Re: Emma Joan and the light at the end of the Box tunnel Posted by Chris from Nailsea at 16:58, 9th April 2025 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
For more than two centuries, railway enthusiasts, engineers and scientists have tried to solve the mystery of Box tunnel, near Bath.
Nonsense: Box Tunnel didn't open until June 1841.

Re: Emma Joan and the light at the end of the Box tunnel Posted by Clan Line at 20:46, 10th April 2020 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Beware of the light at the end of the Tunnel It could be a train coming! 

Some years ago I went "wrong side" from Bathampton up to Thingley - I remember thinking then that the driver must have been hoping that the spot of light he could see in the distance was the tunnel mouth and not another train coming the other way !!
Re: Emma Joan and the light at the end of the Box tunnel Posted by smokey at 15:55, 10th April 2020 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Beware of the light at the end of the Tunnel It could be a train coming!

Re: Emma Joan and the light at the end of the Box tunnel Posted by infoman at 16:13, 5th April 2020 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sunrise is 06:32am,could some one put a special from Bath to Chippenham about the same time.
Visibilty forecast is "very good"
Emma Joan and the light at the end of the Box tunnel Posted by Bmblbzzz at 14:02, 5th April 2020 | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
For more than two centuries, railway enthusiasts, engineers and scientists have tried to solve the mystery of Box tunnel, near Bath.
They have combed the history books, done the maths and carried out practical experiments to try to work out whether its creator, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, really did design the two-mile tunnel so that the rising sun shone right through it on his birthday, 9 April.
But now a new theory has emerged from a retired engineer and physicist who has reassessed the science, had a fresh look at the Brunel family tree and concluded that in fact the great railway builder might have designed the tunnel so that the phenomenon occurred not on his birthday but on that of a little-known sister – 6 April.
Peter Maggs, who has been working on the puzzle for more than 30 years, said he had a “eureka moment” when he discovered that Brunel’s sister, Emma Joan, was born on 6 April.
Continues... They have combed the history books, done the maths and carried out practical experiments to try to work out whether its creator, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, really did design the two-mile tunnel so that the rising sun shone right through it on his birthday, 9 April.
But now a new theory has emerged from a retired engineer and physicist who has reassessed the science, had a fresh look at the Brunel family tree and concluded that in fact the great railway builder might have designed the tunnel so that the phenomenon occurred not on his birthday but on that of a little-known sister – 6 April.
Peter Maggs, who has been working on the puzzle for more than 30 years, said he had a “eureka moment” when he discovered that Brunel’s sister, Emma Joan, was born on 6 April.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/05/new-twist-in-mystery-of-brunels-birthday-sunrise