ALL NEW Competition Thread...Last Post WINS ;-)

[naughty.tortie]

Well..... it couldnt be lost forever could it !

So its back... all singing, all dancing... no farting allowed...

May the dirtiest player win 😄




I am first... I WILL BE LAST

[cke786]

Yeah, chucking it down up here! Anyway, regardless of my injury, as long as it's not absolutely tipping it on Sunday, I'm definitely going to go down and do some more clearing, this time I'll bring a tarp so I can put my back up against the other side of the trench and get stuck into digging things out more thoroughly!

[peteryola]

Well, at the moment the forecast does have the weather dry for the weekend in the Manchester area, so you should be able to get something done.

[cke786]

I saw the forecast late last night, so I am hopeful! My bright LED floodlight is fully charged, so I should be able to get better video of inside, plus from the video you saw, I know how much is still in the way and where it is.... couldn't see it very well with the handheld light I had!

[peteryola]

You make it sound like the opening of the Chamber of Secrets! 

More seriously, is there a lot else that you can realistically expect to find down there?  Is there a possibility of unexpected aretefacts that might have been chucked in with the rubble?

[cke786]

Would depend really, sometimes there's real good stuff, other times there's just rubble, we only know when we go and look for ourselves. I wouldn't have found that pully for the signal system if I hadn't gone down the side of the embankment like I did, so it's only by looking we discover anything.

Hopefully the actual subway can be entered into, I'd be a tad annoyed if I get in and it's just full of bricks... I just hope I don't come across any dead bodies 😄 However, if there is no obstruction, it will be something to try and get preserved, that said, I'd hope to get the whole thing preserved regardless!

[peteryola]

The Railway Heritage people would certainly appreciate being tagged in on any resultant tweet - they're on there as well as the people you tagged in a couple of weeks ago.

[cke786]

As long as I leave enough space in my tweet, I'll definitely tag them in. All the stuff, apart from my floodlight, are in the boot of my car ready to go, as long as it as said is not tipping it down, I'm all set for a long days hard labor!

[peteryola]

You can always reply to your own tweet as a means of tagging extras in, or even to say more about the subject in the first place.

[cke786]

True!

Anyway, you saw the video, it would appear that I have a lot of work to do inside, though there does seem to be a lot of room. Did you read my youtube video description, it seems that I should do some downwards digging by the entranceway I opened out! Plus I need to bring a broom handle, so I can push down the bricks and stuff I can't physically reach!

[peteryola]

Yes, I saw the video - but have so far only looked at it quickly on the tweet and haven't had time to catch up with YouTube itself for a couple of weeks - something I need to remedy soon, I think...

[cke786]

The description in the actual YouTube video goes into lots more details than the tweet, including my next steps forward. I'll be visiting some other stations of the coming Saturday's, as I should have been doing, the reason I haven't done so has been petrol, HRRS is on the other side of Manchester from where I live, meaning going so far uses up a fair bit of my weeks petrol budget and trying to go elsewhere now, would use up a lot more, more than I really can afford to use, but considering how much time I'm using up on just one station, I really need to get back to the regular schedule!

[peteryola]

That makes sense.

Remind me, how many disused stations are you investigating on this former line?

[cke786]

On this one there was 4 stations, including Hyde Road, the other's I have done, one is currently being restored and renovated, one is now the cafe for a Sainsburys, the last is just in ruins, only the platforms (mostly) remain, everything else has been flattened, though the ghosts of what was there can be found if look hard enough... or at least, you could when I last went, I'm not sure if all is still as well as it was! I'll have to recheck them again, see what's what!

Other stations I intended to visit, until I discovered that Hyde Road was getting widened and HRRS partly demolished, went all the way up to Diggle, which from Street View, looks to be in good nick, it was supposed to be reopened at one point, but they went for the bus route, which according to someone who messaged me, nobody seems to really like!

[peteryola]

I was in that area myself last month!

At least in terms of passing the Diggle Junction signal box a few times...

[cke786]

Yeah there's a car park along side the signal box, I'll also be stopping off there to take some snaps. Though the Diggle Railway Station does seem to be in alright condition, it might be a bit of a difficult one to get down to, however I have seen some ways I might be able to go. It's just the other stations and points of interest that might take the most time to get through, as there's a lot of things I want to look at!

[peteryola]

I just had a look on Google Maps satellite view, and I see the car park you mean.  There's something interesting slightly further up towards the tunnel and on the opposite side of the line, altthough it's "railside" and therefore inaccessible.  A roundabout at the end of a road - which looks suspiciously like it's the site of an old turntable...

[cke786]

Well, there was a turntable of some sort there, but that is actually a roundabout... supposed to be used by the buses, but it looks like it hasn't been used in ages, it's gated off too so I couldn't get to it from the roadside there! However, it is not inaccessible, at the carpark I mentioned, on the other side of the bridge, there are some wooden steps down, I managed to take some snaps of the signal box there, but from a idiotic but happy mistake by myself, I thought I spied a footbridge on the map further along the line, though it turned out I had the map upside down, and by making this mistake, I discovered that I could just walk down the dirt path and get to the gated off area! Also on the same path, which was the railway line back in the day, I could actually get to the station area, duck under the gate as the gap underneath is quite large, I'll be able to wander around the station with some ease!

BTW, the tunnel is huuggee!!

[peteryola]

This roundabout.... it's not on the site of the old turntable, then?

[cke786]

It's partially on the site of an old turntable, though there's no sign of it on the ground! Whilst I didn't go all the way due to the onset of the rain, I managed to get to the area of the roundabout and had a quick look around, but the the rain hit and I had to run back to my car for shelter, though whilst it cleared up later for my road level explore of the station, the light was too low for me to go back. Though it does give me an excuse to go back beyond the tunnel exploration, plus I have some other things to do with the canal.

[peteryola]

Assuming that's the same canal, have you ever seen the intricate cascade at the other ( eastern ) end of the Standedge Tunnel?

Yes, I know that's a long way round from the site we're talking about at the westerrn end, but it's certainly worth seeing.