Aldermaston Underground Railway
Daniele Mandelli
Was searching through the Parlimentary questions the other day,
and came accross questions being asked about flooding of underground
bunkers and an underground railway at AWE Aldermaston. Does anyone know
anything about this ? Where does/ did this railway go to ?
Burghfield ?
--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
groundzero
This was something that I have been told about from sub-contractors that did
work in the place, they went to see some former retired workers, that they
had close working relationship with at the site. It is supposed to be around
600 feet below ground & connects the two establishments that do not appear
on any OS map for the area - how much you choose to hold with this tale is
another matter. But my former employer, was a *recognised* contractor for
such concerns & we had vetted engineers that were allowed full vehicular
access to work in their allocated buildings (on one occasion, one engineer
was invited to have coffee with folks he knew in another building & drove
over to them, after the phone call invitation, this sparked something of a
local security alert with the Plod on site taking an interest in his car
which was spotted by his host through a window & both he & his host went out
& duly explained to the Plod what was going on).
I cannot wait to see if this place will get its public relations visitors
centre open soon!!
Jim.
"Daniele Mandelli" <daniele....@btopenworld.com> wrote in message
news:d4963ef8720b715f607...@mygate.mailgate.org...
Rifleman
"Daniele Mandelli" I could have sworn I read a big article about the
railways locos and rolling stock a few years ago in some narrow guage rail
magazines ???
Adam Aglionby
As far as I remember the railway links Aldernmaston and Burghfield ,if it
exists ;-)
Other thing remember about Aldermaston was the immensley expensive liquid
waste handling plant, handles things like the cutting fluid used when a
warhead bit is machined,this was to replace the inadequate 1950`s era plant
and cut down on external dumping,like the Pangbourne pipeline.
Finest quality stainless throughout,every weld x-rayed and
state of the art systems,after all maintenance access is somewhat limited
after the thing starts running.Final testing for pressure was performed with
standard mains tap water,major mistake it was meant to deal with highly pure
but radioactive fluids, not hard tap water, result one pile of multi million
pound high Q stainless scrap.It was never brought into service as external
consultants reccomended that it would have been severely compromised and
would be cheaper to re-build than repair.
So dumping continues for a while yet, they may now have
replaced the plant but mebbe sometimes secrecy is to cover up cock-ups
rather than conspiracies.
Adam
Nigel Callaghan
<j...@groundzero.aviators.net> wrote:
>Daniele,
>
>This was something that I have been told about from sub-contractors that did
>work in the place, they went to see some former retired workers, that they
>had close working relationship with at the site. It is supposed to be around
>600 feet below ground & connects the two establishments that do not appear
>on any OS map for the area - how much you choose to hold with this tale is
>another matter.
- - snipped - -
I think mabe 60 feet never 600, thats deeper than the London GPO Tower
Nigel
groundzero
I think that the fact that Aldermaston is located upon large beds of gravel
& similar sub soil materials, would make for substantial excavation without
raising too much suspicion. It would make sense to have such facilities to
allow for containment of *accidental* detonations, without too much
radioactivity reaching the surface - that is why this figure was mentioned
in conversation & I later had confirmed via another source (by accident).
Also, at this depth, the water of the Thames Valley would be useful at
washing out any residual subterranean radiation, fast! I know that the
original location was chosen, because of it location to London & a few other
facilities near-by, but with these additional features, it does make for a
unique location Hence I stand by 600 feet depth.
Jim,
Andy Dingley
> Was searching through the Parlimentary questions the other day,
>and came accross questions being asked
References ! This stuff is on-line, so post either a ref to Hansard,
or a URL
>about flooding of underground
>bunkers and an underground railway at AWE Aldermaston.
Yeah, it's UFO gauge.
ejb
"Tex Bennett" <T...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:07t26ucf41tj6i81s...@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 05 Feb 2002 05:25:06 GMT, >
> How deep are coal mines in the UK? How do people get down and up that
> deep?
The one I worked in was 2850 ft to the shaft bottom.
We used to travel up/down in a 3 deck cage.
(Tip,always get in the top deck).
ejb
C.O.Jones
<T...@btinternet.com> wrote:
>On Tue, 05 Feb 2002 05:25:06 GMT, jet...@dial.pipex.com (Nigel
>Callaghan) wrote:
>
>
>>I think mabe 60 feet never 600, thats deeper than the London GPO Tower
>
>How deep are coal mines in the UK? How do people get down and up that
>deep?
>This smells of folklore
I've been down to the -1062 yard level at Hem Heath colliery in
Staffordshire. Other pits were deeper and I believe some of the
Cornish shafts were deeper still.
