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Tunnel free routes?


Dweeble

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Hi.....utter newbie with very fond memories of childhood boating hols, thinking about a possible hire next year......

 

Limiting factor is that I really really won't do tunnels. At all.  Locks, they're fun!

 

Ideally largely rural and in pretty country, not drains across flat plains.

 

Probably asking the impossible but has anyone route suggestions?

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How many people are going to be on the boat? Is there someone who can steer through the tunnel, while you walk over the top? Even get a taxi, or other means of transport. Most tunnels have a route that the towing horses would be led over, while the boats were legged through back in horse drawn days and these paths are usually still there. There are exceptions to this of course, where a tow path was built through the tunnel, but going over the top is still practical. Walking speed and boat speed are not dissimilar, so there shouldn't be a long wait at the far end for either you, or the boat to be reunited.

This would widen your options considerably.

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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If you think of the Newbold tunnel as just a long bridge, and it is in now way scary, then Napton area in either direction but not up the Braunston lock flight. However if going south on the Oxford you will face the opened out Fenny "tunnel" that is very narrow. i find that far more difficult when passing other bats than any other canal tunnel. The Newbold tunnel is not much different to the long bridge in the centre of Birmingham.

 

Not so many locks (4) going north and onto the Ashby though.

Edited by Tony Brooks
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The Staffs & Worcs seems to fit the bill. Technically it has two tunnels at the south end but both are shorter than the motorway bridges that span the same canal. Certainly neither require the use of lights.

 

There’s a few suitable hire bases. Starline at Stourport, Napton Narrowboats at Autherley and Anglo-Welsh at Great Haywood.

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1 hour ago, Tony Brooks said:

If you think of the Newbold tunnel as just a long bridge, and it is in now way scary, then Napton area in either direction but not up the Braunston lock flight. However if going south on the Oxford you will face the opened out Fenny "tunnel" that is very narrow. i find that far more difficult when passing other bats than any other canal tunnel. The Newbold tunnel is not much different to the long bridge in the centre of Birmingham.

 

 

But surely, as the tunnel has no roof, they've got room to fly out of your way?

The only really narrow one-way bit of Fenny "tunnel" is the first/last 200 yards or so at the Southerly end.

Newbold tunnel is only 250 yards long and thus could be considered, as you say, as a long bridge. It used to be very pleasant to go through as it was lit up by multi-coloured lights, but whoever is supposed to replace these bulbs must be an idle sod, as last time we went through there there wasn't a single light working.

   Snarstone tunnel on the Ashby is definitely a one-way job, low and not straight even though it too is only 250 yards long. It would be a shame if Dweeble had to miss the delightful Ashby Canal  just because of it - turn before the tunnel, not sure where but working boats used o load at Gopsall Wharf, about half a mile before the tunnel, so I imagine that there must be a turning point  near there.

   

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Thanks guys, that is v helpful. Walking over idea not bad, although I think crew mya not be keen on driivng the boat.

 

Time for some map-poring. 

 

Or I guess the other option is day-trips in a kayak and find a nice hotel to stay in.....

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1 hour ago, Dweeble said:

Thanks guys, that is v helpful. Walking over idea not bad, although I think crew mya not be keen on driivng the boat.

 

Time for some map-poring. 

 

Or I guess the other option is day-trips in a kayak and find a nice hotel to stay in.....

 

There aren't all that many tunnels - I took my previous boat Lutine Bell from Marple in Cheshire to Bath - 284 miles and 198 locks - I went through three tunnels, roughly one every hundred miles. Newbold, the middle one of the three hardly counts - Harecastle, near the start of my journey, you would wish to avoid, Bruce, near the end is not that long either. 

In other words I went from Rugby to Hungerford and didn't go through a tunnel

Just plan carefully and you can avoid them

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If you were to hire on the Northern GU, say Warwick or Stockton Top you can go all the way to Oxford without a tunnel. 

If you hired from  Brinklow you could go to  Snarestone, Stoke on Trent or  Wolverhampton without passing through a tunnel.

 

You would pass one opened out tunnel on each route:  Fenny Compton on the Oxford or Armitage on the Trent and Mersey.

 

N

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4 hours ago, Dweeble said:

Hi.....utter newbie with very fond memories of childhood boating hols, thinking about a possible hire next year......

