Clayton Tunnel (00 gauge model): Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 17:34, 29 July 2011
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Clayton Tunnel (00 gauge model) |
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Arch Three , Area 41 |
A model of the exotically castle-shaped North entrance to the Clayton Tunnel. The tunnel was completed in 1841, and the tunnel-keeper's cottage was added to the "castle" in 1849.
The model is in the "countryside" section of the large 00-gauge layout, in Arch Three.
The Original
The tunnel entrance was reputedly built to look like a castle to satisfy the farmer who owned the land, and later had the tunnel-keeper's cottage built between its turrets.
The job of the tunnel-keeper was to keep the tunnel's gas lamps lit to make the passage less frightening to rail travellers, but with the advent of larger, higher-speed steam locomotives, the job of keeping the lamps re-lit (and the tunnel interior painted a nice clean white) moved from "difficult" to "impractical".
The Clayton Tunnel Disaster
Two workers died in a accident during the construction of the tunnel, and this, along with the infamous train collision that happened in the tunnel in 1861 with the deaths of twenty-three people, gave the tunnel a reputation for being haunted.
The Clayton Tunnel accident was caused by a combination of factors that overwhelmed the tunnel's signallign procedures. Three trains were allowed to leave Brighton station closer together than was suppsoed to happen. The first train entered the tunnel, causing a warning sign to be set to danger. The second train then stopped inside the tunnel and started to reverse, at which point the first train emerged, and the signal was set to clear. At this point the third approaching train entered the tunnel at full speed and ran into the back of the second train.
In conjunction with his personal participation in the 1865 Staplehurst rail disaster (which happened on a bridge), the Clayton Tunnel crash is reckoned to have helped to inspire Charles Dickens' creepy tunnel-based short story, "The Signal-Man" (1866).
External links
- claytontunnel.com
- Clayton Tunnel Cottage (southdownsliving.com)
- Clayton Tunnel Cottage (buildingopinions.com)
- Photographs of the North Portal "castle" (geograph.org.uk)
- Clayton Tunnel, Google image search
