.

time-read
6 minutos  |
March 2021
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Rail Express

East West Rail funding go-ahead

Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.

time-read
3 minutos  |
March 2021
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Rail Express

Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car

Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.

time-read
4 minutos  |
March 2021
Class 92 revolution
Rail Express

Class 92 revolution

Despite its complex shape and high detail ratio compared to other modern six-axle locomotives, Revolution Trains chose the Class 92 to be its first 'N' gauge locomotive model.

time-read
7 minutos  |
March 2021
Bottling it!
Rail Express

Bottling it!

A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.

time-read
2 minutos  |
March 2021
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Rail Express

1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950

Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.

time-read
8 minutos  |
March 2021