menticknap wrote:On a personal note, you wouldn't catch me going down a tunnel. Im not really boring, its just that I want to see my 41st birthday!
I dont think we ought to be advising people to go down tunnels......
In 1982 I set out to walk the old LNWR & GN Joint Line from Bottesford to Melton Mowbray which included the half mile long Hose Tunnel
The tunnel had been stacked up with cattle mangers and at the far end was curved and I had no torch; it dawned on me that if I had an accident it would be very bad for me.
Half way in the ground suddenly disappeared and I flailed about to stop myself fallin - it was a manhole with no cover on! Not hugely deep but I could have easily broken my leg and it was a horribly remote place.
I learned a lesson; don't mess with railway tunnels.
There are lots of open manholes in Sandsend tunnel and also kettleness, last time I went through Kettleness tunnel I had forgotten my torch so I just walked down the middle to avoid the holes.
Attachments
Last edited by AndyB on Sun Nov 28, 2010 1:15 am, edited 2 times in total.
AndyB wrote:There are lots of open manholes in Sandsend tunnel and also kettleness, last time I went through Kettleness tunnel I had fotgotten my torch so I just walked down the middle to avoid the holes.
Ha ha! I DID walk down the middle but being a double track tunnel the manhole was in the middle! I guess I just had the bravado of youth and thought I could manage without a torch.
I think I got my answer. I stumbled accross a 1953 British Transport Films doc which included the construction and boring of the new Woodhead tunnel. It seems techniques in the 50's had changed little since the Victorian era. Simple elbow grease and dynamite. The navvies were using pick axes to tunnel through. The only modern tools were pneumatic drills. The bore was started with a series of explosives at each end of the proposed tunnel and the men were then lowered down shafts to dig through at the base. Spoil was initially sent up ther shafts and eventually by wagon as the tunnel progressed.
A long and laborious process. In the case of Burdale tunnel it must have been hell in earth, with the amount of water they must have had to deal with. I wonder how many casulaties there were during its construction.
Attached is a picture of the inside of Burdale Tunnel that was posted on the Yahoo Bygone Lines Forum last night. Hopefully they will not mind me posting this on here.
Quoted below is the comments that were made
"Members may be interested to know the extent to which the condition of Burdale Tunnel (Malton & Driffield Jnc Railway, 1853-1958) is deteriorating. A section of roof came in between the two most northerly ventilation shafts in the 1970s. That one appears relatively stable. But there has been a more recent collapse, completely filling the bore, between the southern and middle shafts - this is making progress back towards the portal. The tunnel is inspected annually by the local bat group who tell me that about 20 yards of wall has fallen in since their last visit in January 2010. I took the attached photo when I entered with them this lunchtime.
You will be aware that a group of railway enthusiasts is hoping to reopen a section of 5-6 miles of the line to the south-east of Fimber. Their ultimate aim is to re-lay the track northwards to Malton. That would involve going through the tunnel which is clearly a non-starter without many millions of pounds worth of remedial work
Graeme Bickerdike"
regards
Last edited by GavinB on Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Image removed at request of photographer
I Googled Graeme Bickerdike and it seems he is the owner of the "Forgotten Relics" website from whence he used the Burdale photo. Although what he says is true "in a sense" about our long term goal (north of Burdale) I don't think any of us think we will see that in our lifetime. It's a shame that he phrased it in such a negative sounding way, as if he had visited this site he might have obtained a truer picture of our aims which are focussed on what is realistically achievable.
Last edited by AlanL on Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
Totally agree Alan, the wording sends out the wrong message.
Unfortunately, this photo of the tunnel makes it look like one of those blocked London drains that you see on Grimebusters, not the sort of thing that you would want people to think that we were shaking a collection tin for funds to rebuild!
AndyB wrote:Totally agree Alan, the wording sends out the wrong message.
Unfortunately, this photo of the tunnel makes it look like one of those blocked London drains that you see on Grimebusters, not the sort of thing that you would want people to think that we were shaking a collection tin for funds to rebuild!
Well there's a good precedent for that. The last time I looked at the Eden Valley Railway website they still had a fund looking for donations to build a signalbox at Warcop which they have no intention of building!
