Boughton Brake Tunnel
Boughton Brake Tunnel
![The view looking out of the south portal into the jungle beyond.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image1-78.jpg)
![Narrow refuges face out onto the extant track.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image2-78.jpg)
![As a modern tunnel, it comprises brick side walls and concrete arched roof sections - the latter not looking in particularly good repair.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image3-78.jpg)
![A milepost set into the lining alongside a refuge - painted white to improve its visibility for passing platelayers.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image4-78.jpg)
![The neat and functional north portal - brick built but with cast concrete skewbacks and keystone.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image5-78.jpg)
![Vegetation has been substantially cleared from the approach cutting.](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image6-77.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image1-78.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image2-78.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image3-78.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image4-78.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image5-78.jpg)
![](http://www.forgottenrelics.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/image6-77.jpg)
British Rail opened a four-mile single-track branch to the new Bevercotes Colliery in 1961, linking it to the network at Boughton Junction. It was closed temporarily between January 1962 and August 1965, and saw its last train on 18th June 1993.
The line featured a 350-yard bore known locally as Mummies Tunnel, but correctly titled Boughton Brake. The portals are brick-built whilst the interior features near-vertical brick side walls incorporating regular refuges and a segmental arch concrete roof.
Just over two miles of the Bevercotes branch, including the tunnel, were brought back into use as part of a Network Rail test track during the summer of 2012. The tunnel will be used as a training environment for on-track machines. But it is understood that reballasting needs to take place before the line is ready to take trains again.
(Richard Croft’s photo is used under this Creative Commons licence.)