This blog is now redundant

Following my decision to leave Facebook, I gambled on opening this blog. Hmm... Clearly very few, if any people ever view it, after some initial success. Not to worry.

So, with there being very little point in me retaining this blog, I have decided to no longer update it.

If anyone has the remotest interest in my work, you can follow me at my Flickr account at www.flickr.com/photos/midlandexplorerboy

There I update and post things now and again (when there's something to post, really!). Any correspondence can be directed to me at Flickr too. I may consider Twitter, but that announcement will be made on Flickr.

This blog will stay here for posterity, until Google decide to delete it, I guess!

There's sommat in the tunnel...

Just noticed something odd about the avatar on my Flickr account - look closely in the tunnel and is that a person, a giant pair of eyes appear to be staring back at me. I've never seen that before... (The tunnel is the one under the Suspension Bridge in Bristol).

Hello...

Hello. I don't know if anyone ever actually views this blog - the stats suggest not. Perhaps I deserve it after deserting you all on Facebook, but after all the recent sh*t about that platform, I'm, not going back. Anyway, I'm still here, still being me, and still doing the odd bit of Exploring, but nothing out of the ordinary.

So, just thought I'd share this view of the OTHER railway tunnel in Colwall, Herefordshire, the small one on The Downs mini railway as it passes under Brockhill Road. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed with Exploring in the New Year. 

Serious question: does anyone think I should open a Twitter account?

Spot the difference?

For one moment, I thought they'd got the pictures of Boris and the goat back to front, ha ha!! Go on Boris – I might vote Labour (when it's NOT headed by that pr*ck Corbyn) but I'd love to see the country run by Boris, seriously!

Must remember to post that letter...

Spot the bus shelter ...

Yes, it's crap photo time again!!! And in today's picture I'm asking you to spot the bus shelter! Tucked away in a remote but picturesque corner of the Forest of Dean, is this quite well-used bus stop in Lower Lydbrook.

And, lurking under all that ivy, by the white 'X' is indeed the entrance to a brick-built bus shelter, so heavily colonised by ivy and cobwebs it's a miracle it's still there!

There's trouble on t'Moors...

No, it's not a thick early morning mist, but the smoke from the huge moor fire on Saddleworth Moor, near Stalybridge, in late June 2018. All around was a hot, clear day, with unbroken blue sky, but in the fire zone, this...

This was the scene on Wednesday (27th) on Buckton Vale Road, Carrbrook, as strong winds drove thick smoke down into the lower reaches of the area. Local advice was to stay indoors with your windows shut - what, in that heat!!

Further photos can be found on my Flickr at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/midlandexplorerboy/albums/72157695312419882 

Thurgoland tunnels, in t'Pennines

The Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway is probably best known for not only crossing the Pennines but for the massive Woodhead tunnels. Other bores exist along the way and these are the south portals of the two at Thurgoland, a short distance NW of Sheffield.

The part-backfilled one in the foreground is Thurgoland Old, opening 1845, and 315 yards / 288 metres in length. In the 1930s, the decision was taken to electrify the Woodhead route, so a new bore was dug to the south, Thurgoland New, opening in 1948, the year of railway nationalisation.

New is slightly longer at 339 yards / 310 metres, and is concrete lined. The portals display two datestones to show the change of ownership that took lace during construction - started in 1947 by LNER, the tunnel opened under BR in 1948, thus two datestones (the 1947 one is visible in the background). New is open, lit and in use as part of the Trans Pennine Trail.