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.
