Exploring the 2 Mile Long Tunnel Below Liverpool City Centre
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ธ.ค. 2024
- Liverpool's railway history is some of the oldest in the world, most of it hidden below the surface. Just 19 years after the opening of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway, the longest tunnel yet was cut in 1849. It took goods and later passengers from Edge Hill Station down to Waterloo and Victoria Docks, to the north of the city, and it was an unbelievable 2 miles in length. Later a small box cutting was added part-way along that effectively made two separate tunnels. Today, all of it is disused and just waiting to be reborn.
01:11 - Victoria Tunnel
13:16 - Byrom St Cutting
18:49 - Waterloo Tunnel
23:08 - The Grand Arch & Docks
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My dad rode the train from Edge Hill down to the docks in yhe early 50s to board s ship to Egypt for his national service..he said it went by gravity to the docks and was winched up on the return journey..The entrances by Edge Hill are the site of the first railways in the world ...and its now been left as an overgrown relic...what a shame Liverpool City Council have not preserved this iconic piece of history.
It's scandalous
Scandalous but sadly typical.just look what they done to original cavern
Paul Murphy it sounds like your father has some cracking tales to tell I'm fascinated by the fee lines you related there amazing mate
Our elders are amazing
@@paullee5449 yeah demolished the original one when they could of just spent a bit more money to have the tunnel be more to the side its just stupid.
The last passenger train to use the tunnel was a troop train taking troops to Northern Ireland. 1971. Riverside station closed that year.
The tow rope broke in around 1895. Locos were powerful enough to climb the incline by then, so the rope was abandoned.
Men were killed in the Byrom Street cutting as a train became loose rolling down the tunnel.
The Byrom St cutting was proposed as a station location at one time.
I'm a Railway Guard, and one of our Drivers who retired about twenty years ago, worked some of the last trains through these tunnels, to and from Liverpool Riverside.
They were troop trains in 1971, run in connection with the troubles in Northern Ireland. Riverside is where the troops boarded ships for Belfast.
The trains he worked were hauled by Class 40's, and loaded to around eleven vehicles. He said the noise off the Class 40 as it ascended the tunnels on full whack at walking pace was something that will stay with him forever.
It was something I myself would have loved to have experienced. However, I was only just born way back in 1971.
Great video 😎
Great video presented by a top bloke. You’re right up there with my two other favourite channels ‘Martin Zero’ and ‘Adventure Me’ keep up the great work pal.
From a fellow Oldhamer👍
Great exploration! Those tunnels would make make brilliant walking and cycling routes across the city - if properly drained, surfaced and lit. It's a shame that much of the historic Edge Hill Station is such a ruin.
Extremely absorbing to go through these old tunnels, Ollie. I can imagine the trains going through them to the docks. The excavation must have taken years to do. Many thanks for this video production, plus the showing of some excellent old photographs
Thank you for another really enjoyable adventure around the tunnels in Liverpool. I'd like to dream that one day the redevelopment of the docks might require a railway station again and the tunnels come back into use. I look forward to your next adventure.
Great video, as previously mentioned, I played in the tunnels of Edgehill back in the seventies. I went through Waterloo tunnel and came out into what is now Costco, first structure to see was a large concrete rocket, ( tunnel vent). Memorys hey.
I stumbled on your channel a while back now
Fecking love it , so interesting and informative it's great to see and hear Manchester and Liverpool history narrated by a local . Thanks.
Fantastic, really enjoyed this. I'm off to Lime Street again in the morning for a day out. Spotted the plaza building @23:36 I worked in there in 2012/13 so I've got an idea where you exited. Incredible edge hill is getting close to two hundred years old. Liverpool strangely feels like home to me each time I visit, I really should relocate there for a bit!
Hey ollie great to see a new video...fantastic as ever..well done .
Dude !!!!!!! , one cool inside !!!!!!!!, to whot was !!!!!!!, and still is in places !!!!!!!! , old school workmanship, old school ,engerining , old school , technical mathematics, of skew brickwork !!!!!!, Rock on to the old heads, respect to you sir , for a very cool show !!!!!!!!.
Glad I found your videos mate, I grew up in Liverpool as a kid so these are great! The algorithm worked this time! Keep it up!
