Wenvoe Tunnel
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North portal
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Barry Railway |
| Location | Culverhouse Cross, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales |
| Coordinates | S 51°27′28″N 3°15′39″W / 51.457821°N 3.260892°W N 51°28′09″N 3°16′35″W / 51.469250°N 3.276423°W |
| Status | Closed |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1889 |
| Closed | 1963 |
| Technical | |
| Length | 1,867 yards (1,707 m) |
Wenvoe Tunnel is a disused tunnel on the defunct Barry Railway that runs under Culverhouse Cross on the western outskirts of Cardiff, in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales. It was opened in 1889 on a line used to carry coal to Barry Docks, and closed in 1963.
The southern end of the tunnel is to the west of The Alps Quarry, off Caerau Lane, and the northern end is north of Culverhouse Cross Retail Park, just west of the A4232 road and south east of the hamlet of Drope. The tunnel carried the Barry Railway for 1867 yards through the downs before it crossed the River Ely on the Drope viaduct of 178 yards and St.Fagans viaduct of 180 yards over the South Wales main line and continued north to the coal fieldsbut at just under half-mile north of its northern portal, a single line branch to Peterston-super-Ely ran to the west. Further still, at 1·35 miles from the northern portal, Tynycaeau Junction was the location of the divergence of the Cadoxton-Pontypridd line with the Penrhos Branch which ran to Caerphilly and the Rhymney valley. The tunnel passed under the A48 Cardiff—Cowbridge road. The other main works on the railway were the Pontypridd (or Graig) tunnel 0.75 miles (1.21 km) at Treforest and a viaduct over the River Ely 534 feet (163 m) long and 62 feet (19 m) high. plus the St. Fagans viaduct mentioned above.
A British Rail Gazetteer says the tunnel, between Wenvoe and Drope Junction, is just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long, at 1,867 yards (1,707 m). More simply, the closed tunnel on the former Barry–Pontypridd route is 1,867 yards (1,707 m) long, the 9th longest Great Western tunnel. It is brick-lined apart from a short section at the south end. There is one brick-lined ventilation shaft at the centre, almost as wide as the tunnel. Its original air shaft chimney of circular red brick with staffordshire blue corbelling was removed following closure and a breeze-block structure built to the rear of a concrete-aproned area of a retail outlet and which at ground level, occupies an air way of only a quadrant of the circular air shaft below ground
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