Four Abandoned Tunnels on the North Staffordshire Railway 

A massive welcome to all our new subs care of MartinZero. Welcome aboard.

I lived in the area, and attended school there, between 1964 and 1967 and so I can remember the line through Newcastle and Hartshill tunnels just after the line had closed to passengers, when the track was still in position. Newcastle station's level was determined by that of the Newcastle-under-Lyme Junction Canal which had preceded it. This required a steep drop down towards the North Staffordshire main line at Stoke. The cutting was quite a deep one; I don't think it would have been practicable to get through the ridge carrying Albert Street without tunneling through it. The two tunnels were, I was told, affected by subsidence. That was the reason that this section was filled in and all the traffic from Silverdale Colliery diverted the long way round via Madeley Road and the chord on to the West Cost Main Line.

Fascinating video. The railway cutting out of Newcastle station ran past the end of Seagrave street where I grew up in a tiny terraced house. The end of the street was barrier-ed off by a fence constructed of sleepers and as very young kids we would climb this and wave to the drivers of the steam train as they went past. Some of my best memories of this cutting came after the lines were lifted and it was being filled in with pit shale to level the ground. It became a brilliant playground and we created makeshift toboggans out of old prams to skid down the shale embankments. Before the tunnel was sealed and covered over, we used to venture in but never made it more than half way through before getting scared and running out again. Ironically I moved to Silverdale in the late 60's but never knew about the tunnels there, so I shall make it my mission to discover and walk through these. Found this film shot from a train emerging from the tunnel into the cutting I was talking about ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-DFTh4F5WZaU.html

A new subscriber here via Martin's channel. As a former train driver on BR I find your videos most enlightning. I can also tell you that it is not uncommon for track to be moved around when a double track section is converted to single-line use. There is no mystery about it. It can be done for a whole variety of reasons. Maybe raising a speed limit round a curve becomes an easy option if the track is realigned towards the middle or opposite side of the current trackbed or perhaps a bridge structure is a little bit more worn on one side than the other so moving the track to the better side effectively allows the railway to postpone essential repair work for twelve months or so because the bridge then falls back within the permitted wear and tear tolerances. There are countless reasons, as I said, and it is far more common than you might think. There are many branch lines up and down the country where the current track layout "moves" from one side of the trackbed to the other over the course of a mile or two. It's simply a case of "what works best" and the public rarely notice or even get to see it at all on an operational railway. You certainly wouldn't notice any difference when travelling on a train anyway. I must say, though, I'm absolutely amazed at how much track you've discovered abandoned in situ during this particular video. That is not something we normally do on such a scale in this country as a rule.

Really fascinating I grew up on King Street in Newcastle and walked through Station Walks hundreds of times, I'd wondered for decades where the Hartshill tunnel was and now know I drive past it every day to work! Thank you

Just found this. Lived in Drayton all my life and my parents can remember the station, hotel etc. The line as you know went from Morrison's to stoke and South to Shrewsbury and was closed under Beeching (i think). A guy I was at school with - his dad was the last station master at Norton in Hales before the closure. Keep up the good work Benny

Just found this - can't believe I didn't comment on it at the time! I was at Keele University in the 80s, and walked Keele and Silverdale tunnels with a fellow student (they were, as you said, still in use at the time - we did it very early one morning). Also did Stoney Low tunnel on the same line - had to run across the bridge over the M6 to avoid a freight train! Also had a look for the other two tunnels in Newcastle, but pretty certain they had already gone by then.

Interesting to see the change of presentation style from 2019 to 2022. Today...more scripted on the actual sites rather than at home! I like this change.

Many thanks Paul and Rebecca, brilliant work wit the maps very helpful.

I used to live near to the park where the Newcastle tunnel emerged. I remember one very dry summer, the outline of the tunnel could be seen through the scorched grass on the slope!

It’s so sad to see this infrastructure that was built to be used just left to decay , it’s great to see you bringing to the you tubers attention , maybe one day it’s proper use could be reinstated, let’s hope 👍🏻

Nice bit of detective work on that last tunnel that isnt there anymore. I like it 👍🏼

Silverdale tunnel did have two tracks. The line through Audley to Alsager, abandoned in the early 1960s was the other. The oddity was that although they looked like double track, they were run as two single track lines.

Keele tunnel was originally double track. The reason Silverdale tunnel is different is that until the early 60s it also took the Audley branch. The two were run by then as two single lines, rather than as a double line with a branch.

