Triple Tunnel Troubles (Tunnels 2 & 3)

Not Far From Gerrards Cross  (map bottom right)...

... is Little Missenden (map top left). And here is the headline.

Groan!

But here is the large hole with someone (maybe not a  policeman?) looking into it!

It doesn't look too bad from a distance and at a normal viewing angle.

But it is fenced off for safety reasons; but more than that, there has been an attempt to keep prying eyes away by covering the fence with black plastic sheet.

Not only that, but there are men in high viz vests with mysterious equipment wandering all over the field.

An unexploded bomb that has exploded, mayhap? But no one heard the bang!

A landing by an alien craft? Over the years there have been plenty of claims, most of them highly contrived and badly documented.

But as Mulder and Scully ...

... were won't to say:-

In this case the truth IS out there, but it would appear that THEY don't want us to find out what it is.

So WHERE is it?

The clue is the stretch of water seen in the background to some of the photos above.

There it is above, rather murky and green in the Google Earth view! and here it is on a map.

It is knwn locally as Shardloes Lake after the farm shown on the map. It lies between Amersham (right) and Little Missenden off the map to the left.

Clearly there is SOMETHING going on beneath that innocent looking field not far from the A413 (GREEN).

You guessed?

HS2's Chiltern Tunnel passes almost directly under the sink hole field!

An over-enlarged bit of the above map helps.

You can make out the curve of the A413 and the road junction at little Amersham, upper right.

The contractors have admitted its existence ...

... and are "investigating".

The Chilterns Conservation Board ("CCB" - a group which has opposed HS2) are saying, in essence, "We told you so!"

The CCB and others have warned for many years that the unstable nature of the fractured chalk meant that HS2 tunnelling operations might lead to long term permanent damage to the chalk aquifer, River Misbourne chalk stream, the wider landscape and wildlife living above the route.

For example, geologists, including Dr Haydon Bailey, highlighted their concerns over 13 years ago in a report published by the Chiltern Society in August 2010 – just six months after the government announced its preferred route for HS2. At the time, Dr Bailey’s report summarised potential impacts including:

long term damage to the chalk aquifer;

pollution of the main water supply system for the north western Home Counties area and potentially further into north London (a point emphasised by Dr Bailey when he appeared before the High Speed Rail Select Committee in July 2015);

running the risk of serious ground collapse in areas with deep sections of weathered chalk;

depressing the water table in the Misbourne valley, resulting in the total loss of surface flow in the Misbourne River system, and

the destruction of the adjacent habitats

the aesthetic loss of the Misbourne River and its replacement by a dry valley.

Clearly point 3, the serious ground collapse, has now occurred.

The less emotional view is that the sink hole is some pre-existing fault which may have been dislodged by HS2 vibration but which is not serious.

The tunnels are safe and unaffected, they say.

But the anti-HS2 protesters are having a field day! Expect more of the same as the investigation progresses. There will be more pitchforks at dawn!

Maybe the anti-HS2 lot dug the hole secretly!

Peterville - Tunnel 3

The scenery on top of fbb's tunnel (in which the electrically operated point doesn't electrically operate!) is made of a substantial plank of timber supported on a few piers of 2 x 1. It was simply made but strongly made by No 2 grandson.

And look! He actually measured stuff! Here is a glance underneath with track in place.

And look where one of the supports is! Should fbb have checked? You bet he should, but he didn't. No trains wll pass that post so it has to be moved elsewhere.

In frustration, fbb removed the post and flung it in the waste paper basket! then put the tunnel top back to see where a new post should be posted.

Deep joy!! Apparently defying Mr Newton's gravitational laws, the tunnel top stayed in place propped on something that was never intended to prop it!

There is some hope for model railway bodging yet!

Puzzle Pictures

Buchanan Street railway station in Glasgow. And ...

... St Enoch station ditto. And here they are on an old street map.

Buchanan Street (labelled "Caledonian") is top centre, St Enoch is named as such and is bottom centre. Neither is in any way recognisable today, although there are remnants of the approach tracks to both.

All that is left is a line of greenery on the approaches to Buchanan Street ...

... and a bit of viaduct that once curved round into St Enoch!

Neither is much of a memorial for two busy central Glasgow termini lost for ever.

Sigh!

Central and Queen Street remain and they are both wonderful.

  Next Variety blog : Saturday 20th May