Totley Tunnel
Totley Tunnel is a 6,230-yard (3.5 mi; 5.7 km) tunnel on the former Midland Railway Manchester-Sheffield line between Totley on the outskirts of Sheffield and Grindleford in Derbyshire, England. It was completed in 1893 and at the time was the second longest railway tunnel in the UK. (The older Severn Tunnel is 1.3 kilometres (0.81 mi) longer) Totley Tunnel is now the longest wholly underland tunnel in the UK. After the two High Speed 1 tunnels opened in 2007 it became the fourth longest mainline railway tunnel in the UK.
The contractor for 10.5 miles (16.9 km) of the railway, including the tunnel, was Thomas Oliver of Horsham, West Sussex.
Work began in 1888 with the construction of three brick-built surveying towers along the proposed line of tunnel, followed by a number of vertical shafts to the level of the rails. The Duke of Rutland had decreed that no more than one ventilation shaft should be sunk through his moors (and that work should cease from August to October, during the grouse shooting season). Initially four permanent and three temporary shafts were sunk near to the Totley end. The latter were cut through shale, and water was encountered in the first eight feet. The permanent ones took longer, encountering beds of ganister, coal and rock.
As the initial 10 by 9 feet (3.05 m × 2.74 m) headings were driven outwards from the base of each shaft, water flow increased to some 2.25 million imperial gallons per day (10,200 m3/d or 118 L/s). At the Padley (Grindleford) end, the situation was little better, work stopping for several weeks until a drain was laid. Then at about 2,000 yards (1,800 m) a spring was encountered which flooded the workings at five thousand imperial gallons an hour (23 m3/h or 6.3 L/s). A raft had to be used to inspect the workings. Shortly after this the shale became drier and work proceeded toward Totley, the headings finally meeting in 1892.
The tunnel was the proving ground of a number of boring machines for the shot holes, using gelignite to blast the rock. No limit was set on the amount, and in all some 163 long tons (166 t; 183 short tons) were used. The atmosphere in the workings was hot, as well as humid, with compressed air used for ventilation, though, for a time at the Padley end, a turbine was installed in the Burbage Brook to drive a fan.
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