When the Oldham, Ashton and Guide Bridge Railway was built in 1861, crossing the Medlock Valley on a high viaduct, a branch led right through to the Rocher Vale works. Scrap iron was brought in by rail to be made into iron and steel goods.The tramway to the canal was still used, however, and in 1865, the horses which had been used to pull the wagons, were replaced by a small locomotive engine called "The Ashtonian." This had to be specially designed to have a funnel that hinged downwards and the driver would have to kneel down to enable it to pass through the tunnel between the foot of the viaduct and Rocher Vale, which was only six feet high and five feet wide!
This is the only picture i could find of the train
Having found this as a kid i always wanted to revisit it and see if it had been
filled in to my surprise it was still there just a bit of bending and we were in
The entrance
Looking back out towards the entrance
dressed stone
Having got halfway in it seemed to have been bricked off at some
Dad showing how wide it was and
tall he is only 5 foot 7
The filled in exit near to ten arches
we have yet to locate the other tunnel we will update when we do
Had to get out quick Dad started moving the rubble to look
for the Astonian WTF?
UPDATE We have located the other tunnel but no access
we will return 2018
we will return 2018
Thanks for looking
ASHTONIAN was NOT a train, it was a steam locomotive. The train is the trucks or carriages that the locomotive pulls and doesn't need a locomotive pulling it to be a train. The only time a locomotive can be correctly called a train is if there are several of them coupled together.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment
ReplyDelete