This being my first explore with my new camera & lighting, I wanted it to be somewhere closer to home. This location is a 30 minute drive from my house so was perfect to start with.
Old Warden Tunnel is an old disused railway tunnel dating back to 1857.
The tunnel was built as part of the Midland Railway connecting Bedford and Hitchin. The tunnel is perfectly straight, total length is 882 yards and it runs at a slight gradient to allow drainage.
There are rumors that the tunnel is haunted but I saw no signs of paranormal activity whist down there. Although there were a few bats which did make me jump when they started flying around above my head.
Entrance to the tunnel is via a small hole as seen in the photo below.
Once inside the tunnel the first half is dry with little rubbish and no broken bottles.
On the roof of the tunnel there are signs of soot from the steam trains that used to pass through here.
Bricks from some parts of the walls are starting to crumble
However, the majority of the walls are still in tact
Light painting is needed to capture these photos as even a powerful external flash is wasted, due to the lack of curves in this tunnel for the light to bounce off
You can see the archways that railway workers would of used to stand in when a train was coming through
As you enter the second half of the tunnel it starts to become more waterlogged, with water leaking through the roof and walls of the tunnel
You can see the puddles starting to form and as you continue the puddles get deeper
When you reach the end of the tunnel there is a steep mound of soil to climb to get out the other side
Once you are out this end the only option is to walk back through the tunnel, as the surroundings are thick vegetation and you end up in the middle of a farmers field
I hope you enjoyed this first explore, I also recorded a video whilst walking through the tunnel which I've uploaded to Youtube & added below if you are interested in watching it.
To summarize, this was a very interesting explore with lots of opportunity for light painting, the total time it takes to walk from one end to the other is around 20 minutes. There are some bats in here so be mindful not to disturb them to much.
I've added some more info below on the tunnel for you to have a read through.
Hope you enjoyed this first explore.
See below for a closer look at the text
