Have been working through the university, council and national archives and pulled this together - hope you enjoy it ! The Law Tunnel : Chronology 1817 Robert Stevenson (grandfather of Robert Louis Stevenson) reports on the feasibility of creating a canal to link the port at Arbroath to Strathmore. 1825 Stevenson recommends instead the construction of a railway. 1825 Realising the competitive threat of the Arbroath activities to Dundee, a meeting is arranged by Dundee Town Council with local landowners to discuss a Dundee/Strathmore Railway. 1825 Local chemist turned engineer, Charles Landale, is commissioned to write a report on the feasibility of a railway – he proposes 2 possible routes via Tealing or Newtyle - both with 3 steep inclines firstly up the Law, the others taking the line up and down the Sidlaw Hills - stationary steam engines with ropes to be used on each incline. The committee are not entirely convinced by Landale’s report and commission a second report by a national expert who confirms Landale’s recommendations. 1826 Dundee to Newtyle Railway is authorised based on Landale’s business case and design that anticipates the use of steam trains. The report notes that steam “might be introduced in the future.” (This is 4 years before the Rainhill Trials, where George Stephenson famously won the design award for his Rocket steam engine). Instead, it is envisaged carriages are to be pulled by horses and powered by wind sails on the flat and by static engines and rope pulley systems on the inclines. It would be the first railway to be built in the north of Scotland and was to be single line only. 23/8/27 Calls for contractors to cut and complete a tunnel through the high ground on the east side of the Law, with massive stone entrances several feet thick built at each end. 21/1/1829 Law tunnel is completed at a cost of c £5,000. (The tunnel cost was higher than expected. The original business case had assumed it would be solid rock throughout and that it would be sold for paving at a price sufficient to recoup the tunnels costs. However, while both ends of the tunnel were solid, when tunnelling the contractors found the hill in places to be made of soft volcanic Whinstone – it crumbled easily – so instead of selling the stone at a profit, more expense was needed to ensure the tunnel was secure.) 1829 Rubble from Law tunnel is used to embank the lower slopes of the incline. March 1829 Collapse of part of tunnel with fatal results. 18/6/1829 Shareholder meeting calls for dismissal of Charles Landale, civil engineer to the Dundee and Newtyle railway. 14/8/29 After his imminent dismissal is reported in the press, Landale writes explaining why the cost overrun is mostly not his fault and proposing that he is relieved of all his other responsibilities except further work to secure the tunnel - he personally underwrites the cost of completing it. 5/9/29 At a shareholder meeting, the committee agree they should have the power to “continue Landale as engineer as when they think it proper”. This is a controversial decision, after which 4 of the 10 on the committee immediately resign. 5/1830 25 of the original 175 shareholders invest to get the additional funds in place to complete the works, the bulk of which related to the further work required to arch and line the tunnel. Dundee Council guarantees a £2k loan. Landale is replaced and another engineer finishes the job. The total project costs of the line to Newtyle are later reported as £50,000 (compared to the original estimates of £27,000). (A 1820/30s pound is now roughly equivalent to £80-£100) 16/12/1831 Opening of the line from south end of Law tunnel to Hatton. Passenger fares are 1 shilling 6 d inside; outside 1 shilling. 3/04/1832 Line open from Ward Road, Dundee to Newtyle. 20/9/1833 First steam locomotive (Earl of Airlie) is introduced (named after one of the shareholders and local landowners). 1833 Fire in the tunnel (The company’s records show it paying compensation for consignment of whisky destroyed by fire in the tunnel.) 1833/34 The line carries 32,000 passengers in this year. 1834/35 The yearly passenger numbers increases to 59,000. However, despite the strong demand, the company’s finances are not good - the cost of moving the trains up the inclines is disproportionately high. Some of the shareholders do make money though (through the increase in their land value – selling plots for houses in Newtyle for example). 10/2/1837 A railway line is opened to West Dock Street. Some historians have questioned whether, had this been part of the original business case, the line might have been more commercially successful. 24/4/1838 An early signal of the company’s financial problems – legal proceedings begun for the pounding of Dundee and Newtyle company’s assets by Union bank (postponed). 1831-46 Passenger journeys account for 1/3 of the company’s total turnover. Goods transported include cinders, hay, iron, flax, cloth, coal, lime, potatoes, grain, manure, stone, slate, ale, groceries and, more occasionally, silks and gold. Instead of the steady and equal flow of traffic anticipated in both directions in the business plan, goods traffic is mostly in the direction of Dundee. 27/7/1846 Dundee and Newtyle Railway is leased to the Dundee and Perth Railway Co – this is the first point at which the shareholders get any dividend. 1847 Harbour branch rerouted to Dundee and Perth terminal. 