Terror in the Tunnels: Britain’s Dangerous Railway History

The exciting early days of the railways were tempered with danger as the Victorian concept of health and safety was rather different to ours. Going ‘into the dark’ was a frightening experience and tunneling under the ground and under water a deathdefying activity in nineteenthcentury Britain. Certainly many workers and travellers paid the ultimate price. There were a wide variety of challenges to work through in order to make tunnels passable, including floodings, collapses and explosions, as well as malodorous air and illness. When the tunnels were completed accidents were frequent, whether collisions, derailments, or fires. In this fascinating history, Rosa Matheson explores the grim past of Britain’s railway tunnels. AUTHOR: Dr Rosa Matheson is Swindon’s best-known railway author. A longtime enthusiast of Swindon Works, GWR and women’s railway history, she has a large collection of memorabilia and has written a number of books and articles on her pet topics. Her books include Death, Dynamite and Disaster: A Grisly Railway History, The GWR Story, Apprenticeship and Training in GWR’s Swindon Works, TRIP: The Annual Holiday for GWR’s Swindon Works, and The Fair Sex: Women and the GWR. SELLING POINTS: . Fresh approach to railway history from a successful railway author . Following on from Death, Dynamite and Disaster: A Grisly British Railway History . Packed with horrible happenings from the early days of Britain’s railways . Including the Abergele and Sutton tunnel disasters, and details on the hazards surrounding building the Box Tunnel, along with and many other stories . Also featuring the riots at Mickleton when navies battled with contractors, the development of the London Underground 25 b/w illustrations