This tunnel also called the Liverpool Overhead Railway Southern Extension tunnel was part of the Liverpool Overhead Railway which was the only underground part of the branch, the tunnel was from a portal which is still there today by Herculaneum Dock to Dingle Station where it ended, the station was underground in the tunnel and this tunnel is still there today and can only be entered from the Dingle station end which is now a car repair workshop the entrance is in Kedleston Street and the manager of the garage has let many people visit the station site and tunnel. The tunnel and dingle station was built in 1896 and became disused by trains in 1956 when the whole Overhead Railway closed, since it closed it was a rope works then the current car workshop.

 

The Tunnel was 605 yards cut beneath housing through unstable red sandstone. Five constructions shafts were sunk, each 10 feet square, from which headings of 11 feet and 12 feet were driven in each direction. When complete, the tunnel boasted a width of 25ft 6in and a height of 19ft. Indeed, at 52 feet wide and more than 24 feet high, no tunnel arch of such magnitude had previously been constructed in Britain. Two sidings were added beyond the station, accommodated within a further 41-yard section of tunnel, giving the structure an overall length of 809 yards. The last service left the tunnel’s gloom on 30th December 1956, dismantling started September 1957 when attempts to rescue the railway failed.

On 23rd December 1901 an incoming train, the 5:00pm departure from Seaforth Sands, due to arrive at Dingle at 5:32pm caught fire owing to an electrical fault in the rear motor. The fault stopped the train in the tunnel 80 yd from the station. The driver, Robert Ashbee, tried to re-start the train, but this caused arcing which set fire to the wooden body of the rear coach. A strong wind was blowing straight into the tunnel, and the draught fanned the flames. All three coaches of the train were quickly engulfed, and the train was completely ablaze within twelve minutes. There were 29 passengers on board, in addition to the driver and a guard, Charles Maloney. The driver and guard attempted to extinguish the fire in its early stages, but they were unsuccessful. The passengers were evacuated, effecting their escape along the track, then out via the station. At platform level there were three LOR employees, Thomas Rendell (the station foreman), William Owen (a signalman) and J C O’Brien (a car cleaner). Rendell and O’Brien made their way towards the train to assist the driver and guard. Once it was clear that putting out the train fire was hopeless Rendell ran back to the platform and telephoned the booking office asking that the current be switched off. This was done about ten minutes later, but it simply plunged the station into complete darkness, By this time lethal, pungent smoke had started to fill the station. Realising what was happening the remaining people in the station attempted to flee. The last three to escape successfully were the signalman, William Owen, a boy called Gough and a Mr Stewart. All three passed out when they reached the booking hall. The driver, guard, foreman and car cleaner were all suffocated to death along with two passengers, Messrs Beadon and Bingham. The bodies of Rendell, Bingham and Beadon were later found at the foot of an air shaft at the east end of the station. Despite the fact that the train was 80 yd away the fire managed to spread to the station. It did so by first taking hold of a stack of wooden sleepers and then leaping to a train stabled in one of the sidings, it spread from here to the station and completely burned it out, the station was closed and reopenned in 1903.

 

Although difficult to access the tunnel portal was sealed some years ago so the only access into the station site is from Kedleston Street off Park Road. Here a ramp leads down to the original station entrance subway with its white glazed brick walls now looking very grimy. The subway curves down onto what was the platform but is now a car repair workshop and storage area the station site has been cleared, the platform has been removed and the original access ramp has been extended down to track level. Beyond the station the tunnel again narrows, running a further 123 yards to a blind end the plan was to run the tunnel up to edge hill so the overhead railway could connect to the main line but sadly this never happened.

 

The staff at the car workshop hate to be left alone as the station site still has a strange sad feeling and a feeling of oldness and being watched maybe that sad day on Christmas Eve 1901 when them six people burnt to death left a mark on this station.

 

On 24th July 2012, it was reported that a section of the tunnel had collapsed and work was carried out soon after to add supports in the tunnel to protect the homes above so they could move back in, It was confirmed the old station and tunnel is no longer safeguarded for future rail use and the part of the tunnel that collapsed is now mostly blocked by a new concrete structure.