Looking towards Marlborough from the top of the northern portal of the tunnel, taken on
Monday 6th March 1978. Bridge No. 49 in the middle distance. Thirty years after I took this photo, the square
metal sheet on which the bridge number was painted (white on blue enamel background) still clung to the brickwork.
A tiny fleck of blue having survived! I hate to say it, but with all that ballast around, plate No 49 proved too
tempting a target during my teenage years when walking the dog along the trackbed up to and sometimes through
the tunnel to access the fields beyond. Had I known then what I know now, the plate would have been carefully
removed for posterity!
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