a competing means for railway traffic to traverse the Severn, spanning between Sharpness and Lydney, was also being built, eventually being opened to traffic during 1879. On 22 October 1884, work commenced on the laying of the double tracks throughout the tunnel. On 18 April 1885, the final brick was placed in the tunnel's lining. It possessed a horseshoe-shaped cross-section, complete with a concave floor, having a height of 6.1 meters above the rails along with a maximum width of . An enclosed drainage channel, in the form of an upturned semi-circular tunnel, is built onto the tunnel invert, below the rails and having a height of . According to Railway Industry publication Rail Engineer, it is believed that around 76.4 million bricks were used in the tunnel's construction. The brickwork is between and thick. Around the deepest part of the tunnel, the roof is only a maximum of beneath the river bed. During mid-1885, the Severn Tunnel was completed from a structural standing. To mark this accomplishment, on 5 September 1885, a special passenger train carrying numerous company officials and VIPs, including Sir Daniel Gooch, the then-chairman of the GWR Company, travelled through the tunnel. The first goods train passed through it on 9 January 1886. However, regular services would have to wait until the permanent pumping systems were complete. On 17 November 1886, the tunnel works were inspected by Colonel F. H. Rich, the Government Inspector, a necessary step in advance of its opening to any passenger traffic. Colonel Rich approved the works; thus, the tunnel was opened to regular goods trains during September 1886; the first passenger train followed on 1 December 1886, by which point nearly 14 years had passed since work on the tunnel had started. Operations At the newly built station, the GWR built a major marshalling yard, which: distributed east and north, sending coal from the South Wales Valleys towards London and the Midlands; created mainline and localised mixed-traffic freight from goods shipped in from the Midlands, the Southwest and along the Thames Valley, both westwards into Wales and vice versa. Due to the access gradients, throughout the steam era, assistance was required for the passage of all heavy trains through the Severn Tunnel, which entailed (eastwards, from ): of 1-in-90 down to the middle of the tunnel; a further at 1-in-100 up to ; a short level then more at 1-in-100 to