31/8/1848 Dundee & Perth Co, rename Dundee, Perth & Aberdeen Railway Junction Co. 5/9/1849 Gauge of the line changed to standard - done in record time. 10/6/1861 Law deviation opened. New stations opened at Liff , Victoria and Lochee. Law incline and tunnel abandoned. (One of the main reasons the railway had not made money was because operating the rope pulley system on the inclines was so expensive. By 1861, steam train technology was more developed and taking lines directly to these stations made more commercial sense than the static engine model.) 1861 Law tunnel used as an engine shed store. 28/5/62 Manager instructed to sell the Law Engine and related artefacts by Public Roup on 2 June 1862. 17/7/1862 Manager instructed to allow Cox Brothers to put up telegraph wires on poles for their own use; manager authorised to take offers for the 2 locomotive engines. 1865 The line becomes part of the giant Caledonian railway system. 11/11/1875 Lord Provost’s silver is put on display in the Public Museum for a few days and is stolen in a daring heist. It is later recovered stashed away in……. the Law Tunnel. The theft and recovery receive considerable public attention at the time. Tens of thousands visited the museum the next day to see the empty cases. 1877 The High Kirk built near the south tunnel entrance. 1897 Messrs Robert and John Paton of Glasgow lease the disused railway tunnel in Edinburgh for cultivation of mushrooms. 1898 The Scottish Mushroom Company leases the Law tunnel in Dundee (as a back-up for their site in Edinburgh where mushrooms have been wiped out by a fungal disease). The walls were whitewashed for cleanliness and the rails were used to transport manure in and mushrooms out. Mushrooms were reportedly delivered mainly to London, overnight fresh for breakfast. 1899 The same disease wipes out the mushrooms in the Dundee tunnel – microbiologist concludes it is likely to have transferred from Edinburgh “on the boots and tools of workers”. 5/1901 Report that the tunnel has been disinfected 3 times and blight thought to have been wiped out. 6/3/1902 Notice in the Edinburgh Gazette of Scottish Mushroom Company Ltd being wound up voluntarily, because “the company cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business”. 1903 Mushroom company’s effects sold at auction 1907 Patrick Geddes draws up plans for Law Park Way – includes the Law Tunnel either as a lit walk way or as a fernery. 1910 Local newspaper records that the Scottish Mushroom Company still has the lease of the Law Tunnel and north end almost fully blocked “being used as a place for depositing rubbish”. 1923 The Caledonian Railway is merged into the newly formed London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company (under an Act of Parliament that brought together 120 railways into 4) - at the time creating the world’s largest transport undertaking, the largest commercial undertaking in the Empire and the 2nd largest employer in the UK after the post-office. 1911 ? Law Tunnel Engine House converted into a pavilion for tennis and bowling club at the top of Drummond Street. 1927 The date poet Don Paterson notes as the tunnel’s mushroom company closure (in his poem “The Law Tunnel : Leased to the Scottish Mushroom company until its closure in 1927”). 1936 Second record of a company named the Scottish Mushroom Company being wound up. (co No 4096). 1939 Tunnel converted into air-raid shelter with electricity, blast walls and space for 200 - rented to Emergency Committee by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company at £1 per annum. 1940 Dundee submits bid to improve the Law Tunnel as a shelter at a cost of £100k 1941 Ellen Wilkinson (MP with special responsibilities for airraid shelters) noted the Law Tunnel had no amenities and described it as one of the wettest shelters she had ever seen. Plans for a grid square of tunnels westward were dropped. 1948 London, Midland and Scottish Railway Company is nationalised, becoming part of the state owned British Railways. 1962 British Railways Board formed as an independent statutory corporation. 1970s Lawside tennis court (in front of the tunnel entrance) built on. 1982 Bunglow built on upper part of the south side site - owner apparently unaware of tunnel underneath the site and during the works causes a landslide at old South entrance to the tunnel as the retaining wall of the tunnel and remains of the old engine shed collapsed taking part of the garden of a house in Fingask St with it. The entrance was filled in but means of access preserved for survey purposes. Late 80s Betts Homes build development at Keats Place/Shelley Gardens, blocking off the north entrance to the tunnel. Council engineer reports that Betts had access through the tunnel roof which was reinstated when buildings completed. 1994 British Rail privatised – surplus assets including the Law Tunnel and the responsibility for surveying transferred to British Rail Board. 1997 Don Paterson (Dundee poet of international acclaim) publishes Law Tunnel poem along with others with titles relating to the Newtyle Railway in “Gods Gift to Women.” 2001 British Rail Board abolished and its assets and responsibilities transferred to a wholly owned subsidiary of the Strategic Rail Authority - called British Rail Board (Residuary) Ltd. 2012 Government announces plans to abolish British Rail Board (Residuary ) Ltd – at date of publication not clear to whom ownership of Law Tunnel will be transferring. 12/5/2013 Friends of Dundee Law Group launched by Dundee Council (to progress £400k Heritage Lottery bid to upgrade the Law) 31/9/2013 ownership of the tunnel will pass to the Highways Agency
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 17:59:07 +0000
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