Excellent video Ollie love watching these romantic trips down memory lane 👍🏼
This was so interesting thank you from New Zealand
keep it up mate always like seeing a new video of yours pop up
Thanks very much!
Nice one Ollie.
Ollie, your videos are amazing, thank you!
Thank you!
You've done it again young man. Well done and thanks.
Yet another wonderful vid of Liverpool's underground tunnels Ollie! Keep up the great work and lookin' forward to the next one!
Very interesting. You kept the video moving along with facts about the area and old maps/pictures.
Wow it's shocking to me that Edge Hill is the world's oldest railway station still in use and it's just so plain. Feels like there should be massive signs everywhere. I think there is a museum near Rainhill Station.
what a fantastic vlog. ty for the memorys of the past
Some good footage and as usual excellent commentary 👍👍
Thanks Ollie. Entertaining and informative as always. 🙂
Thanks 😊
That brick building in the cutting was no doubt a former plate-layers hut where track workers would take their breaks and have a brew, for you information my late Grandfather was employed at Waterloo Dock and Great Howard Street goods depot during L M S days he was in the sales dept conversing for freight cargoes to be moved by rail to and from Liverpool Port. When travelling on a train on the Northern Line of Mersey Rail the Waterloo tunnel is clearly visible just before the trains go down the incline and into the tunnel under Leeds Street and also after Leaving the tunnel unde Leeds street and up the incline, the viaduct on which the Northern Line trains ow run was formally used to take freight wagons down to street level and into the depot at Great Howard Street when it was in operation, that depot before 1922 was a Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway goods station , where as Waterloo Dock Station was a London and North Western Railway Station and which both became London Midland And Scottish Railway after the 1923 pre grouping, many thanks for another very fine and interesting video, I can remember steam hauled trains running into The Riverside Station ,they had to cross over the road and a guy used to stand in the middle of the road waving a red flag maybe when it was dark he had a red Oil lamp instead
I
Loving your work Sir.
Brilliant video as always 👏 👌 👍
Brilliant video again, great research and photographs. What I really enjoy is the fact that you are usually somewhere you shouldn’t be, and because I’m watching I shouldn’t be there either. We will get caught one day. Thanks and take care. 👏👏👏
Haha very true. I'll make sure I go down fighting though. Thanks very much for watching 🙂
Fantastic, always wondered what was down there. 😀👍🏻
That fridge at 5:22 is actually there on Street View too 😂😂😂
I worked on the Kingsway Road tunnels in 1968-1972 as a jcb driver and below the Waterloo tunnel the builders drove a smaller 6 foot diameter tunnel to drain the seepage from the flooded rail tracks above. The small drainage tunnel terminated roughly in the centre of Waterloo goods station
and was pumped up from the small tunnel sump via a steam pump and into the sewer on site. We unwittingly blasted into the bottom of the small drainage tunnel one night on the land drive from Waterloo goods station up towards Scotland Road It was completely full and many thousands of gallons of water cascaded into the Kingsway tunnel workings and completely baffled Nuttall Atkinsons miners until it had finished draining, thus allowing the engineers to walk through it and investigate its purpose. We later backfilled it with fly ash which I pushed into the cellar/shaft/sump with the jcb front bucket and it was hosed into the tunnel to fill it, then liquid grout was pumped in to seal it up tight.
The Victoria/Waterloo and the Wapping tunnels are preserved for reuse.
Thanks
Another superb video keep them coming Ollie.
Boss vid again mate , Always good to see you in our city . There’s some cracking tunnels at Walton on the hill , that I think you’d find would also make a cracking video . Keep up the good work la 👍
It is amazing the tunnel hasn't been blocked off. That was a fascinating tour.
A great trek: well done!
There was an interesting large portal up high there at Byrom Street...
Curious that there were descriptive signs at the various shafts - were they expecting visitors?
Those derelict buildings at Edge Hill are just crying out for restoration. Why have they been so neglected in such an historic location?
Fantastic video. So much information and a glimpse into a hidden world. 👍👍
Absolutely fascinating, mate. Thank you.
Another excellent explore from the likeable Oliver 👍👏👏👏👏👏
Another great video mate. I was hoping you would do this one when I saw last year's.
There are tunnels in walton on the hill as well I believe but not as large as this one.
