There were 250,000 navvies employed during the apex of British railway expansion efforts. The majority of navvies were Englishmen, with 30% of the group being Irish. Many thousands of navvies worked on the railway. The natural tension between locals and outsiders sometimes bred distrust of the navvies. Construction was carried out by navvies and coordinated by top engineers. It was built by the Victorian navvies and was dug out by hand. The line was one of the earlier built with the aid of steam navvies. The tunnel was driven and lined by up to 1,953 navvies working 36 faces. Navvies for the poms, they were. Some 1,600 navvies and 70 horses were used to build the line. The work paid well, and attracted many navvies to the area. About 100 navvies were killed during the tunnel's construction. Griffin is surrounded and savagely beaten by navvies.