Lock 4 Marple - has it been moved?

[BuckbyLocks]

Fraid Not. The tunnel goes under the back of the pub. The island was put there during the war to make it easier to put in stop planks and has been moved anyway.

[MoominPapa]

And as I understand it (I'm sure you will correct me if I am wrong!), the "traffic island" at old turn junction is in fact a (now disused) ventilation shaft for the railway tunnel. If so, must surely be the only railway ventilation shaft emerging in the middle of a canal, in the UK?

My understanding is that the island was build during WW2 and is to allow the B&F to be stanked off from the main-line and gas-street arms, in the event that the railway tunnle was breached by bombing.

 

MP.

[hecla777]

This link take you to a view from 'Britain from Above' which shows the relationship of the railway to the canal at Old Turn Junc. As Laurence has observed there certainly is not much between the top of the railway tunnel and the bottom of the canal.

 

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw058069?search=birmingham&ref=698

 

Regards

 

Martin O'Keeffe

[Laurence Hogg]

As the picture clearly shows there is no island visible prior to WW2. As suggested ealier I can confirm that this island, stop gates in the vicinity and other stop plank positions were added in WW2 as a defensive measure to stop the railway tunnels flooding. They are still all maintained today as the risk is still present.

[BuckbyLocks]

That may be true for the Granville Street Gate and the rising gates in Gas Street, but I seriously doubt that the gate in Saturday Bridge is operable and there are no plank slots in the new Island which is too far away from the banks to take a standard plank like the original one was.

[nicknorman]

Fraid Not. The tunnel goes under the back of the pub. The island was put there during the war to make it easier to put in stop planks and has been moved anyway.

How disappointing! My version was much more impressive!

[magpie patrick]

Back to Marple North Tunnel and Lock 4, this is Marple North Tunnel from the eastern side

 

 

There is a convenient bridge over the railway in Brabyns Park, a short walk on a well defined track from Lock 7.

 

This is from the same spot but using the 200mm telephoto

 

 

Although very wooded you can see the height of the canal bank: there is an obvious tree trunk growing from the canal level that is actually on the far side of the canal, and if you look carefully to the right of the large bush in the middle of the arch is a blue blob, someone walking must have had their hood up.

 

Given the difference between the obvious "top" of the canal bank and the bottom of the canal, and then the puddle below that, there wasn't a huge amount of clearance.

 

Edited to add, having blown up the uncompressed original I've concluded the blue blob is probably a boat

Edited August 19, 2014 by magpie patrick

[Heartland]

If I recall, the Shropshire Canal crossed Oakengates Tunnel (Shrewsbury & Birmingham Railway). The Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Stour Valley railway tunnel at the North end of Birmingham New Street, did pass under the BCN on the Farmer's Bridge side of the junction and also a corner of the Old Wharf and under the top end of the left hand "U" shaped basin.

Ray Shill