Being more than ten years behind John, there are a lot of obvious tunnels areas that he has 'done' that I have not and I often have to do them on my lonesome! These places include West Yorkshire, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester.

So... I knocked up an itinery to visit many of the tunnels I have still not done in Liverpool and Manchester. The plan was to stay at my Mum's in Lowton-St-Mary's for a couple of nights and do Lydgate and Butterhouse (aka Uppermill) on the way. It's always a bugger to navigate on your own so I bought a Sat Nav to get me to the tunnels quicker! I was expecting it to be crap but it was great, just tap the site of the tunnel on the screen and the bint tells you how to get there! I have never done so many in a day on my own as I did each day this time. Oh! And I forgot my fecking tripod so the pics are worse than ever! The itinery was:

Wednesday 25th

1. Butterhouse
2. Lydgate

Thursday 26th (Liverpool)

1. Bourne - Tramway tunnel under L&M Main line in St. Helens.
2. "Wavertree" - Where the high-level loop used to cross the L&M and curve around under the Gridiron inlet lines to enter the Gridiron. No sign of it. It was just about where the footbridge at Wavertree station is now.
3. "Waterloo Middle" - Where Waterloo came out at the Mersey end, it passed through a short, high tunnel at least four tracks wide under the access lines to Great Howard L&Y Goods between Great Howard Street and Pall Mall. It is now part of a car park - £3.50 all day!
4. Waterloo - Entrance in the car park.
5. Victoria
6. Canada Dock
7. Bootle - Two single bores running under most of the length of Marsh Lane. John has been but I have not. I didn't get in this time either - but I will next time..."
8. "Stanley Road" - Two short single bores under Stanley Road. Buried next to Aldi!
9. Marsh Lane - At the end of Marsh Lane and under Bootle New Strand station - now a public walkway next to Asda.
10. "Sandhills" - Under the Station on the short line to Sandon Dock Goods that header North out of Huskisson and immediatelty curved West under Sandhills station, crossed Derby Road, then curved south into the Goods Station.
11. Liverpool Central - I'm still not sure of the layout here. There was a short tunnel immediatel out of Central then the longer Great George Street tunnel. When the MerseyRail scheme was implemented in the mid 1970s, the long tunnel was partly used. The floor was sloped down to connect to the new tunnels under Liverpool leaving a short section abandoned and with a drop down onto the live lines. I'd like to get in there for a look but it is behind our favourite plisade fencing and next door to the BTP!
12. Great George Street - See above.

Tunnels not on the itinery:

1. St. John's, Brasenose Road and Canal - These formed most of the Bankfield Goods Branch and I have it on good authority that they are well and truly filled in. Now I would normally always verify such claims but as my itinery was tight I left these as extras should I have time to look. I didn't! And anyway, they really need daylight to look for manholes... Anyone have any evidence that they are filled in to the top with no accesses? I'd love to hear from you.
2. The Wapping and Crown Street complex of tunnels as I have already done all that are accessible. I need to speak to the owner at the Mersey end but I am told that others have tried and failed!
3. Monks Ferry, Woodside, Haymarket, "Warbreck Park" (this came after the railway closed!), "Aintree", "Leeds and Liverpool Canal", Kirkdale 1 and 2, Walton-on-the-Hill 1, 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 3A and "Broad Green" 1 and 2 - all done previously.

Friday 27th (Manchester)

1. "East Lancs" - Under the junction with the A575 at SD741018. I wanted to look at this and decide if it is a tunnel! It is - so far as I am concerned! It is approximately 105yds long.
2. "Little Hulton" - likewise under the A6 at SD725036. This is a bridge!
3. Throstle Nest 3A - See below.
4. Throstle Nest 3 - I was under the impression that these had been filled in during the last deacade and the south-east end more recently obliterated by the current work on the Tram extension. I was wrong... They are 'filled in' - but there is a 3-4 foot gap to the top, plenty of room to scurry through. The south-east end is now atop a fifteen foot shher drop at the end of the removed infill down to the excavation for the new tram line. The retaining wall of the section under the main line (which was a square section extension of 3A passing under the main line when John did it in the early 1990s), has been broken through and a ramp up to the exisitng tram lines excavated in the form of a curve ready for the new alignment. My pics didn't come out here for some reason which is a great shame.
5. Pendlebury
6. Pendleton
7. Queens Road - This is going to be reopened as part of the new Tram extension in a couple of years - so get in there while you can!! At the time of my visit there was work going on to line the bricj walls with spray concrete. The workers have erected scafolding for access to the roads above and have not made much effort to secure these - thanks guys. It was nice to climb down the ladders straight into the cutting next to the tunnel
8. "Ashton" - I wanted to look at the junction with the OA&GB line West of Ashton-Under-Lyne station as it is possible that the OA&GB line was in a tunnel. It was too dark to see and too late to clamber down!
9. "Stockport Road" - Where this road passes over the South Manchester Loop at Levenshulme. I wanted to see if this fitted my criteria for 'tunnel'... It did.
10. "WCML" - Where the same line passed under the WCML. Again, this is a tunnel in my books!
11. "Reddish South" - This was always a long shot! The north-west-most apperture of the series of brdges over the station which used to carry multiple lines under Reddish Road is 'tunnel shaped' and I wanted to check it out. It is a bridge!
12. Bredbury Low Level

Tunnels not on the itinery:

1. Manchester dock tunnels - These three are almost certainly buried. There may be a manhole... More research needed! (Anyone got any info??)
2. Wellington Road and Brownsword - previously done.