Amazing pictures show traffic cones and 30-year-old burger packaging inside abandoned Chesterfield railway tunnel

Chesterfield Tunnel was built in the late 19th Century when the Great Central Railway opened its Chesterfield loop, an extension of its line between Nottingham and Sheffield – but closed less than 75 years later and has stood empty ever since.

And an urban explorer who runs the Facebook page Lost Places and Forgotten Faces has been inside to take some amazing photographs.

On departing the old Chesterfield Central Station, the railway entered the 474-yard straight tunnel, before emerging from under Hollis Lane in the town centre.

Passenger services were suspended in 1963 – the Great Central station closed in March 1963 – although the tunnel continued in use until the following January.

The station was demolished in 1973 to make way for the town's inner relief road, while the tunnel’s northern portal and about 25 yards of brickwork were also cut back for the road, which opened in 1984.

Posting about their visit, the explorer said: “The disused tunnel has suffered over the years without effective drainage and is prone to flooding, which has reached several feet on occasions.”

“As you might expect from a disused railway tunnel, its cold, damp, misty and murky.

“In one of the numerous refuges, I found some very old McDonald’s Big Mac styrofoam packaging, which dates back to the early 90s. Interesting.”

And the adventurer is not the first explorer to visit, with explorer Patrick Dickinson visiting, as well as similar reports on popular website 28 Days Later and Forgotten Relics also recording visits to the long-forgotten structure.