Harecastle c1935

[mark99]

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

Even they found a boat moored there was in the way 😁

[Tracy D'arth]

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

Was that the maintenance boat for the overhead wire or just for roof repairs?

 

That is a good crack in the brickwork over the portal ! Is it still there?

Edited November 28, 2023 by Tracy D'arth

[Rob-M]

58 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

That is a good crack in the brickwork over the portal ! Is it still there?

There is a crack in the photo Peter posted

 

 

[IanM]

1 hour ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Was that the maintenance boat for the overhead wire or just for roof repairs?

 

I think that's the boat featured in a lot of old pictures of the tunnel which is just put there to stop boats heading to the old tunnel and to help guide them, much like the butty is doing.

[Stroudwater1]

1 hour ago, IanM said:

 

I think that's the boat featured in a lot of old pictures of the tunnel which is just put there to stop boats heading to the old tunnel and to help guide them, much like the butty is doing.

Im pretty sure that’s right.
 

It would interesting to know when it went as well as what became of it.  Must have gone in the early or even mid 80s, presumably at the time the service station was built? 

[Tracy D'arth]

Its a bit of a special boat with a hand rail and boards full length, not an ice breaker either.

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

6 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Its a bit of a special boat with a hand rail and boards full length, not an ice breaker either.

simply acting as a temporary footbridge bridge I’d guess, if there to block entrance to the old tunnel. 
 

What’s hanging from the wire?

The wire goes through a pulley so I guess the thing hanging could be a signal?

Perhaps a signal that the tunnel is ready to enter or not enter?

Edited November 28, 2023 by beerbeerbeerbeerbeer

[Ray T]

32 minutes ago, Stroudwater1 said:

Im pretty sure that’s right.
 

It would interesting to know when it went as well as what became of it.  Must have gone in the early or even mid 80s, presumably at the time the service station was built? 

 

I am led to believe it is now England, once owned by George Wain. I think it was originally a horse boat named Germany but was renamed when WWI broke out.

[PeterScott]

3 hours ago, Rob-M said:

There is a crack in the photo Peter posted

 

A closer crop from 21Apr1972

Edited November 28, 2023 by PeterScott

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

4 hours ago, Tracy D'arth said:

That is a good crack in the brickwork over the portal ! Is it still there?

and a quick look on Google images shows it’s still there

[Rob-M]

46 minutes ago, Ray T said:

 

I am led to believe it is now England, once owned by George Wain. I think it was originally a horse boat named Germany but was renamed when WWI broke out.

A more recent image following the cabin works and repaint but before the signwriting was done.

 

[mark99]

[BEngo]

5 hours ago, beerbeerbeerbeerbeer said:

 

What’s hanging from the wire?

The wire goes through a pulley so I guess the thing hanging could be a signal?

Perhaps a signal that the tunnel is ready to enter or not enter?

The wires were the overhead power supply for the electric tunnel tug (replaced by fans in the 50's).  Use of the tug was compulsory, and the tug driver set the timings, so it's not an entry flag.

 

Speculating hard now:  It may be a device to ease putting the collector pole on the wire, as the pole had  to change ends for each trip or it may just be a "keep clear" marker for where the tug will need to be as it picks up the next southbound train of  boats.

 

I dont think it can mark a stopping point as the tug needed to haul the whole train out of the tunnel before stopping and so the overhead wires went nearly to the railway bridge at the North end.  Nor does it look like an insulator.

 

N

[stagedamager]

On 28/11/2023 at 07:58, mark99 said:

 

A lovely photo showing a pair of Anderton boats, the question is which motor is it? I have my theories, given the sunken counter and various other bits, and there weren't that many motors in the grand scheme of things!

[Heartland]

The photo at the first entry was taken by Cyril Arapoff. with two boats shown was it a train of boats hauled by a electric tug or just two craft, the position of the crew on the motor might suggest the former. As to the moored narrowboat it has a handrail so was it used as suggested for maintenance?

 

[Paul H]

On 28/11/2023 at 14:25, Ray T said:

 

I am led to believe it is now England, once owned by George Wain. I think it was originally a horse boat named Germany but was renamed when WWI broke out.

The boat in the original picture with the handrail is clearly wooden.  It was replaced (late 1950s?) with one of BW NW’s chopped -off Josher motors.  It was said to be the England but some believe it was subsequently buried when the entrance to the “old” Harecastle Tunnel was filled in.  In which case either that boat or the boat pictured cannot be England… (ducks)

 

Paul

[Bitty]

On 28/11/2023 at 15:14, Rob-M said:

A more recent image following the cabin works and repaint but before the signwriting was done.

 

 

With signwriting on.

[Heartland]

The towing of motor boats through the Telford Tunnel seems to be through concern of the methane seeping into the tunnel.

 

According to Peter Lead the boat closing off access to Brindley Tunnel, was there for that sole purpose. In this view the planks that formed the footpath to the Tunnel wall went on to the Towpath. 