Came across your channel via Martin Zero. Thanks for such wonderful videos and such fascinating content. Many thanks

Yet another fascinating video. Your historical information is excellent. I like Matts comment about the single track in one of the tunnels.

Hands down the most dramatic anything I've seen on this channel. Epic tunnel video and I'm barely a minute in.

Great investicative work you two, amazing how things change over the years. Many thanks for bringing all this history to us all .

Great video Rebecca and Paul. This is my local area and it was fascinating to see how well Keele and Silverdale tunnels have survived. Thank you again for super videos. All the best.

What a amazing channel. I've been binge watching since you did a joint one with Martin Zero. You and Rebecca both do so much research. Can't wait to see the rest of the videos on your epic journey. Keep up the great work 👍

Fantastic film guys,keep them coming.

Another great video! Everytime I travel on the West Coast Main Line between Stafford and Crewe I look out for the bridge where this line goes over the West Coast Main Line.

Very interesting video, been looking forward to this one and enjoyed it. Keele and Silverdale tunnel look amazing.

Great video, very interesting,love the use of old and new maps,it was good to to see old track still down and not been ripped up😀

Hi folks, came across this by accident, now I’m hooked. I live locally to the area, north staffs. If your ever up this way again you might want to checkout the old disused Harecastle tunnel, well there were three between kidsgrove and the area you explored in this video. Stay safe folks. 👋😉👍

Nice bit of archaeology there Paul

Good video. I love exploring the High Peak Railway. Your wife is very pretty by the way.

Your videos are very addictive you make a cracking team 👍🏻

Really enjoyed this video. Thank you. Worked for many years at the top of Hartshill Bank but never knew there was a station near there. Remember walking part of the old tunnel on the North Staffs Loop Line at Cobridge before it was filled in. Be great if you could do the same investigations with that branch railway.

really enjoyed your trip along NSR Market Drayton to Stoke. I found you via Martin Zero. I used to live in Newcastle under Lyme off King Street. I never realised that the old station was on King Street/the Brampton. I cycled a lot up Hartshill Bank and out through Silverdale, Pipe Gate and to Market Drayton and up Keele Bank! Weirdly now living outside Newcastle on Tyne considering how my letters seemed to end up in Newcastle on Tyne! well done you've got a mammoth task...

Amazing finding the tracks still there in the tunnel

Just catching up on your great videos loving them 👍

Very informative. Well done.

Fantastic video again from you two - loved it. We always tend to whisper when in tunnels too. I think the re-alignment just made it easier for the old coal freight that kept the line open - less work if the line was in the centre of the tunnel. It's great watching your videos as the latter part of this video is one of usual 'evening walk' routes and we also use the Railway Walks path to go to the supermarket near the old line. I've heard/read nothing about expanding the walking path beyond Silverdale and through the tunnels, potentially for the reason of tunnel maintainence versus potential usage plus the risk of the WCML and M6 overbridge, unlike in areas such as the Monsal Trail in Derbyshire where the tunnnels are a key part of the route. Can't wait to see when you venture more into Stoke. Your detective skills will be working hard (side by side maps!) as so much has gone.

Cracking video both !

Very interesting video thank you from New Zealand

Lot of ressearch on this one. Very interesting and loved the gigly ending.

Great video guys

Super clip, out takes hilarious 😂

This is definitely my preferred way of killing time whilst waiting for the gas engineer. Amazing to still see the track still in place even as nature claims it all back also that you were able to access the tunnels. Nice work pulling together the old OS maps and ariel shots to relate it to present day.

I have also came across from Martin Zero channel really enjoyed the video very interesting, nice to see a couple enjoying an interest together.

You are producing some very interesting videos and personally I don’t know where you get the time and energy from. I find it strange that some of the track has been left in situ. In the North East when the lines where closed they couldn’t lift the track fast enough. Keep up the good work

I've just come across your channel and found it very interesting as I like doing little videos myself when I was a young lad I can remember hartshill tunnel were the park Id now and were Newcastle Station was I think there is, a remains of a train line wall but not shaw if its still there I've done a video of milton train station to Fenton as I love history and all so I found a old ww2 air raid shelter all do that keel video you did there is a hidden old air raid bunker but never been I've subscribe to your channel i enjoyed this video all do I did a video of old Hanley train station but its all over grown great work 💯💯👍👍

Good view.

Hi i came to your channel via Martin Zero. Loving both channels.

Discovered your channel through martin from poole so know a lot about old southern lines

fabulous video as always 👌, if i did social media i would share it to within an inch of its life 😀, saturdays highlight for sure !

