Forwarded from uk.railway.  This was new to me, can anyone shed more light on 
it?

Thanks


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Date:         Mon,  31 Dec 2007 12:44:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject:      Re: Snow Hill Tunnel Birmingham
From:         allan tracy 
Newsgroups:   uk.railway

>
> My father used to be a signalman during the early war years at Snow Hill and
> told me as a boy that there was a siding within the tunnel which was kept
> extemely secret as it was used by bullion trains going to the Bank of
> England  branch in Birmingham - was he having me on as a young rail
> enthusiast or is there any truth in this?
>

It's absolutely true.

The sidings were at the North (station end of the tunnel) running parallel 
with the main line for a short distance before the tunnel became purely two 
tracks only.

A week before reopening to trains, access to the tunnel was allowed by the 
public, for the purposes of a sponsored walk.

I turned up and made the walk and the by now bricked up bank entrance could 
still clearly be seen (1980s) so is presumably still there.

At one time, horses were also stabled in the siding tunnel and there was even 
a small blacksmith.

Must have been truly awful working conditions in a busy unventilated tunnel 
with rising gradient within.

The tunnel was originally much shorter, the northern section was just track 
in a walled cutting but is now a covered way, covered by the still surviving 
Great Western shopping arcade in 1874.

It's this section that housed the sidings, bank entrance and approaching main 
line track work (six reducing to two).

So it's possible the vault entrance was originally in the open only to become 
covered later on.

Not sure about secret though as every man and his dog in Birmingham seemed to 
know the story, when I was a kid.

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