Wet tunnels

[Mcr Warrior]

Severn Tunnel must be one, for starters. Think that because of the 'Great Spring', something like 50 million litres has to be pumped out of there, every day.

Was featured on "Britain's Beautiful Rivers with Richard Hammond" tonight ('More4' channel, Saturday 28th May 2022, 7.55 p.m.)

 

[Wilts Wanderer]

Footage /photos I saw of Bramhope Tunnel on the Leeds to Harrogate line a long time ago, showed continuous curtains of water falling down the ventilation shafts.

 

[D6130]

Most of the tunnels on the Settle-Carlisle line are pretty wet....especially Blea Moor. Large icicles are often a problem there too when there's a hard winter.

 

[Ploughman]

Footage /photos I saw of Bramhope Tunnel on the Leeds to Harrogate line a long time ago, showed continuous curtains of water falling down the ventilation shafts.

From working in the tunnel, I can confirm Bramhope is a very wet tunnel.
The large diameter bore drain in the 6ft runs constantly 365 days a year with no visible change in volume whatever the weather.
You can hear large rocks being driven along the pipes.

 

[TheBigD]

I walked through Corby tunne (YTS secondment to a Pway team) in 1988. It was in a poor condition with lots of water everywhere and water running through it. Don't know if it is on better condition these days.

 

[Mat17]

Clarborough tunnel between Retford and Gainsborough was pretty wet when I travelled through it in a DMU in the 80s. Probably limestone or sandstone bedrock, as the earlier posts have mentioned if you tunnel through pervious bedrock the inrush volumes can be considerable.....

You beat me to it!

 

[Ken H]

So if there is a wet tunnel. What do you do about it?

 

[furnessvale]

So if there is a wet tunnel. What do you do about it?

Make sure the tunnel drains well and, if no damage is occurring to the tunnel lining, leave it to it. If the tunnel lining is being damaged, such remedial work as is possible has to be done although stopping the ingress of water from the INSIDE of a cylinder is not an easy job.

 

[Ken H]

Make sure the tunnel drains well and, if no damage is occurring to the tunnel lining, leave it to it. If the tunnel lining is being damaged, such remedial work as is possible has to be done although stopping the ingress of water from the INSIDE of a cylinder is not an easy job.

If you were to make the tunnel watertight, then you may run the risk of higher water pressure outside the lining. Not sure thats sensible.

 

[Lewlew]

So if there is a wet tunnel. What do you do about it?

Make sure the trains have their arm bands on

 

[ac6000cw]

Not Britain, but in the USA back in classic passenger train days these were a particular problem to the streamlined "Dome Cars", with the high sightseeing lounge that projected up above the general car roofline, with glazed windows at the front, which could be (and were) broken at speed by icicles hanging from tunnels. So old photographs of F-unit diesels on affected routes can show the locos with a light steel framework hoop sticking up above the cab to the loading gauge limit, sometimes mistaken for a radio antenna, called "icicle cutters", designed to break any icicles off. They weren't a standard loco manufacturers' item, but just something fabricated locally by the railroad's workshops.

Interesting, are these them? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F-unit#/media/File:Amtrak_San_Francisco_Zephyr.jpg

In a Video a few years back Battle for Donner Pass.
It showed one technique in how to deal with Icicles.
Use of a Shotgun, it seemed to work well.

That's probably my all-time favourite railway video

Using blasting cord (laid in groove cut into the ice) to break up thick ice in the '4-foot' between the rails is also interesting (as is re-railing an SD40 in the snow and repairing the track afterwards).

This is a set of snowfighting-equipped GP38-2's parked up in Roseville, CA with folded down 'icicle cutters' on the cab roof, window protection grilles, rotary clear-view windows (as used on ships) and hoods over the air intakes behind the cab - ready for dealing with winter on Donner Pass!

 

[Grecian 1998]

Buckhorn Weston Tunnel (more recently known as Gillingham Tunnel) in Dorset has always been very wet. It had single line working for 3 years from 1958 - 1961 in order to allow underpinning due to damage from water ingress.

 

[D821]

The tunnel under Birkenhead on the West Kirby / New Brighton branch has quite a strong smell of sewage just before you emerge from it. I don't know If there's a leak from above or something. I've noticed it a bit lately, it was certainly quite pungent this evening.

 

[Legolash2o]

How would you make a tunnel like Severn Tunnel dry? If it's even possible. Spray a layer of concrete?

 

[Halish Railway]

The tunnel under Birkenhead on the West Kirby / New Brighton branch has quite a strong smell of sewage just before you emerge from it. I don't know If there's a leak from above or something. I've noticed it a bit lately, it was certainly quite pungent this evening.

The area surrounding the entrances and exits to Hamilton Square has a very strong smell of sewerage.

 

[DelW]

How would you make a tunnel like Severn Tunnel dry? If it's even possible. Spray a layer of concrete?

Jet grouting the ground outside the tunnel walls is more likely to work, but as mentioned in post 69, the build up of water outside the tunnel might well produce a hydrostatic pressure that could exceed the earth pressure at rest, so increasing the total loading on the tunnel structure.

 

[uvarvu]

Was featured on "Britain's Beautiful Rivers with Richard Hammond" tonight ('More4' channel, Saturday 28th May 2022, 7.55 p.m.)

Just watched this. The segment on the tunnel is very good, anyone who has a passing interest in the Severn Tunnel should take a look.

 

[waverley47]

Reviving this thread, but I've recently heard a rumor that the works above Haymarket South Tunnel in Edinburgh have led to some quite dramatic water ingress there.

Traveling through today, it's noticeable the amount of water running through the tunnel drains. Very possible this isn't true but I've heard this from several NR guys which makes me think its probably accurate.

 

[Elecman]

Reviving this thread, but I've recently heard a rumor that the works above Haymarket South Tunnel in Edinburgh have led to some quite dramatic water ingress there.

Traveling through today, it's noticeable the amount of water running through the tunnel drains. Very possible this isn't true but I've heard this from several NR guys which makes me think its probably accurate.

Sounds like someone has damaged a mains supply pip. / sewer during whatever wok has been carried out

 

[Recessio]

the grand daddy of all under-river tunnels, the Thames Tunnel on the East London Line, has four pumps, of which any single pump can deal with the normal level of leaking

This was my first thought too. Standing on the platforms at one of the stations (Wapping or Rotherhithe, can't quite remember), you can actually see water flowing down a channel grooved into the concrete slab sleepers.