I had a good walk round those. It started when I saw the reversing loop marked on a large scale map and then I found it had been disused since the late 90s.

Cracking video. As someone else mentioned, it’s sad that these lines and structures are just discarded, though it does appear some have been mothballed (thinking about Cadishead), so maybe new uses will be found for some.

Sorry Rebecca and Paul for the late comment - just caught up with this one (and glad I did, thank you, as it's a great watch!)..... Have you covered/shall you cover the Stoke to Leekbrook Junction line (north out of Stoke)? The Churnet Valley Railway are hoping to eventually reopen this and so establish a mainline connection. I have walked this line which is "mothballed" and has one track still in situ. Following the Caldon Canal the scenery is superb. Curiously, many of the bridge arches have gates across the track of a similar design to those at Peel tunnel.

Hi. I enjoyed your last video. Just wondered if you will be visiting the old line that went to Oakamoor and Caldon low. It was shut in 1988. There are a number of old stations along the track. The line was closed to passengers in 1956.keep up the good work 👍

You forgot to mention the air shaft at the silverdale tunnel I live near there ,cracking video you guys

As a slight aside, the Newcastle tunnels carried a cable from a radio company. The local signalmen were able to pick up and listen in to the radio programmes on their telephone system.

Great video as usual ,did the tunnels you walked have any vent's/chimneys in them ? also amazed to still see track down ,keep up the good work

Hi Paul, do you think that Keele tunnel did indeed suffer from flooding and the track bed was unstable. It was lifted, re-ballasted and raised to help prevent future problems and as such the track was relayed in the centre to give better clearance due to the now higher track bed. Craig

Hartshill tunnel was lined with steel plates from the London Underground to prevent water seepage.

Good video

Interesting that they didn’t lift the track. They would slew the track into the middle if they had clearance issues as it saved a lot of repair work. If you look at the tunnel walls you might see some clues. On a slightly different subject, if you frequent Forgotten Relics, you’ll have no doubt seen Graeme Bickerdike’s amazing “Tunnel Vision” video? Well worth a watch.

Tunnels come out into cuttings not embankments usually. Great video as always though.

Well done again. The side by side maps from the NLOS are brilliant for working out what some features or structures are. I have a bit of a tunnel explore planned for some point over the summer. I wonder if the tunnels you mentioned at the end of your video are still there, just blocked off.. or if they were backfilled.?

Silverdale tunnel was double track, how ever operated as two independent lines, the line diverged at keele station, one going to Market drayton, and one curves back and goes via Lycett station to Audley and then to Alsager. Lycett is worth a look at as well there was a pit village there till the 60,s the colliery shut mid 50s, not a lot remains apart from the station masters house and the cricket pitch. There was another mineral line from the pits that ran independently to the WCML at Madley. You can see details of this in "old maps"

There's a old train track by me dell stadium brockmoor brierley hill west mids often thought about jumping the fence

From what I know from my grandparents the whole line before keele was all double track, but during the 60’s and 70’s when passenger trains were being axed the second track was lifted and the single track was just used for freights only, I think possibly the keele tunnel was relaid and repaired as the tracks in that tunnel, compared to the silverdale tunnel, look more newer I could be wrong

Great channel. Found you by watching Martin Zeros vid. Will you be doing the Grimsby to Louth line and the Louth to Bardney line? Cracking tunnels to be explored at Withcall and Benniworth 👍🏻

Another good video, and congrats on avoiding Rebecca's click-bait stripping in the title... PS Why do you whisper when you are inside the tunnels?

love the 3d map

2:05 - you used to get an excellent view of the railway line through the trees there - until the line closed and they stopped cutting the undergrowth back.

Hi there, I was wondering if you have heard of the old saxmundham to aldebrough line it still goes from saxmundham to sizewell through leiston station (disused station) the line sizewell to sax is used on a Wednesday to take containers of waste from sizewell nuclear power station also many people don't know there was a station at thorpeness aswell also originally used to go down through aldebrough down the marshes to take supplies to orford Ness secret military base. Ive heard there used to be old locomotives left to rot down the marshes long gone now but interesting to know. There is a bridge where the railway went over the river hundred. Would love to see a video about that line being from thorpeness myself and maybe could find out if there's any truth in stories ive heard about re opening leiston to saxmundham for passengers

OMG, you two!