 

In this 1940's view there is a view of flat and a small boat for Brindley Tunnel maintenance use. Peter Lead suggested that the small boat was used to access the side tunnels to the mines. How many of these craft originally existed is a point to ponder on when coal was brought out on to the main line and also where they unloaded their cargoes is another point to consider.

 

[Pluto]

I have just been sorting some of my digital archive, and have found these: a BW plan and section from 1986, and one from the 1838 Allgemeine Bauzeitung, with a translation of the text which went with it.

1838 General Building Journal.pdf

[furnessvale]

On 30/11/2023 at 12:39, Heartland said:

The towing of motor boats through the Telford Tunnel seems to be through concern of the methane seeping into the tunnel.

 

Not sure that using an overhead electric line and trolley pole, with its potential for arcing, is the best solution to a gas explosion risk!

2 minutes ago, furnessvale said:

Not sure that using an overhead electric line and trolley pole, with its potential for arcing, is the best solution to a gas explosion risk!

It would appear that the overhead line is merely a signal cable and as such would be very low voltage and not prone to arcing.

[Derek R.]

In these days of elf 'n safety, many petrol stations insist on not using a mobile phone on the forecourt for risk of an explosion.

Visitors to coal mines are asked to remove their battery powered watches and leave them at the pit head for the same reasons.

Sounds a bit extreme, but even a six Volt battery can produce an arc if current is flowing and then contact with the conductor is broken.

 

When I suffered a flat battery on a forecourt one dark evening, the garage proprietor was beside himself when I sought a jump start from a recovery vehicle: - "Not on my forecourt pal!" We did it anyway when he wasn't looking. No arcing occurred. All was well.

[ditchcrawler]

A little write up I found about passing through Harecastle tunnel from "A Caravan afloat "

 

Our next day-for it was the chief delight of this voyage that each day had its own distinct individuality-we had a very different experience. We passed the Potteries. The " Five Towns " (of which we sampled four) may be everything which Mr. Arnold Bennett thinks of them, but the
dragging of a houseboat in a gale of wind through their more unsavoury portions is not a pleasure to be indulged in more than once in a lifetime. The approach to the Potteries is heralded by a vast increase of " shipping " on the canal, for just previously we had joined the Trent and Mersey, one
of the main arteries of water-borne traffic in the country. And then in a trice the canal runs straight against the hillside and you see before you the gateway to the Potteries—the twin tunnels of Harecastle through the backbone of England' The streams we had crossed had flowed to the right to the Irish Sea; those at the other end of the tunnel find their way to the Humber; those which descended on us from the tunnel roof may be defined as neutral. 
    The old Harecastle tunnel resembles nothing so much as a rabbit ho1e. The crown of its arch is only 5It' 10in' above the water level, and for miles the bargees used to lie on their backs and for three hours or so kick off the roof and walls. Eventually the traffic grew too great for the tunnel's capacity and they built a new one alongside 8ft. 6in' in height, but in the middle of this there has unfortunately been a subsidence, and its height in one place is reduced to about 6ft. Through this the Company now run an electric tug at stated hours. It pulls twenty barges, and therefore (having paid 6d. for the privilege)  we aligned ourselves twentieth on the string and prepared for the Cimmerian gloom ahead.
    At the last moment, however, the tunnel-keeper objected. As a house-boat we are much higher out of the water than an ordinary barge, and he feared we might catch the roof, in which case, with the tug and the nineteen barges pulling away steadily ahead in the darkness and us wedged firmly in the bowels of the Pennines, there might, if we had survived, have been an interesting story to tell. But it fell out much more prosaically. We watched the tug and its convoy worm into the hillside and followed after under our own power-.a man on the tow-line (for, being a modern tunnel, there is a towpath throughout) and two of us handing off from the railings at the side. P. on the tow-line was the hero of the occasion, for it is not only the roof of the tunnel which has sunk, but its floor as well, and with it, of course, the towpath. For part of the way, therefore, he ploughed his way in darkness in anything up to a foot of water, walking literally by faith and not by sight, his back illumined by the fitful gleam of an electric torch manipulated from the boat. The tunnel-keeper was a good judge of height. As a matter of fact, we did touch the roof, and had we been an inch or two more out of the water we should have jammed. As it was we smashed and tore from its hinges the patent ”contraption " on which the back awning is rolled when not in use. 
    The speed of the tug and its train through the tunnel is probably less than two miles an hour. At all events, although we did not start till ten minutes or so after the disappearance of the last barge, we had to slow down towards the end to avoid catching it up,.and then we had quite a long wait white the last boats were hitched on to the horses, which had travelled across by the overhead route.

[PeterScott]

nb Beatrice through Harecastle Tunnel from THE RIVER RUNS UPHILL by Robert Aickman. "Peter" herein is my illustrious namesake.

 

we reached the northern portal at early fall of eve. ... a number of working boats lay at moorings round the tunnel mouth, and their crews proved critical, even hostile. ... persuad[ing] Peter that it would be diplomatic for Beatrice to wait until next morning. When we awoke, all the working boats had gone, because working boats … commonly disappear at sunrise. ... After a careful breakfast, we entered the tunnel at 9 a.m., almost precisely.

