# Clayton Rail Tunnel - June 08



## pdtnc (Jun 30, 2008)

Clayton Railway Tunnel - June 08

Nice location and an easy walk to Clayton or Queensbury tunnels, Wellies are going to be in order for Queensbury another week.
Some Info here
Tinypixi isn't all too keen on these dark places, bit scary and boring for her, waiting for me to make multiple 2 minute exposures and playing about with different lighting. I could happily waste hours in the darkness playing with lighting things and shooting stuff.
We made it down to ventilation shaft 2 and then did a U-turn and came back as it was Teatime and we'd spent a couple of hours in there.
I don't think Tp would like going much further than we did!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pdtnc/ - the bigger shots.

The Portal, which is down a very steep gradient, dodgy footings getting down (found someones torch half way down the banking too, left it inside the Tunnel near the door, just in case its yours and you are reading this!):





Looking back at the Entrance door (When leaving please close the door) Available light from the door only:




Looking back at the door with some light painting:




Turned around and looking the other way, Light painting-a-go-go:




The first ventilation Shaft:




Red gel over torch onto fallen bricks:




Green Gel onto fallen bricks;




Bucket got hole:




Purple Gel over 2 torches backlighting bucket:




Ghostly lights hovering around bucket (this was actually my old Flash unit with a purple Gel over it):




The Boot, top lighting from single torch:




The Fenix taking a drenching from the falling water on Vent-shaft No.2, this was casting some awesome dancing lights on the tunnel ceiling, and as the torch bezel/glass filled with water and a drip hit it it kind of flashed with the water carrying the light like liquid fiber-optics (£35-worth of torch chosen to get wet rather than possibly frying about £10-worth that might not be water-tight!:




Some old iron-work from the tracks:




Shaft No.2 fully lighted with torches:





Photography: Caonon 400D, Sigma 10-20mm, crap old flash which I fired off camera while taking up to 2.30min exposures at f8 and 100 iso. Tripod and cable release and a wooley hat keeping the camera dry from tunnel drips!

Lighting: Fenix TK10, SolarForce x2, LED Lenser headlamp, Upgraded 3D Maglite, cheap coloured gels bought from ebay, and the already-mentioned old flash unit fired off with its test button.


----------



## Urban Mole (Jun 30, 2008)

Nice find matey, and some excellent pictures there


----------



## phill.d (Jun 30, 2008)

Nice one mate.. You been having some fun with the new torches I see. That Clayton is an eerie tunnel, I can't explain why I felt it different to all the others i've been in. There's hardly any rubbish and you can just tell not many have been in there. After I'd been in I found out about a pretty nasty accident that happened in that air shaft.

When Clayton tunnel was being bored in 1874, two shafts which later became ventilation shafts, were sunk into the area around Baldwin Lane. 
From the bottom of these shafts, teams of navvies (6 teams altogether) drilled and blasted their way into the earth. 
One Monday morning tragedy struck at the workings. 
The winch-man who controlled a steam driven `Donkey-engine`which raised and lowered a primitive cage into the shaft came on duty still fuddled from the previous nights liquor. He pulled the wrong lever on the winch engine instead of the cage and its human cargo descending Number One shaft, it leapt upwards to crash against the pit head gear type of pulley wheel. 
Some were flung clear whilst some fell screaming into the shaft, and I guess they were the unlucky ones. 
Two men, Thomas Coates (aged 27) and William Elliott (aged 20) were both killed and their remains interred in Claytons churchyard. 
A memorial still stands today in a quiet forggoten corner to the left as you enter the churchyard through the lych gate. 

It's a kind of a sobering thought really.


----------



## BigLoada (Jun 30, 2008)

Beautifully crisp photographs mate. The gels worked well and my favourite is the photo of the boot. It kinda portrays something I cannot explain.

I see you use a Fenix, top choice mate Is it the T1?


----------



## Lightbuoy (Jun 30, 2008)

Great selection of photos  Nice stonework surrounding the vent shafts.
It sure is sobering to think that people died as a direct result of such engineering feats -some of which must have been pushing the boundaries technically.

Ta for sharing pdtnc & thanks for the info Phill.d

Lb:jimlad:


----------



## pdtnc (Jun 30, 2008)

cheers guys 

I'd briefly read your Flickr page last night after going, but I didn't have any uneasy feelings and quite the opposite while taking shots of ventilation shaft 2, with the flickering of the light from the torch reflected through the falling water dancing on the ceiling I'd hope that those poor souls lay down in peace now.
I doubt there won't be a industrial structure built in that era that hasn't had its share of construction deaths.

@Bigloada
Its a TK10


----------



## BigLoada (Jun 30, 2008)

pdtnc said:


> cheers guys
> 
> I'd briefly read your Flickr page last night after going, but I didn't have any uneasy feelings and quite the opposite while taking shots of ventilation shaft 2, with the flickering of the light from the torch reflected through the falling water dancing on the ceiling I'd hope that those poor souls lay down in peace now.
> I doubt there won't be a industrial structure built in that era that hasn't had its share of construction deaths.
> ...



Ooooh you have a TK10! Whats it like compared to the T1? Should I sell mine and upgrade? Sorry, totally off topic I know, but talk of Fenix torches gets me all excited.


----------



## pdtnc (Jun 30, 2008)

hee hee, I've not got a T1 so i don't know, though as far as I know its the same LED isn't it?

You can get cheaper things with about the same brightness and beam but they just feel cheap.


----------



## BigLoada (Jun 30, 2008)

pdtnc said:


> hee hee, I've not got a T1 so i don't know, though as far as I know its the same LED isn't it?
> 
> You can get cheaper things with about the same brightness and beam but they just feel cheap.



Yes its the same lumens output but the T1, thogh fantastic, is ergonomically shite I think. Just wondered if the TK10 was a better design physically.

I agree, you can get cheaper but I never skimp on torches. My T1 has been bashe to hell down mineral mines and all kinds of nasty places and its rock solid. In fact I I am going to buy a TK10 right now online.


----------



## pdtnc (Jun 30, 2008)

BigLoada said:


> Yes its the same lumens output but the T1, thogh fantastic, is ergonomically shite I think. Just wondered if the TK10 was a better design physically.
> 
> I agree, you can get cheaper but I never skimp on torches. My T1 has been bashe to hell down mineral mines and all kinds of nasty places and its rock solid. In fact I I am going to buy a TK10 right now online.




Cheapest place is ebay for the TK10

*I can't compare to the F1 again but it fits in the hand and works as it should


----------



## Pegasus2 (Jun 30, 2008)

some excelent photos there!


----------



## Neosea (Jun 30, 2008)

Great photos, thanks


----------



## cardiffrail (Jun 30, 2008)

Loovely pics and some interesting history. Like the colour gel effects.


----------



## pdtnc (Jun 30, 2008)

More coloured light will have to be used the next chance get!  thanks


----------



## sqwasher (Jul 1, 2008)

Got some great pics here pdtnc, always difficult to light these places but you've done it very well!


----------



## Foxylady (Jul 2, 2008)

Love the brickwork, especially around the ventilation shafts. Beautifully engineered. Great photos, pdtnc. I too like the one of the boot...there's just something about it.


----------



## pdtnc (Jul 3, 2008)

thanks 
The boot is a lighting thing, and the 'lived in' thing that personalises it I guess.


----------

