by Charles » Mon Oct 13, 2003 12:44 pm
I came across your website this evening whilst looking at info
on "Blue Trains", a particular interest of mine, although my present
project is Helenburgh Central railway station, any image at all sought.
I feel for the concept of the website, and being denied (in Australia) little
opportunity to discover similar "urban" archaeology, my interests in this
regard find me diving in caves where, whilst I've found 16-20,000 year
old extinct marsupials, I haven't found any Glasgow built locomotives yet.
If I may recollect my sense of "urban" history in Glasgow, I clearly recall getting my friends together for bike rides to Victoria Park at Whiteinch,
so we could all hire a paddle boat to muck around in the pond. In later years some of us would go to see the "Petrified Wood", before making our descent at absolute full speed down the Whiteinch Tunnel", only to be drawn abruptly to a halt by the air input at the bottom. It was a long walk up the other side.
Elsewise I have clear recollections of the Antonine Wall, less clear of the Forth & Clyde Canal, clear of the remnants of the "Tank Testing
Park" alongside Babcock & Wilcox at Dalmuir, and how to get across the
Yoker or Erskine ferries, with your bike, without paying sixpence.
When it comes to Tunnel walking, to the extent East Kilbride has any, I've
walked them all, down to about 2.0 ft dia, can't ever recall seeing anything
worthwhile.
Tunnel wise, there is a good one leads back from Botany Bay in Sydney.
You've got to dig out a manhole so as to get into a big box about 3mx3m,
which lies in about 2.0m of water. This is the exit pipe from the (long
disused and non-existant) electrical power station.
As you swim along, it's full of crabs and lobster, but gets progressively
more slender so, after about 500m or so, you have the ability to turn around or proceed, knowing that the only way out is backwards.
You can actually turn around after another 100m or so.
Are there any good dives/tunnels like that in Scotland ??
Best regards to all
Charles