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Saturday 12 February 2011

A short ride from Devonshire Tunnel to Monksdale Road


A short ride from Devonshire Tunnel to Monksdale Road

(Just click on the link)

19 comments:

Matthew Holbrook said...

Thanks Frank. Excellent progress.

MrGoth said...

Good work Frank.
We had a walk along there yesterday, the fencing is new, hopefully the old sections will be replaced when the bridge works are completed and the tarmac is down.
Lots of people using the new sections already, this route could be bigger than the Beatles/Jesus!

Anonymous said...

We live next to the Monksdale Rd section and the children couldn't wait to get their scooters and bikes on to it at the weekend. Thumbs up all round :-)

Have to congratulate the contractors too as they have been very quiet during the work.

John Yeo said...

Thanks for the continuing updates, Frank.

Blockbell said...

What's the latest on removing the blockage from the tunnel mouth? It's approaching a year since it was dug out, isn't it?

franktompson said...

Blockbell,

The 'blockage' at the Devonshire tunnel portal is being left in place to stop anyone getting into the tunnel. It is currently scheduled for removal in July, although neither tunnel will be opened until both are surfaced, lighting installed etc which is currently scheduled for late October.

Rob said...

Is there any news on what the plan is about what to do with 'the blockage'?

Ideally it should of course be moved somewhere and reassembled, but is that practical/possible? And, if it is, to where?

stanleymayer@hotmail.co.uk said...

Frank. Things look very good ,i am not good on my legs but, it was a pleasure to walk from the devonshire tunnel to the sand pits
on a nice path way thanks.to you all
We should name the tunnel
as Frank and Co.

stanno

Blockbell said...

Thank you for the update on the tunnel blockage Frank. I had thought it was all to do with bats rather than batty people!

Why should it be moved and reassembled elsewhere Rob - it's not exactly an item of architectural merit, is it?

MrGoth said...

It is reminiscent of the 'sculpture' by Wellow trekking centre.
Both would look nice in a landfill site!

Anonymous said...

If it wasn't too big to be moved, it could be repositioned somewhere as a monument to hideous architectural crimes everywhere.

Oh, hang on, we already have plenty of those.

Rob said...

True, it's not exactly a gorgeous piece of stonework, but it's part of the history of the route. I think my ideal solution would be to shift it - maybe just to one side of the tunnel entrance - and also put up some information on that history.

Those of us following this work now know that background. Those riding down the path in thirty years time won't do unless they're told.

MrGoth said...

Its not stone, its Concrete!

Chris Warren said...

In thirty years time it'll be a railway again!

Anonymous said...

I don't think so Chris, dream on mate,but i would have like to seen it in the past running .

Anonymous said...

It makes me laugh, that all across Europe, rail is embraced as the future, whilst here in Britain, where once evey town and large village was served by a railway, we are here making it even more expensive and difficult to reinstate what was deliberately destroyed to force the public to buy a car. this was so that the politicians and their fatcat road lobby and haulage industry and oil industry friends could get very rich.

When are we going to break the mould, and stop these people getting into power generation after generation, and tarmacing over whats left of our country.

easy to build a super market or bypass isnt it? but try to reopen a railway for the common good and the needs of people who cannot afford to run a car and you get protestors left right and centre, complaining about pollution, noise, widlife and habitat loss, the nimbys who declare their houses will devalue and bearded ramblers and cyclists up in arms etc etc etc. In this day and age, when the price of petrol is skyrocketing and many roads pot holled to kingdom come following successive harsh winters, you would have to be mad to buy a house anywhere near a disused railway.

Mark A said...

Happily, we'll be making it easier to rebuild the line, by safeguarding the structures between Midford and Bath.

A new railway isn't a threat to this either. A 'New S&D' would likely take an alternative route - the historic route was a nightmare to operate especially with steam locos - an engine driver recently described everything between Midford and Bournemouth as being a 'Walk in the park' compared to north of Midford which was 'Four miles of hell on earth'.

For the most part it wasn't hell on earth, of course, but if your loco happened to be practically at a stand in one of the tunnels and, sightless, you needed to reach out with a shovel to the tunnel wall to see which way it was actually heading, it will certainly have seemed like it.

Several of the people at the core of the Two Tunnels campaign are very aware of the neglect, destruction and occasional cynical disruption of the UK's abandoned rail infrastructure. The consensus here might not be to turn it all back into railway, we're of the opinion that not to conserve old railway land has often made for wasted opportunities and years of urban ugliness - retaining them is something that could often have been done at minimal cost.

Even with this lack of foresight, some will be railways again. When that happens, Tucking Mill Viaduct for one will still be there to see the day, and that will be because it was reused for the Two Tunnels route.

Anonymous said...

modern units would make light work of gradients that caused under powered Midland "small engine policy" locos come to grief on the 1 in 50 or 1 in 100.

I wish Councils would wake up and stop allowing piecemeal development on railway land, and stop making it so darn difficult for railway groups to put things back with as much red tape as possible!

Not a month goes by when something else has been sold off, severed, demolished etc in a time when the roads are at choking point during the extended morning and evening rush hours we now endure. There's a simple answer to this people. Stop being nimbys, stop buying property on railway land and lobby your council to reinstate railways and improve existing services. stop letting the railway train operating companies get their way by ignoring local stopping services and stop whitehall being in control so much. localise decision making and planning, and more importantly, recognise railways as a service, not a business. They stopped becoming a business the minute that the Big 4 were woefully under compensated for WW2 wear and tear, and then nationalised.

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