Longest Straight

[magpie patrick]

As I continue my way through GRJOTW (see link to that thread) I watched the Australia one yesterday - the Indian Pacific, including the 297 mile straight across the Nullabour Plain - 297 straight miles is mind-boggling, it must be a shock to get to the end and suddenly go round a bend, although I expect it's a fairly gradual one... 

 

Longest Canal straight? Won't be that long, but what are the contenders? New Junction? Or is there a navigable drain that beats that, or even, forfend a proper canal? How straight is the Albert Canal in Belgium? 

 

Just idle thoughts on a Saturday evening...

 

Great Railway Journeys of the World thread

[David Mack]

13 minutes ago, magpie patrick said:

Longest Canal straight?

Some of the UK's longest canal straights are mostly underground.

[matty40s]

The Manchester Ship Canal is 11 miles of virtually straight from Runcorn to Lymm.

Bedford River 21 miles...

Edited December 6, 2025 by matty40s

[Moke]

I was going to suggest the Fossdyke Navigation. 

[Victor Vectis]

I reckon the New Junction would be a strong contender, dead straight from one end to the other.

I thought it would be horribly boring but its lovely! Deep, wide, lots of mooring and push button bridges to add to the interest.

And if that isn't enough a lovely 'middle of nowhere' feel, particularly at the A&C end.

Odd to think that when I worked at Hatfield pit I was crawling about half a mile underneath it.

 

(But remember! At Sykehouse Lock, work the bridge first and last. You might wonder how we know this. 😀 )

[David Mack]

New Bedford and Old Bedford Rivers.

[Hudds Lad]

Golden Nook feels like it  

[billh]

48 minutes ago, Moke said:

I was going to suggest the Fossdyke Navigation. 

Romans built that didn't they? Straight line up and down  all the hills😃

[magnetman]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

Some of the UK's longest canal straights are mostly underground.

Yes. 

 

This bit is open and apparently 1.5 miles. Plus there are locks each side of it. 

 

. 

 

 

 

 

[Tonka]

Sale on the Bridgewater Csnal is a very long straight

[Rob-M]

The BCN from Albion Junction to Caggy"s is fairly straight and about 2 miles.

[Momac]

The River Ancholme runs  straight for 17 miles according to gov.uk

[GUMPY]

3 hours ago, David Mack said:

New Bedford and Old Bedford Rivers.

Although they feel straight the

Old Bedford has a kink in the middle.

New Bedford is actually a very gentle curve after a mile out of Earith.

[MtB]

42 minutes ago, GUMPY said:

Although they feel straight the

Old Bedford has a kink in the middle.

New Bedford is actually a very gentle curve after a mile out of Earith.

 

 

I wondered how long it would take for this thread to change into what counts as "straight"! 

 

Braunston tunnel, anyone? 

 

 

[Wafi]

1 hour ago, MtB said:

Braunston tunnel, anyone? 

Absolutely straight, both sections...

[DandV]

My wife spent her early childhood in two of the railway "camps" along  "the line" Her father was a track fettler.

These "camps" were about every 50 miles along the line, as the track as originally laid, and to well after WW2 was fairly light rail lightly ballasted, on wooden sleepers, required constant maintenance. The first camp she lived in , Reid in Western Austalia, was about 12 standard houses, and a one roomed school. And a watering point for the steam locomotives that served until the mid nineteen fifties. She remembers diesel locomotive GM1 making it's inaugural run.  All supplies including drinking water were bought in by train, normally the weekly "tea and sugar" train.

After mistaking kerosene for drinking water, both were stored in butts in the rear lean to, she, and her mother were evacuated from here, to the hospital in Cook, mid line, 120 miles away, first by motorised track maintenance trolley, and then by the 1929 studebaker inspection car.

Reid was at that time out of range for the flying doctor. 

Reid in the a1950's with the shool and the school teachers house "out the back". Photo from Eric Mccrum who taught there not long after Val left. 

 

Apart from a crossing loop nothing remains at Reid now. 

They then moved to Cook a much bigger settlement with a telegraph station, bigger school and hostel for crew changes. Here she remembers being taken upstairs in the two story school building to watch an elephant from the Worth's Circus  train making a bid for freedom, after the train made an overnight stop to attend the animals. The elephant eventually stopped, looked around and decided there was just miles and miles of  b**** all around, and so allowed them to escort it back to food and water. And the train. 

She later, in the early 1980's used to overnight monthly  at the Cook Bush  Church Aid  Hospital when on the clinic runs for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. 

One patient retrieval from there, a telephone linesman who had fallen from a pole, they transported on a hospital door, after sawing one end off it,  to fit into the beechcraft barron aircraft.  

