It seems it’s the season for reminiscing about the past on the Tyne and Wear Metro! A retired construction worker has recently been remembering his role at building the complex network of tunnels under Newcastle City Centre – marking 50 years since the project got underway.
Ralph Maughan, from Seghill in Northumberland who is now 86, was heavily involved in the project for six years in the 1970s as a site manager alongside scores of other workmen. At the this this was Britain’s largest urban transport scheme with the work taking place between 1974 and 1979.
Ralph said: “I’m proud. It’s a pleasure to have played a small part in building the Tyne and Wear Metro. I’m really proud of the fact that I got to work on the Metro tunnels, creating the first light rail system of its kind outside of London. It was an amazing effort from everyone involved.
“Looking back, fifty years on, it was a hell of a feat of engineering and it’s not something you come across every day in your career. During Metro’s construction we had visitors from all over the world who came to have a look at what we were doing, which really puts into context what we were part of. It wasn’t just an ordinary building job. It was historic. I recall the project featured on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World programme.
“It was a real team effort from day one until the day that we finished. Others came in after us to put in all the tracks and cables. I always joked that they had the easy bit to do.
“It’s incredible that we dug this vast network of tunnels below the streets of Newcastle so that they could carry trains. It was a big undertaking and there was lot of pressure on us to get it right. When the north and south tunnelling teams broke through, and met in the middle in 1977, there was a mining tradition that they have a little drink. That’s why you see us in the photos with a bottle of Scotch whisky.”
A myriad of issues had to be overcome during the tunnelling. This included the risk of flooding, ensuring that local landmarks were not damaged, including Grey’s Monument, and having very little margin for error in the size of the tunnels they had to dig. The tunnels formed a 6.4km section of the complete system.
At the civic ceremony to mark the start of Metro construction work, Ralph had the honour of presenting the first cut of turf to Cllr Roland Scott-Batey, the then Chairman of the Transport Authority.
The section of tunnelling Ralph oversaw was from Monument down to the QEII Metro bridge.
He added: “We dug the Metro tunnels using large machines. We were on site day on shifts and night shifts. We had tunnelling teams there 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Back then we didn’t work at the weekend.
“A laser and target system was used in each running tunnel to steer the tunnelling rig. This ensured that each 750mm concrete ring was built in the correct alignment. There was only a 40mm allowance for error in every direction, so the trains and associated cabling could be safely accommodated.
“In some areas we had to tunnel using hand held machinery. When we got nearer to the river we were working in compressed air to prevent flooding. We had to manage that carefully so none of the men got sick from the decompression when they went back up to the surface.
“We had a big test with Grey’s Monument too. We discovered it only had eight feet of foundations. Special piles were put in to strengthen its plinth so we could safely tunnel underneath it.
“We also hit a snag when we learned the portico at Central Station may be subsiding. Huge amounts of time were taken to carefully dismantle it so we could carry on with our works. It was then put back, stone by stone, exactly how it was before the Metro tunnels had been dug.
“We also had to take down the statue of the angel from the Boer War memorial at Haymarket. This was due to the close proximity of the escalator tunnel. We also had to reinforce two sections of the Victoria Tunnel, near the Civic Centre, as the running tunnels would pass very close above it. This length of the Victoria Tunnel was used as an air raid shelter during World War Two.
“When we were tunnelling at Forth Banks we had to be careful not to cut through signalling cables for the national rail network, which would have knocked everything off between York and Berwick. Thankfully that never happened.
“I also know that the teams who undertook the tunnelling at Manors came close to hitting cables that would have potentially cut off all of the phone lines between England and Scotland. It was a complex project to say the least.
“It was great when Metro opened to the public and it’s such a success story. None of that could have happened without a lot of hard work and dedication by all those involved. I am very proud to have been a small cog in a very big wheel.”