Mega
Thanks for that Ollie. Your trips underground are always very interesting....and a little bit spooky!
Yes another awesome railway vid. Me and the wife followed the sankey canal off the back of your videos. See if you can do more abandoned railways with old tracks around Merseyside/ Lancashire, we would love to go find more old engineering left to rot! Thanks man
Yeah thank you!
What a fantastic video. I knew of this tunnels existence but to see it up close with the maps that you added explaining where it is in relation to above ground was amazing. Truly deserves to be seen by all those who are interested in local history in Liverpool 👍🙂
Excellent video Ollie, Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for making these videos, I'm from this city and didn't know half the stuff I learn from your channel! :)
Fantastic video Ollie!
Great video Robin
I've got photos showing the Norton st vent (Wild St) explaining the offset plus Kinglake St vent surrounded by houses,also Elizabeth st vent but no upload option
brilliant, thank you for these videos
Thank you for taking the time to watch them!
I lived right by the 'raller' at Bankhall as a kid and used to love exploring the tunnels. That gap in the wall where you said 'answers on a postcsrd', could it have been a drinking fountain?..just a guess as there's still some in the wall on the dock road about that size.
you are very brave going through that tunnel on your own
I went through alone some time ago from the other end and nearly made it but I did an about turn when I suddenly saw guys in hi - viz outside the Edge Hill portal 😮
The cemetary behind the big Anglecan Cathedral, where we used to play as kids in Toxteth on Hope Street, we used to call it the Cemo. It is an old quarry along side Duke Street towards the south of the City Centre.
If you go to the entrance with the tunnel at the side of the Cathedral, we used to call it the tunnel of death, but its just a walk way to get down into the old cemetary at the bottom in the corner there is another tunnel, looks like a train tunnel to me cut into the rock. You could explore that. The chemo or cematary has easy access. It has a momument to the MP Huskission who sadly died on the openning of the Liverpool to manchester railway.
That could be worth having a look at. I think one side has been bricked up but i I remember another cutting like a tunnel on the oppisite side, not bricked up. This can show you were the once quarry then, city cemetary and now St James park is.
th-cam.com/video/ZIBSEGax93I/w-d-xo.html
Excellent video! So interesting - I do hope the tunnels come back into use one day. Also, thanks for talking in miles, instead of horrid kilometres!
Interesting stuff Ollie, as usual.😁👍
Great video, lots of information and historic images.
Another fantastic informative video. Thanks
Fantastic video many thanks 👍
I did know about these secret tunnels in the centre of Liverpool. Thanks for uploading so interesting.
Excellent! Even by your own high standards, you've surpassed yourself with this video.
Thanks for another cracking vlog very interesting 🧐
Only just found you and what a fascinating video.Keep up the good work.
Nice video. Subscribed.
Another excellent video on the lost rail connections to Liverpool docklands. Well done Ollie, always welcome here.
Would like to see a video on some of the local architectural gems ie. St George's Hall.
Keep up the good work 👏
Great. Thanks for the interesting railway history. )
Interesting video mate. History of our nation, Well done 👍🏻
the flashing light is a lamp. It signals that the end of a train is there. It makes more sense at night.
The hut at Byrom Street looks like a mess cabin for the permanent way staff to take their break and have their butties.
Fascinating video.
You have a like and a new subscriber!
Thank you 😊
thanks, really interesting
Hi mate,
thanks again for a great video. What is the cutting high up in the Byrom Street cutting. Looks like a tunnel itself high up in the wall.
Great video mate. Glad the algorithm popped you into my suggestions lol
Thanks for coming
Brilliant, brilliant, bloody amazing. Am much less worried for you in tunnels, even the flooded ones that I am when your balancing on rotting old railway metals over bridges, especially suspended above a certain ship canal. Cool stuff, well cool stuff. Thank you!!!
thank you, great video.
Great video as always Ollie. Having done the line in liverpool from your previous video I really want to do this but not keen on entering from a live railway.
Its amazing how these important relics just have seemed to have been thrown to one side and forgotten about. They could make a decent heritage centre out of some of these areas.
Quality mate! Always wanted to have a look around under there so this hits the spot a bit! Would still like to figure out a way in though, must be an experience actually being in there!
