Look closely at the picture above, see that white dot in all the blackness!! that's the other end of this incredible and exciting straight single bed tunnel.
On one of our trips out to the Mountains in search of the Famous Golden Train we found this very old station and a single track. We had to investigate further and we followed an old track bed to see where it would lead us too. And there hiding in the undergrowth was the entrance.
We where not the only ones who found the tunnel - they did not complete the stretch like we did as they had no lights with them either. Take note of the wall shape and the height of the tunnel roof.
Armed only with mobile phones and their back lights we set off very carefully. You see that white spot - that's the other end. With the distance meter switched on we head on.... remembering that once we got to the end we would have to come back again.
Lets be honest here - it was dark and not much light to see and we wondered if we had bitten of more than we could chew.... but onward we carried on.
Throughout the whole tunnel we came across these indents where you could stand when a train was coming. Also a huge amount of drill hole - we guessed that other people had been drilling looking for hollows where something may have been hidden some 70 years ago or so. The ceiling of the tunnel is really high and everything we touched was as black as could be - again from the smoke of the steam trains that once passed through on their travels. (you should have seen the state of our shoes afterwards)
Soon we where getting closer to the opening at the end of the tunnel. And when we got there we learned that it was in fact 1.2 kilometers long. Two tunnels side by side where once for sure trains could take cover from aerial attack during WW2 we know this for a fact having visited a local museum which was full of amazing information.
This is the exit or entrance but in any case the other end from where we started and again the tiny white spot in all the blackness is where we had come from. We though we would take a little look around before setting back.
The track bed tails off and joins the other tack bed far ahead.
To the left is the current working line which also went through it's own tunnel - and to the right is a water trough where engines could scoop up the water as they traveled - its been covered now with wooden sleepers. Far right is the old track bed which we followed.
And as you can see, from the entrance of the other tunnel the working track flows to the left to join with the other track bed. Note the working colour signal set at red.
We returned to where we went in, in which by this time it had started to rain and boy did it rain. We stayed dry for a while before running as fast as we could back to the car. we all got soaked but we all felt the experience was well worth it.
All of the images contained within these blogs are copyright protected
A Sony Xperia Mobile Phone was used to shoot these images
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