Do you mean "cutting" not "embankment" when describing parts of the Newcastle Hartshill tunnel landscape? From memory, many of the Newcastle/SOT disused lines form what I think is called the Greenway footpaths. Perhaps the tunnels are retained for possible footpath expansion.

Music nicked from "GP's behind closed doors" funnily enough you explore behind closed doors when your in tunnels often :-)

There might well still be tunnel structure intact for those that are no longer evident. There's one I know of near Dewsbury that you wouldn't even know it had been there now, but it's completely intact and only accessible now via manhole covers in the roads that goes over it. It's in a residential area so it has to be maintained. The air is terrible because of no ventilation anymore so they have to pump air in to it for a certain amount of time before they can go down.

In exploring these long-disused tunnels, have ever come across any "unsavoury" characters not happy with your presence, or any "unearthly / eerie" feelings / presences? Disused railway tunnels seem to attract reports of haunting as well as people up to no good... Thanks for an interesting video on the Newcastle area, it's a pity I won't have much time to explore that part of Newcastle when I make my first visit in late September.

Great video as always - Anyone else spot the spooky face at 8:52 formed in Rebecca's right arm, or is it just my imagination!

As usual, an beautiful piece of Videoship, I am surprised their has been no "what u done to your right arm?" Question. Nice to see those beautiful legs out, Rebecca's aren't bad either, lol.

The track is in really good condition, likewise the tunnels, do you think they may have been maintained past closure due to being possibly used again, then the housing estate was built?

Silverdale tunnel has the big gates because a kid died in the tunnel but people have cut the locks off

The first tunnel certainly looks like it was built for dual tracks. I'm guessing that when the tracks were replaced the route was downgraded from dual track to single track

Fascinating show, well done, but for a few weaknesses. 1. Paul's voice is deep and it makes it very difficult to actually understand much of the show, and we're listening on an Audio/Video System, not the T.V. Speaker. My voice is deep, and I have had the same issue on Communication Radios. There might be a microphone solution, or a processing solution. 2. The accent, unavoidable, but Paul's Dialect leaves "TH" said as "F" such as the word Three pronounced as Free. I figured it was universal, the pronunciation, except Paul clearly said "Thirty" and if you can say Thirty, you can say Three. The usage of F for TH leaves the dialog of several shows we watch very difficult to understand. A Narrow Boat show, the host talked about a Free Day Cruise. Free Day. Cool. Only he was saying Three, and Three and Free have different meanings, rather a good argument for pronouncing them as written. But we watch a wealth of British RU-vid Shows. Ugh. One host talks about Caa Pawks. Of course he's actually referring to Car Parks, but he pronounces them Caa Pawks. Car Park for American readers is a Parking Lot, and I'm unconcerned with the usage, either works, but it would be nice to see these hosts realize they are broadcasting to a world of viewers, not just local. Ironically, my area is plagued with horrible diction, pronunciations, and adulterated words, but after watching British shows, it's clear that our regional dialect in the U.S. is substantially influenced by Irish, Scottish, and Welch Influences, and that isn't meant as a criticism, it's just that we now understand more about the history of our dialect. This is my local experience, and, alas, if I'm not careful, I sound like this: Pittsburgh Dad in Quarantine ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-U_u122kFO2s.html So, having taught for a number of years, while on a job in heavy industry, I, and the others that also taught, became aware of our own idiosyncrasies, and improvement in the presentation was an ongoing process. Your show is excellent, well researched, well presented, fast paced, relevant music properly mixed at the right volume, with great transitions from segment to segment. Mostly compliments, by far, and a few suggestions, I hope you accept them in the spirit I wrote about them, including the self deprecation of my own regional dialect, that, incidentally, makes it equally hard for people from other areas to understand me unless I'm careful to eliminate the more extreme pronunciations and slang.

great video :) so this rail line will never be used for trains again ?

Well blow me down with a feather, never knew that. Thx 4 info

Tunnel you should do is in use on the Bluebell Railway.

would it be worth it to restore the line for passenger or tourist trains?

It seems strange that the rails were left behind when the line closed.

How do u get to these tunnels

7:23 cave painting...

When you come to do the Carmarthen to Aberystwyth line I can come with you some help and information about the Line and the Gwili railway preserved section

Where did you park and walk from to get down there?

Would that be the old station walk???

Great video I stopped by to show some love. I hit your buttons I hope you return the favor

What happened to your arm?

How young does Rebecca look???? And were you trying to get more views by having her do a semi-striptease?

Like previous videos,way too much footage of people yapping at the camera not nearly enough of the subject,too much fluff!