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Box Tunnel is a railway tunnel in western England, between Bath and Chippenham, dug through the Box Hill. "Railroad" and "Railway" both redirect here For other uses see Railroad (disambiguation. A tunnel is an underground passageway The definition of what constitutes a tunnel is not universally agreed upon England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Bath is a city in Somerset in the south west of England It is situated west of London and south-east of Bristol. Chippenham is a Market town in Wiltshire, England, located at, some 21 km (13 miles east of Bath and 163 km (96 miles west of London Box Hill Wiltshire is a village in Wiltshire, England. It is most notable for its position above Brunel's famous Box Tunnel and the popular It was built for the original route of the Great Western Railway under the direction of the GWR's engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The Great Western Railway ( GWR) was a British railway company and a notable example of Civil engineering, linking London with the West Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 &ndash 15 September 1859 (ˈɪzəmbɑrd ˈkɪŋdəm brʊˈnɛl was a British Engineer.

Winter overview of western portal
Winter overview of western portal
West portal
West portal
East portal with the quarry entrance clearly visible on the right
East portal with the quarry entrance clearly visible on the right

The tunnel is 1 mile 1452 yards (2,937 m) in length, straight, and descends a 1 in 100 gradient from the east. Construction started in 1836, and the tunnel opened in 1841. The lives of about 100 navvies (railway construction workers) were lost during construction. Navvy is a shorter form of navigational engineer ( USA) or navigator ( UK) and is particularly applied to describe the manual labourers working At the time of opening it was the longest railway tunnel in the world, though the Standedge Tunnel and several other canal tunnels were longer. The Standedge Tunnels (Standedge is normally pronounced Stannige) are four parallel Tunnels that run beneath the Pennines at the traditional Canals are artificial channels for water There are two types of canals water conveyance canals which are used for the conveyance and delivery of water and Waterways The dramatic western portal, near Box, is designed in the classical style, but the eastern portal, at Corsham, has a plain brick face. Box is a Village located in Wiltshire, England, about 8 km (5 miles east of Bath and 11 km (7 miles west of Chippenham. The term Classical architecture has a specific Archaeological meaning relating to the architecture of Classical Greece Corsham is a small medieval town in northwest Wiltshire, England. When the two ends of the tunnel were joined underground there was found to be less than 2 inches (5 cm) error in their alignment.

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Brunel's birthday

There is a story which states that Brunel deliberately aligned the tunnel such that the rising sun is visible through it on 9 April each year, his birthday. Opinions vary widely as to whether this is true. Angus Buchanan (2002, p. 269) writes:

The alignment of the Box Tunnel has been the subject of serious discussion in the New Civil Engineer and elsewhere. New Civil Engineer is the weekly magazine of the Institution of Civil Engineers, (ICE the UK Chartered body that oversees the practice of Civil engineering I am grateful to my friend James Richard for making calculations which convinced me that the alignment on 9 April would permit the sun to be visible through the tunnel soon after dawn on a fine day.

On the other hand, it has been asserted that it is impossible to guarantee the effect on a particular calendar day, because the angle at which the sun rises on a given date varies slightly with the cycle of leap years. [1] However, the sun subtends an angle of about half a degree, which is more than the year to year variation, and more than the field of view through the tunnel, so it quite possibly seems to fill the tunnel every year. It is also asserted that Brunel failed to account for atmospheric refraction and the effect is visible a few days too early. Atmospheric Refraction is the deviation of Light or other Electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the [2]

Buchanan (ibid. , p. 226) concludes:

. . . I have found no documentary evidence for the often-repeated story that Brunel aligned the Box Tunnel so that the rising sun shone through it on his birthday, even though careful examination shows that it could indeed do so, and it is certainly a good story.

It is tempting to think that with a suitable vantage point, the effect (if not Brunel's intentions) can easily be checked on 9 April. However, the appropriate point is in the middle of a high-speed railway line and is thus potentially very dangerous. Photographs of the effect have reportedly been taken with appropriate assistance from railway officials.

Defence use

The hill surrounding the tunnel had been extensively quarried, extracting Bath stone. Bath Stone is an Oolitic Limestone comprising granular fragments of Calcium carbonate. During the 1930s a significant portion of the quarries were developed by Royal Engineers for the storage of munitions. This became known as the Central Ammunition Depot and served the ammunition requirements of much of the South of England. A Royal Air Force station was also established using one area of the tunnels, RAF Box, and during the war a fallback aircraft engine factory was established to the North of Box Tunnel. RAF Rudloe Manor, formerly RAF Box was a Royal Air Force station located south-east of Bath, United Kingdom between the towns of Box and

To service the Central Ammunition Depot a spur line was opened, breaking off from the main line at the eastern end of the tunnel, entering alongside the main portal. This spur leads to two platforms within the quarries, used for the delivery and removal of munitions.

Following World War II portions of the Ammunition Depot were variously redeveloped to house the Central Government War Headquarters, RAF No1 Signal Unit, Controller Defence communication Network and the Corsham Computer Centre. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including The Central Government War Headquarters is a 35-acre complex built underground as the United Kingdom 's Emergency Government War Headquarters - the hub of the country's alternative Corsham Computer Centre ( CCC) is an underground British Ministry of Defence installation in Corsham, Wiltshire, built in the 1980s Much of this has now been decommissioned with only Corsham Computer Centre remaining in the quarries.

References

  1. ^ Karlson (1999)
  2. ^ Lushman (1999)

External links

Coordinates: 51°25′11″N 2°13′22″W / 51.4198, -2.22286

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