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Fun in Gosty Hill tunnel


MoominPapa

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We visited Hawne Basin yesterday, for the cheap diesel and the craic with Madcat.

Left early this morning for the passage back along Dudley No 2.

Pretty much exactly half way through the tunnel, everything ground to a halt, and I suddenly recalled the story someone at the basin told me about a boat that was stuck in there for 20 hours last week. Eeek. The problem was a couple of large lumps of timber wedged between the boat and the tunnel wall. I'm actually rather glad that we were in the middle, because that's the high-ceilinged bit, and I could get along the gunnel with the cabin shaft to work the items to the end of the boat and pull them out. If we'd been in low part of the tunnel, I'm not sure that would have been possible. Anyway, with the timber on board, we set off again, only to get a bladeful, so another mid-tunnel stop was required to sort that out.

 

The rest of today's trip, down the Delft and the Stourbridge 16 has been a doddle, but isn't it quiet? Only four boats moving all day, and the VMs at Merry  Hell completely empty.

 

MP.

 

 

IMG-20170818-WA0000.jpg

Edited by MoominPapa
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29 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

We visited Hawne Basin yesterday, for the cheap diesel and the craic with Madcat.

Left early this morning for the passage back along Dudley No 2.

Pretty much exactly half way through the tunnel, everything ground to a halt, and I suddenly recalled the story someone at the basin told me about a boat that was stuck in there for 20 hours last week. Eeek. The problem was a couple of large lumps of timber wedged between the boat and the tunnel wall. I'm actually rather glad that we were in the middle, because that's the high-ceilinged bit, and I could get along the gunnel with the cabin shaft to work the items to the end of the boat and pull them out. If we'd been in low part of the tunnel, I'm not sure that would have been possible. Anyway, with the timber on board, we set off again, only to get a bladeful, so another mid-tunnel stop was required to sort that out.

 

The rest of today's trip, down the Delft and the Stourbridge 16 has been a doddle, but isn't it quiet? Only four boats moving all day, and the VMs at Merry  Hell completely empty.

 

MP.

 

 

 

Been there and got the T shirt. The same thing happened to us about 20years ago on a hire boat. The only differnce is that we were stopped by a railway sleeper and we were in the low bit. It was a bugger getting it out - fortunately the boat had a substantial gang planke and we used it to force the sleeper down below the water line where the hull tapered. We then managed to get the sleeper on board. Not a pleasant experience.

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6 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

There are previous threads mentioning getting jammed in the tunnel with huge lumps of wood. 

How do they all get in there?

It's not called Ghosty Hill for nothing! ;)

I seem to remember someone tell of a mysterious ghostly legger who helped them through - perhaps he puts the wood in waiting for trade 

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7 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

But it's not called Ghosty Hill Tunnel at all, is it?

"Gosty Hill" with no 'h' shirley?

Ghosty hill would be much better. Surely you mean surely, shirley with no 'h' would be sirley, or are you a bit surly today:)

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56 minutes ago, RLWP said:

Bits get blown in by the wind and drawn in by the passage of boats.

Richard

It's not as if there's a shortage of floating and sunken crap in the Dudley No. 2 canal.

 

Why is it so desperately in need of dredging from Windmill End to Gosty, whilst the Gosty to Hawne Basin section is pretty good?

 

MP.

 

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1 hour ago, MoominPapa said:

 

Why is it so desperately in need of dredging from Windmill End to Gosty, whilst the Gosty to Hawne Basin section is pretty good?

Windmill End to the tunnel was thoroughly dredged in 1974, funded by a substantial grant from the Borough of Warley in their dying days, before being merged with the canal-unfriendly Borough of West Bromwich to become the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell. Before this huge clumps of floating reeds made it virtually impassable for the small outboard-powered cruiser I had at the time. Beyond the tunnel the tubeworks was then still using boats, and the canal was in a much better state.

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Just now, MHS said:

Well worth taking it really slow in Gosty then. If you did get wedged in, it would be easier to shift the offending bit of timber. 

You don't really get a choice, the tunnel is not a lot bigger than a boat in any direction. You are doing slow or stop

Richard

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Just now, RLWP said:

You don't really get a choice, the tunnel is not a lot bigger than a boat in any direction. You are doing slow or stop

Richard

We hoped to go down there in May. We managed the northern reaches of the BCN, but had to change our plans. Next time head through Brum, it will be through Netherton to explore that stretch. 

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11 minutes ago, MHS said:

We hoped to go down there in May. We managed the northern reaches of the BCN, but had to change our plans. Next time head through Brum, it will be through Netherton to explore that stretch. 

Do, it's worth the trip to Hawne Basin. The back-of-the-map is quite different to the rest of the BCN

Richard

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3 hours ago, RLWP said:

Do, it's worth the trip to Hawne Basin. The back-of-the-map is quite different to the rest of the BCN

Richard

 

Hawne Basin is great, and the Stourbridge canal is a much under appreciated gem.

Maybe best to walk the Bumblehole Branch, though.

MP.

 

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12 minutes ago, MoominPapa said:

 

Maybe best to walk the Bumblehole Branch, though.

 

We almost sent Kiwidad ahead with a spade to dig a trench when trying to get to the end on Old Friends doing BCNChallenge 2015. 

You could probably walk the channel in a pair of wellies.

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Glad you made it out ok, sounds a bit scary, and lucky it was not in one of the tight sections.

In general the Dudley No 1 and No 2 are interesting, it I thought Bumble hole was very surreal, not least for the locals wo could not believe what they were seeing with all the boats hitting it at the same time.  Even we ran aground there though is it really is a path with a few puddles on it.

 

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9 minutes ago, john6767 said:

Glad you made it out ok, sounds a bit scary, and lucky it was not in one of the tight sections.

In general the Dudley No 1 and No 2 are interesting, it I thought Bumble hole was very surreal, not least for the locals wo could not believe what they were seeing with all the boats hitting it at the same time.  Even we ran aground there though is it really is a path with a few puddles on it.

 

 

Having run even Tawny Owl aground there on the Challenge, I declined to take Melaleuca down.....

 

MP.

 

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