Ramsgate Tunnel Railway

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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:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_...

Disused Stations (www.disused-stations.org.uk)
Some photographs in this presentation are from www.disused-stations.org.uk

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