Winchburgh Tunnel

Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.

This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.

Winchburgh Tunnel was designed by Miller and operational since 1842, is 367 yards long and 20 ft high. It too formed part of Gibb & Son’s 9000 yards Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway Almond Valley contract, the first let on the railway in February 1839 in the sum of £147 669, and which included the heaviest work on the line.

The tunnel, which was cut through a ridge of blaes and hard whin rock, took 24 months to complete and was ‘lined with brick work formed to the radii of the curves and the lime used of a uniform thickness and as little in quantity as consistent with making solid work. The bricks well burnt and in every respect sound and hard and the lime mortar used properly wrought in a Pug Mill’. Miller set out the line.

In December 1839 fire damp was encountered in cutting the tunnel and a man was severely burned. After Miller had agreed that Gibb & Son would be entitled to additional payment for making a middle shaft and a mine right through the ridge for ventilation, this seems to have been done. In digging the cuttings and tunnel, Gibb & Son removed 200 000 tons of rock more than indicated from the borings and had to work at night at 30–40% above the agreed daywork rates. The whole project proved heavier and more costly than expected and contributed to Gibb’s loss.

Great difficulty was experienced in keeping the cutting west of the tunnel dry because, instead of lowering Myers Burn below railway level as provided for in the contract, which would have allowed the cutting to drain, Miller insisted in carrying the burn under the railway in a twin 4 ft diameter cast-iron inverted siphon which adjoins the bridge seen in the railway accident view of 1862. This saved the company £3000—£4000 on excavation, but caused Gibb & Son to have steam engines constantly pumping to prevent severe flooding, and led to a substantial claim.

In 1841 Gibb & Son, in order to complete on time, used two locomotives on newly completed track to convey, upwards of a mile, and deposit on the embankments at least 2500 tons of earth and rock every 24 hours.

R Paxton and J Shipway 2007

Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.