Crich Tuesday 26th May

I was meant to be just driving lunchtime reliefs today, but we were short of crew so after doing a trip on Eric the access tram I had to drive Glasgow 1068 for the rest of the day. Not much chance for pictures which is a shame as it was "Beside the seaside" event. However did get four of the children on the carousel. 

Dudley Number Two Canal

Yesterday it was the open day for the Coombeswood Canal Trip. 

It was a nice event that took place in Hawne Basin. This is now at the furthest navigable point on the Dudley number two canal. Of course it used to continue through the long closed Lapal tunnel through to the Worcester and Birmingham canal at Selly Oak.

We didn't get chance to take any photographs at the event, due to the proximity of water to my phone :-) however we did enjoy a lovely boat trip along this section of canal. We hadn't yet walked this part of the BCN so enjoyed discovering the Gosty Hill tunnel. 

It's a very small portal and won't have much room for the helmsman when navigating through it. 

It reminded us a lot of the Dudley tunnel just further up the network. 

Of course there is no towpath through it, so we had to walk over the top. The route was not difficult to follow but what we then found really surprised us. Take a look at the next picture.

That really is a vent for the tunnel, which takes up virtually the whole of the front garden of a house. It struck us as rather odd that a house would be built so close to the vent. I took another photograph to show that although they have tried to disguise the vent with a tree it is the dominating feature and only a few feet from the front door. 

I wonder if the owners are canal fans?

When it rains ...

Today was my first driving duty of the season at the Tramway Museum.
Although the day started off quite wet, the forecast was for it to improve.
Being brave I decided I wanted to drive Blackpool 236, the open boat tram. 

The weather did improve as forecast, and we were having a great day

Until

We got a surprise thunder storm. At the time we were at the top of the line, Glory Mine, as you can see from the picture, there is not a lot of shelter, and we were all huddled in the centre, but that didn't really help, everybody was wet through so we set off back down the hill in the thunder storm. When we got to Wakebridge stop there was an almighty clap of thunder and then the power went off. So there we are, on an open tram in a thunderstorm with no electricity to make the tram move, most of the passengers got off the tram and sheltered in the tram stop, the crew however stayed with their vehicle. That is a story that will be re-told many times!
Because of the weather we got an early finish, as the tram was soaked and nobody wants to sit on wet seats. Getting home by 6 o'clock was a real bonus. 

I only took one other picture today, of Leeds 180.