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Updated: May 29, 2025
After Weedon we pass through Kilsby Tunnel, 2,423 yards long, which was once one of the wonders of the world; but has been, by the progress of railway works, reduced to the level of any other long dark hole. Rugby, 83 miles from London, the centre of a vast network of railways, is our next halting place.
The irruption of such men into the quiet hamlet of Kilsby must, indeed, have produced a very startling effect on the recluse inhabitants of the place. Robert Stephenson used to tell a story of the clergyman of the parish waiting upon the foreman of one of the gangs to expostulate with him as to the shocking impropriety of his men working during Sunday.
Difficulties and obstructions are overcome in a way that appears to the unskilled eye nothing less than miraculous. But the work is often hindered and rendered greatly more expensive by the sudden appearance of evils against which no amount of human wisdom or foresight could have guarded. The Kilsby tunnel of the London and North west Railway is a case in point.
Its entire length is 2869 yards, or nearly 1¾ mile—exceeding the famous Kilsby Tunnel by 471 yards. The Midland Railway was a favourite line of Mr. Stephenson’s for several reasons. It passed through a rich mining district, in which it opened up many valuable coalfields, and it formed part of the great main line of communication between London and Edinburgh.
It is a curious circumstance that notwithstanding the quantity thus removed, the level of the surface of the water in the tunnel was only lowered about 2½ to 3 inches per week, proving the vast area of the quicksand, which probably extended along the entire ridge of land under which the railway passed. The cost of the line was greatly increased by the difficulties encountered at Kilsby.
But the head navvy merely hitched up his trousers, and said, “Why, Soondays hain’t cropt out here yet!” In short, the navvies were little better than heathens, and the village of Kilsby was not restored to its wonted quiet until the tunnel-works were finished, and the engines and scaffoldings removed, leaving only the immense masses of débris around the line of shafts which extend along the top of the tunnel.
At Watford the chalk ridge was penetrated by a tunnel about 1800 yards long; and at Northchurch, Lindslade, and Stowe Hill, there were other tunnels of minor extent. But the chief difficulty of the undertaking was the execution of that under the Kilsby ridge. Though not the largest, this is in many respects one of the most interesting works of the kind in England.
Ours was the first of three trains, and was to carry the Battery, and two companies of Infantry. Williams and I secured a small lair underneath a limber in an open truck, and bundled in our kit. The platform was crowded with officers and Tommies, and many and envious were the farewells we had. Kilsby, of T Battery, whom I had made friends with at the barracks, was there to see me off.
What we have said of the Kilsby tunnel gives a slight glimpse of some of the expenses, difficulties, and dangers that occasionally attend the construction of a railway. Of course these difficulties and expenses vary according to the nature of the ground.
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