 

Limiting factor is that I really really won't do tunnels. At all.  Locks, they're fun!

 

Ideally largely rural and in pretty country, not drains across flat plains.

 

Probably asking the impossible but has anyone route suggestions?

Can you sit inside the boat with curtains drawn while somebody else steers through the tunnel? Or is it just *knowing* that you're inside a tunnel that's the problem?

 

Failing that, lots of tunnels have an outside alternative route, as Jen suggested.

Edited by IanD
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6 hours ago, IanD said:

Can you sit inside the boat with curtains drawn while somebody else steers through the tunnel? Or is it just *knowing* that you're inside a tunnel that's the problem?

 

Failing that, lots of tunnels have an outside alternative route, as Jen suggested.

Just sit inside the boat with the lights on and curtains shut even if single handing, tickover through....when you hear a bang and stop, it's either the next lock or you have met another boat.

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1 hour ago, Balloon said:

Funny.  Actually some people find tunnels genuinely distressing. 

 

@matty40s wasn't kidding.  It's well documented that quite a few of the old working boatmen used to do exactly this.

 

Well, OK, they probably didn't wait until the next lock but they would certainly wait until daylight at the far end of the tunnel.  It also depends on the tunnel - they would still be stuck in the middle if they tried this in Standedge or Dudley!

 

 

Edited by TheBiscuits
Stupid mobile phone
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Most tunnels have a horse route over the top, better than aquaducts which rarely have a foot path for those who have vertigo. My friends wife walks over tunnels so far crick is the only one without a direct path but an extra 1/2 mile no problem. But got the Llangollen she needed two taxis for the aquaducts.

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22 hours ago, Detling said:

. My friends wife walks over tunnels so far crick is the only one without a direct path but an extra 1/2 mile no problem.

We once lost my Dad for several hours when he got lost over Crick tunnel. Finally turned up at the Watford flight.

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22 hours ago, Detling said:

Most tunnels have a horse route over the top, better than aquaducts which rarely have a foot path for those who have vertigo. My friends wife walks over tunnels so far crick is the only one without a direct path but an extra 1/2 mile no problem. But got the Llangollen she needed two taxis for the aquaducts.

When she gets to Marple I suggest either the train or the bus between Marple and Romiley - possible to skip both the aqueduct and Hyde Bank Tunnel - plus if she plays her cards right the man of the boat will have had to do the bottom 8 locks on his own too :lol:

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13 hours ago, Ex Brummie said:

The only tunnel on the Shropshire Union that I can recall from is Gnosall Tunnel which again is much shorter than many Road/Rail bridges. It is double width and high and with a towpath.

Yep. Came down from Cheshire via Shroppie, Staffs and Worcestershire, Coventry and the North Oxford without a working tunnel light and it wasn't until Braunston I had to figure out a solution

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On 11/12/2021 at 21:09, Detling said:

Most tunnels have a horse route over the top, better than aquaducts which rarely have a foot path for those who have vertigo. My friends wife walks over tunnels so far crick is the only one without a direct path but an extra 1/2 mile no problem. But got the Llangollen she needed two taxis for the aquaducts.

Caution: at Shrewley tunnel near Warwick the horse route has its own little tunnel ....

 

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On 10/12/2021 at 23:52, TheBiscuits said:

 

@matty40s wasn't kidding.  It's well documented that quite a few of the old working boatmen used to do exactly this.

 

Well, OK, they probably didn't wait until the next lock but they would certainly wait until daylight at the far end of the tunnel.  It also depends on the tunnel - they would still be stuck in the middle if they tried this in Standedge or Dudley!

 

 

 

I have never seen it documented anywhere, but our captain, who was a former working boatman, sometimes did it in single tunnels with a short pole lashed across the dollies to stop the back end going out of contol.
.

Edited by David Schweizer
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1 hour ago, David Schweizer said:

 

I have never seen it documented anywhere, but our captain, who was a former working boatman, sometimes did it in single tunnels with a short pole lashed across the dollies to stop the back end going out of contol.
.

 

I imagine the pole may have come out the other end somewhat shorter.

 

It concurs with our experience of legging Dudley Tunnel in that it was necessary to steer to prevent the stern dragging along the side.

 

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