Ernest
Roy Smith
"ejb" <er...@burke29.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:a3rta4$e2i$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
Hi Eric,
How long did the journey take?
Ok, why get in the top deck?
Regards,
Roy
ejb
"Roy Smith" <lupin....@virgin.net> wrote in message
news:hEg88.1587$jL6.6...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
ejb
"Roy Smith" <lupin....@virgin.net> wrote in message
news:hEg88.1587$jL6.6...@news6-win.server.ntlworld.com...
>
> "
> How long did the journey take?
> Ok, why get in the top deck?
> Regards,
> Roy
>
The decks in the cages had holes in the floor.
"Fluids" obey the laws of gravity !
cheers
ejb
Nigel Whittington
> Tex Bennett
> <T...@btinternet.com> , jet...@dial.pipex.com (Nigel
> >Callaghan) wrote:
>
> I've been down to the -1062 yard level at Hem Heath colliery in
> Staffordshire. Other pits were deeper and I believe some of the
> Cornish shafts were deeper still.
>
> Ernest
Deepest working site in Europe is the Cleveland Potash Mine. Boulby,
North Yorks.
1200 metres to the shaft bottom. And when you get down there you are
driven around in old transit vans!!!! No sign of the strategic reserve
down there though. (%^)
Fascinating if you ever get a chance to go.
TTFN
Nigel Whittington
Russell W. Barnes
"Nigel Whittington" <coast...@my-dejanews.com> wrote in message
news:2449d998.02020...@posting.google.com...
> C.O.Jones <c.o....@blueNOSPAMyonder.co.uk>
8><---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Deepest working site in Europe is the Cleveland Potash Mine. Boulby,
> North Yorks.
> 1200 metres to the shaft bottom. And when you get down there you are
> driven around in old transit vans!!!! No sign of the strategic reserve
> down there though. (%^)
> Fascinating if you ever get a chance to go.
>
> TTFN
>
> Nigel Whittington
Do they still do that cosmic ray penetration research stuff down there,
then?
--
Regds,
Russell W. B.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rwbarnes
hu...@cix.compulink.co.uk
<2449d998.02020...@posting.google.com>,
coast...@my-dejanews.com (Nigel Whittington) wrote:
One of my colleagues worked on the construction of the
Boulby Intake tunnel which runs out under the North Sea.
The intake riser heads were drilled into the seabed by
jack-up barge and the tunnel driven out to meet then. Apart
from the fact that this was one of the first tunnels driven
using laser levelling equipment, and nobody appreciated that
the temperature gradient vertically in the tunnel was enough
to deflect the laser beam slightly - which caused some
interest! - an apocryphal tale is told of the old and broad
Yorkshire general foreman (George), and the young (unamed)
miner who was working at the outer end of the tunnel when
they were digging up towards the seabed to intercept the
bases of the intake risers (a time when you like to be sure
that your surveyors didnt make a mistake!)
It is said that this miner rather nervously asked the
foreman - "Hey George - how do we know when we're getting
near the seabed?" George turned to him and said in the
boradest Yorkshire accent - "eee Lad - when thou 'ears
seagulls, run laike f**k!"
(more tales from an Aincent Tunneler may be had on
application of sutiable lubricant!)
hugh
Nigel Whittington
> > Deepest working site in Europe is the Cleveland Potash Mine. Boulby,
> > North Yorks.
> then?
I went on a tour about two years ago, they were still doing it then,
though we did not get to see the stuff. AFAIK they are still doing it.
IIRC it was called "Dark Matter" or somesuch.
Another intersting snippet is that they prospect ahead of the huge
face cutting machines by drilling a small, long, hole then stuffing a
small geiger counter down it. The radioactive potassium isotope gives
enough radiation for them to predict how much potash is there.
Go to http://go.to/hullgeolsoc/online.htm (might need an extra l on
the end if this doesnt work. There is a report there somewhere on the
hull geol soc visit.
Regards.
Nigel
roger gosling
"Nigel Whittington" <coast...@my-dejanews.com> wrote in message
news:2449d998.02020...@posting.google.com...
>
> North Yorks.
> 1200 metres to the shaft bottom. And when you get down there you are
> driven around in old transit vans!!!! No sign of the strategic reserve
> down there though. (%^)
> Fascinating if you ever get a chance to go.
>
> TTFN
>
> Nigel Whittington
There is a very interesting report of a visit to Boulby Potash Mine on
newsgroup uk.rec.caving in a message dated 3 Feb from Paul Brooks. Well
worth reading.
Roger