 

The tunnel was at that time normally worked by an electric tug, which drew power, by a bow of tramway type, from a wire overhead, and also picked up a chain from the bottom of the waterway. A voyage behind this vessel could be a strain on the nerves: the noise of the links in the chain grinding over the cogs in the drum on the tug made spoken communication impossible; ... the tug was incredibly slow. But now the tug was out of action for repairs; and boats had authority to go through the tunnel under their own power. The reason for the installation of the tug had been fear lest the smoke from the early powered craft lead to suffocation. The tunnel had been built, and its ventilation surmised, upon the assumption that boats would be 'legged' through by direct human effort. When Beatrice entered the tunnel, we perceived at once that the diesel oil fumes left by the early morning narrow boats ... could be quite as unaesthetic and quite as promisingly lethal as any smoke. We chugged ahead into the thick blackness; our handkerchiefs held to our faces.

 

In the case of many canal tunnels, ... the far end is visible...from the moment one enters... Here there was nothing; until, after perhaps seven or eight minutes, suddenly we saw before us that the bore of the tunnel was about to become much smaller, the roof much lower. It did not happen gradually. ...we saw a perpendicular wall filling the upper part of the comparatively spacious tunnel ...The historical explanation ...: the tunnel ... suffered so much from subsidence caused by mining ..., that it was decided to renew and enlarge the bore; the work started at the northern end but came to an end ...many years earlier, at the point which now lay before us. We edged through the murk into the small aperture ahead. The steersman… had to crouch so low that it was impossible for him to keep much grip on the situation, ... A much more serious problem was presented by the remains of the towpath to the steersman's left. ... The Harecastle towpath was, …broken away and under water at several places, and so cannot reasonably be used for a transit of the tunnel on foot, but none the less forces boats out of the tunnel centre and against the far wall.

 

...we soon realised that if Beatrice was going to jam, the point of stoppage was going to be the top right hand edge of her conversion structure.... Beatrice came to a gentle but total stop: wedged between the tunnel arch on the steersman's right, and Telford's immense wooden rubbing strakes, vast planks edging ... the collapsed and soggy towpath, on his left. The steersman shut off the engine; partly to prevent us being asphyxiated. There was very little air and not much light,... After thought, we restarted the engine and attempted to retreat a short distance. We were wedged tightly enough to make this difficult, but we achieved it in the end, with some pushing and hauling from the wet and muddy towpath, upon which it was difficult, in that section, even to stand erect. James Sutherland returned to the point where we had stuck, and set about sawing through and removing a portion of the stout and heavy towpath planking: ... After he had succeeded, we tried again, and this time advanced con­siderably further. ... and our spirits were rising, when, on an instant, we stuck once more. This time we proved to be stuck so tightly that we could not even retreat...

 

The only hope lay in the piles of slimy bricks which the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive had thoughtfully placed at intervals along the even slimier towpath, for ...this very purpose. The wedged navigator loaded these bricks on to his vessel until her hull went down far enough into the water for the superstructure to clear the arch of the tunnel roof. ... Ours was a large vessel to lower, but there was nothing else to be done. Peter organised the whole party into a human chain through the near-darkness, and we started transferring the nearest pile of bricks to Beatrice's floor, where much care had to be given to their even and effective distribution. It was discouraging work, especially as there was just enough light for us to see Beatrice's gracious interior becoming ever more filthy and slithery; and soon a youthful member of the party lost his head, and began screaming that he could stand no more and must get out, a bad case of claustrophobia. It was fascinating to see how Peter dealt with him; an impressive demon­stration of natural leadership and moral force. He reminded the lad that he was going to a good school …; a place where one just couldn't behave like that; he even spoke of the Empire ..., and of the conduct expected of an Englishman. The effect was astonishing. The boy quietened at once, resumed work on the bricks, and gave no more trouble....We loaded more than two hundred bricks before Beatrice could be made to budge; even though James Sutherland had been sawing off the corners of the main entrance hatch runners that were jammed against the tunnel brickwork. …. As we crept ahead once more, woodwork and ironwork screeching and ripping off from time to time, we quaffed packet soup salted with black mud, and cowered beneath the streams of water from overhead. We emerged from the tunnel at 3.40 p.m.

 

It was snowing. There was an assembly of working boats hideously delayed by our misadventures. There was an official of the Docks and Inland Waterways Executive: his task was to bid us unload the Executive's bricks immediately; which we immediately did under his stern eye, piling them up in the snow ..., while the working boat crews cursed us as they entered. We understood that the bricks would be restored to their original site by the Executive's staff: a ploy we would be excused. No doubt, all kinds of dirt money, danger money, and overtime would have to be paid. ... We were relieved when a call upon us late that night by the same official ... proved merely to be on behalf of his daughter, who wanted all our autographs.