Blea Moor Tunnel


Blea Moor Tunnel is a 2,629 yd railway tunnel located between Ribblehead Viaduct and Dent railway station in England. It is the longest tunnel on the Settle-Carlisle Line, being almost twice as long as the second longest tunnel, Rise Hill Tunnel.

History

Built by the Midland Railway, it took more than four years to complete. Construction started in 1872, with dynamite transported from Carlisle and Newcastle in carts to the construction site. The wages on offer to the miners who dug the tunnel were 5s to 5s 6d per day.
It was completed in 1875 at a cost of £109,000.
It passes some 500 feet below the moor after which it was named, and was built with the aid of seven separate construction shafts sunk from the moor above. This permitted sixteen separate gangs of workers to be used during construction. Four of these were subsequently filled in but three were retained for ventilation purposes and are still used as such today. At one point of the track's history, steam locomotives were tested for their worthiness by driving them through this tunnel.

Traffic

Any train that goes the full length of the Settle & Carlisle line goes through the Blea Moor Tunnel. This includes passenger trains, all run by Northern, various special excursions and the many goods trains.

Train simulators

You can go through the Blea Moor Tunnel either with Microsoft Train Simulator, Trainz Classics 3 or Train Simulator 2015.

Location