Wow! Two great tunnels in one day! Just an hour after leaving Gosty Hill Tunnel we turned right from the Dudley No. 2 Canal onto the Netherton Tunnel Branch, and straight into the tunnel itself.
Netherton Tunnel was the last tunnel of the canal age to be built, and opened in 1858. It has a totally different feel from Gosty Hill Tunnel: the latter is narrow and low with no towpath; the former is broad and high with a towpath on each side.
Emerging from the tunnel brings you into another world. You've left behind the winding Dudley Canals and are now in the no-nonsense, keep-the-boats-moving, straight-as-a-die New Main Line of the BCN.
Straight ahead is the Tividale Aqueduct which carries the Old Main Line of the Birmingham Canal.
Three girls watched us come out.
Under the aqueduct a turbine used to power a generator which ran the electric lighting in the tunnel.
What looks like drainpipes are, presumably, the water feed to the turbine. It seems extraordinary that, in this time of water shortages on some of our canals, one canal could have some of its water drained off merely to provide a bit of light in a tunnel.
And that has got me thinking: did canals suffer from water shortage in dry summers in the past?
3 comments:
Love the tunnel photos Halfie
Wow, this is fascinating, Halfie. I would have loved to be on Shadow the day you did all these marvellous explorations. And to go through two tunnels and then see an aqueduct with a turbine too! I think that would have made my day. But yes! Good question! What did they do in dry years in the past? The canals were much more important back then too. By the way, has your summer been as dry as the spring? Ours has been a total washout. I've never known it so wet and cold here during July and August.
Netherton Tunnel South Portal
52°29'36.21"N 2° 4'8.53"W
Netherton Tunnel, North Portal
52°30'55.09"N 2° 2'57.78"W
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