Great video, but FFS, imagine what this could look like with some lottery money. A shuttle bus to drop off at edge hill, a cafe with all sorts of paraphernalia regarding the history of edge hill. And a great walk down the tunnels and into the pier head. Makes my blood boil all this history literally under our feet, yet hidden and brushed away.
Ace adventure Mr Bee.
Another very enjoyable video. I appreciate the shits at the top of each arch.
Go into any old railway tunnel and there is good chance you'll meet Ollie coming the other way. J & S
Now that there's a bit of a revival in cruise ships berthing at Liverpool perhaps someone should look into rebuilding the rail line down to the old riverside station area, though the station would have to be built somewhere a bit further away from the original one because of new building developments in the area which block part of the old rail route near the old station. I think Costco would have to move and perhaps build a station there with a shuttle bus to and from the cruise terminal.
Be nice to see a visitor centre in those storage areas with antiques and railwayana with guided tours of the cleaned up tunnels, cant see any railway use for them again as they dont even front onto edge hill station and docks traffic is further up these days or at Garston and as you can see no docks are usable near the waterloo end
So there is a abandoned railway tunnel beneath Liverpool City Centre. Will it ever be used again in the future.
I wish I had your courage to walk through a disused tunnel. I was always terrified of dark spaces which meant that I missed many golden opportunity’s to walk through the old Birkenhead Woodside station tunnel which used to be wide open at both ends up until about 20 years ago. I think you can still get in at the Birkenhead town station there are Barha adds but probably been opened up… tye tunnel was partly backfilled at the town end but plenty of space to walk through. I did venture in a little way but got scared. There are rumours that the tunnel was filled with concrete foam to prevent any future collapse with the houses above.
Great stuff! What's this with all the signs about hidden shafts? Who put them there and why?
Network Rail own the tunnel so they keep it well maintained (kind of) 👍
@@BeeHereNowuk thanks. Still these signs make me curious 😀
@scous thanks! 👍🏻
Well done mate. You are an adopted scouser now after your great adventure. I have granted you freedom of the city. Any problems get in touch.
Hey, love it, thanks! It's an honour!
@@BeeHereNowuk 👍
I get off the train at Edge Hill sometimes as I live near by, and I had no idea there was a second tunnel down to the docks! So9mething should be done with, maybe a route down to the new North End nightclubs or a link to the new Everton Stadium?
Been there and the Wapping tunnel bit dirty and a long walk but yeah good fun. Also in the waterloo part of the tunnel its a bit foggy isnt it.
It would make a great mushroom farm.
Could you make a video on Chester please? Well that’s if you can find something relatable anyway haha. Thanks
The Byrom Street cutting being the lowest point.
I've always wondered if it below high water mark, and as such if there is a sump and or pump .
The small room with straw (birds nests?????) is a possible site? The pipe in the centre is intriguing.
Oliver do you know of the tunnel under Caines (?) brewery that they uncovered a few years ago? Goes down quite a way to an underground fresh water enclosure - should be able to find it in the Echo article easily enough.
No I've not heard of that but it sounds very exciting!
@@BeeHereNowuk Liverpool is littered with tunnels, most are if unknown origin.
@@BeeHereNowuk Do you have a contact email, I've got an very very cool story for ya - it concerns Hitler and a part of Liverpool. I sussed it out on my own, but trust me NO-ONE has ever done this story before.
When you're standing at the portal looking into the cutting, there is what looks like a tunnel mouth about 10ft up the wall on the left-hand side. What was that for?
can you draw on a map where the tunnels actually go under?
Vic-Loo Tunnels should be reused for the Merseyrail system.
Hard Times Come Again No More...
🤩
Super structures underground like the piramds unreal how they built them back then av been throo tunnels under ground in kirkdale they are mind blowing how they built them av been in the building game all my life and every brick layer have met av said to them over the railway tunnels and most of them just say they were proper brickes back then by the way these tunnels are deep so the cut and covered method woundnt have been done far to deep they would of havet to move and dig basically millions of tuns of earth out to build them mind blowing big time
Hi mate great video of liverpool old railways. Can I ask if get permission to go down there. Or do you do ur own thing. Reason i am asking is I am a photographer and love to do some thing like this thanks
You email me back if you want to thanks
Yeah I just do my own thing I'm afraid. A lot of private companies own a lot of our history, and Im not a big fan of that