Ramsgate Tunnel Railway
Vložit
- čas přidán 11. 04. 2020
- Please follow me on social media
Facebook:- / travelandtrainsadventure
Twitter:- / judithschooling
Instagram: - / judithschooling
Located on the south coast of Kent, England, Ramsgate has historically been a popular spot for holiday-makers and fishing freight, having a busy harbour with an active fishing fleet.
The town in the past was served by a network of underground tunnels housing railway lines from a variety of companies.
In October 1863 the London, Chatham and Dover Railway opened a new line to Ramsgate Harbour following the construction of a kilometre long tunnel descending to the harbourside. Whilst convenient for visitors to the harbour the new rail link had some severe problems. The steep gradient made it potentially dangerous, with respect to possible run-away trains (which happened on two occasions when trains left the end of the rails and ended up on the beach - 1891 and 1915. Exacerbating this was the lack of space around the harbour, making expansion of the freight side of rail traffic impossible.
The 1923 grouping of 1923 saw SER and LCDR being absorbed by Southern Railway, resulting in the closure of both Ramsgate Town station and Ramsgate Harbour and the abandonment of the Reigate tunnel in July 1926. The Harbour station was sold and converted into a zoo and funfair.
The Reigate tunnels, including the Harbour tunnel, were re-purposed during the second world war as a huge underground shelter, some 3 ½ miles long for the residents of the area.
After the war the tunnels re-opened for use as a conduit with yellow trains taking passengers to Pleasurama, the funfair and zoo at the harbour. Unfortunately the train ran off the end of the rails again in July 1965. Repaired and placed back into operation, the demise of the railway came shortly thereafter when Pleasurama closed the line in September that same year.
Once closed the tunnel was sealed and abandoned once more. Years later after significant works to renovate the tunnel, it re-opened in May 2014 as a tourist attraction and can be visited today.
All was not lost.
We hope you enjoyed this visit to Ramsgate tunnels. Please like share and subscribe and let us know in the comments if you have ever visited the tunnels.
Credits:-
Wikipedia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_...
Disused Stations (www.disused-stations.org.uk)
Some photographs in this presentation are from www.disused-stations.org.uk
Facebook: - / travelandtrainsadventure
Twitter: - / judithschooling
Instagram: - / judithschooling
#ramsgate
#ramsgatetunnel
#trainstrainstrains
Brilliant video clip. I certainly do remember visiting the tunnel in about 1957, when I was 3 years old and taken on my first beach holiday. We took the train from Swanley to Dumpton Park and then as a special treat, we completed the journey to our beach hotel in Ramsgate by using the tunnel railway. I remember the fascinating (for a 3 year old) illuminations in the tunnel and the musty damp smell as we traversed the tunnel in open-sided little carriages. Oh happy days. Thanks again for this nostalgic clip.
I remember traveling along the railway, on a journey from Ramsgate to Dumpton park greyhound racing, with my father. That must have been "64, or "65. I remember the illuminations too.
Visitor from Australia here. Our family stayed at Ramsgate for a few days and I was fascinated to discover the tunnel entrance just down the road from our accommodation. You can pay (I think 8 quid?) to get a tour of the system, which includes part of the railway tunnel (NOT all of it), only as far as the smaller side tunnels used during the war. These smaller tunnels were not railway tunnels but narrow walking tunnels cut into the chalk, which often opened up into rooms large enough to hold people avoiding air attacks. Entrances were all over town and residents were free to go in and out of the tunnels any time they liked, popping up all over town.
Interestingly, when the railway tunnel was taken over by the fun fair, their small "tram like" trains ran from the beach into the old railway tunnel then deviated to the left into a newly cut tunnel which had an incline up to an opening near the current railway station at Dumpton Park. This upper terminus of this small railway can be seen in the very first image of this video. This image shows the street entrance. So as not to make the train's incline TOO steep, the terminus was below street level and one had to go down stairs to reach it. This end of the tunnel was eventually sealed up and is now a car yard. If you go to the back of the car yard you can still see the top of the tunnel entrance! If you were to dig down a bit you could probably enter!
I'd be happy to answer any questions about this system.
I use to climb over a bridge and go down the embankment at the far end of the tunnel and explore inside. This video doesn't show it but there is lots of foot tunnels and stairway entrances that are blocked but can still be found. There's a few miles of them, you can do tours in there now but only a small amount of the tunnels have been made accessible.
It also doesn't mention that the large arcade was the old train station which, unfortunately burnt down back in 1998.
I lived in Ramsgate in the 1980s and we often explored the tunnels, probably climbing over the same bridge at Dumpton as you did. The Pleasurama arcade was owned by the late Jimmy Godden, who was probably the world's unluckiest man where fires were concerned, he also owned Dreamland in Margate when the Scenic Railway was destroyed in an arson attack. But every cloud has a silver lining, and these fires always seemed to occur shortly after Thanet District Council had refused Mr Godden permission to demolish a listed building so that the site could be redeveloped.
@@TruckingVideos yes funny how fire follows the family the big paper warehouse fire last year that caused the industrial estate to close was also owned by them.
excellent video's i live in ramsgate and vaguely remember the tunnel railway on the sea front sadly it went many years ago and were ramsgate station used to be was pleasurama until it burnt down and were a hotel was meant to be built on the site
I took a ride on the railway back in the last 50's. I recall getting on at Dumpton and seeing lots of murals and colourful decorations inside the tunnel on the way down to the beach.
Visited Ramsgate just pre Covid and passed the tunnel. Didn't look particularly inviting, but wish I had taken some time out now.
I went on this railway in 1963, two years before it closed.
After the war I with my mother came to Ramsgate by train for Holidays. We left the main line train crossed the road and went on thr tram though the small tunnel and into the much larger tunnel. This would have been 1946 to 1948 we came a few years. In the large tunnel a model miniature landscape was being built this was down this was down on the left hand side coming from in land.i It was going on a few years, I looked forward to seeing progress each time we came. Can any one else remember this?
I've seen a video in this tunnel on the television news some years ago.
It's sad it went out of use so early. Too early for electrification to give this route a lifeline though I noticed it reopened as a narrow gauge electric tramway
Interesting. Never knew that Ramsgate used to have a underground railway. If it was still there it could be a heritage railway.
The tunnels are still there; and may be visited. 'Merrie England' has gone, and is a derelict site, awaiting development. The Royal Pavilion is now a Weatherspoons pub; and is the ;largest pub in the UK!
sadly the tunnel railway has long gone but the tunnel is still there and can be visited as a museum
Interesting. Thanks guys.
Why couldn't Thanet District Council turn the tunnels into the Thanet public Transport system, a Thanet Metro?
u is gud tuber. dis vid is very sad for me