A bit of here change for her from there, to exploring most of the English inland waterways. 

 

Edited December 7, 2025 by DandV

[Mac of Cygnet]

11 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I wondered how long it would take for this thread to change into what counts as "straight"! 

 

Braunston tunnel, anyone? 

 

 

Standedge is of course the longest canal tunnel in the UK.   Although the 'light at the end of the tunnel' does not become visible until halfway through, the deviation from straight is so small as to make no difference by any normal criteria.

[ditchcrawler]

Cannock Extension

 

[magpie patrick]

8 hours ago, DandV said:

My wife spent her early childhood in two of the railway "camps" along  "the line" Her father was a track fettler.

These "camps" were about every 50 miles along the line, as the track as originally laid, and to well after WW2 was fairly light rail lightly ballasted, on wooden sleepers, required constant maintenance. The first camp she lived in , Reid in Western Austalia, was about 12 standard houses, and a one roomed school. And a watering point for the steam locomotives that served until the mid nineteen fifties. She remembers diesel locomotive GM1 making it's inaugural run.  All supplies including drinking water were bought in by train, normally the weekly "tea and sugar" train.

After mistaking kerosene for drinking water, both were stored in butts in the rear lean to, she, and her mother were evacuated from here, to the hospital in Cook, mid line, 120 miles away, first by motorised track maintenance trolley, and then by the 1929 studebaker inspection car.

Reid was at that time out of range for the flying doctor. 

Reid in the a1950's with the shool and the school teachers house "out the back". Photo from Eric Mccrum who taught there not long after Val left. 

 

Apart from a crossing loop nothing remains at Reid now. 

They then moved to Cook a much bigger settlement with a telegraph station, bigger school and hostel for crew changes. Here she remembers being taken upstairs in the two story school building to watch an elephant from the Worth's Circus  train making a bid for freedom, after the train made an overnight stop to attend the animals. The elephant eventually stopped, looked around and decided there was just miles and miles of  b**** all around, and so allowed them to escort it back to food and water. And the train. 

She later, in the early 1980's used to overnight monthly  at the Cook Bush  Church Aid  Hospital when on the clinic runs for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. 

One patient retrieval from there, a telephone linesman who had fallen from a pole, they transported on a hospital door, after sawing one end off it,  to fit into the beechcraft barron aircraft.  

A bit of here change for her from there, to exploring most of the English inland waterways. 

 

 

That is a great story that has added a lot to my understanding of how railways (and probably other infrastructure) operate in harsh conditions 

[IanD]

1 hour ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

Standedge is of course the longest canal tunnel in the UK.   Although the 'light at the end of the tunnel' does not become visible until halfway through, the deviation from straight is so small as to make no difference by any normal criteria.

Standedge is certainly not straight though, not by any stretch of the meaning, there's that massive (but narrow!) wiggle in it... 😉 

Edited December 7, 2025 by IanD

[magpie patrick]

14 hours ago, MtB said:

 

 

I wondered how long it would take for this thread to change into what counts as "straight"! 

 

Braunston tunnel, anyone? 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, Wafi said:

Absolutely straight, both sections...

 

Most Roman Roads followed exactly this principle - straight but not direct. I believe the reason is that construction started from both ends, and whilst the could build straight they couldn't guarantee the bearing was sufficiently accurate to meet the team coming the other way, so they were built at a slight angle to the straight line to ensure they would meet. 

[David Mack]

1 minute ago, magpie patrick said:

Most Roman Roads followed exactly this principle - straight but not direct. I believe the reason is that construction started from both ends, and whilst the could build straight they couldn't guarantee the bearing was sufficiently accurate to meet the team coming the other way, so they were built at a slight angle to the straight line to ensure they would meet. 

But how, with the surveying techniques of the time, would they have known what the correct bearing was in the first place?

[magpie patrick]

32 minutes ago, David Mack said:

But how, with the surveying techniques of the time, would they have known what the correct bearing was in the first place?

 

Stars I guess

 

They could build straight roads that went where they wanted, they could cross sea and get where they wanted, so clearly they had some system of guidance 

[Batavia]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

But how, with the surveying techniques of the time, would they have known what the correct bearing was in the first place?

This gives some interesting information about Roman Surveying techniques:

https://www.traianvs.net/pdfs/surveying.pdf

 

Chris G

[Mac of Cygnet]

4 hours ago, IanD said:

Standedge is certainly not straight though, not by any stretch of the meaning, there's that massive (but narrow!) wiggle in it... 😉 

It may seem massive to you when going through on a boat (although I never used to notice it), but in the context of the whole length it is tiny.  I think Standedge is to all intents straight.