"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
I'm trying to compile a list of interesting things to go see on the
"tube" on a day trip. Engineering mainly, like the crossover at the end
of the Oxford St Bakerloo, the scale of Canary Wharf and the tunnel out
of Bank-DLR. What others can the team suggest?
--
Roland Perry

How about the big tunnel machine that was used to build the Waterloo and
City line, then abandoned somewhere in the vicinity of Bank station, then
rediscovered when the station was modified to accommodate the DLR, and which
you can now walk through on one of the new connecting corridors.


Andrew

In message , Andrew
writes
How about the big tunnel machine that was used to build the Waterloo and
City line, then abandoned somewhere in the vicinity of Bank station, then
rediscovered when the station was modified to accommodate the DLR, and which
you can now walk through on one of the new connecting corridors.

That's one I hadn't heard about before. How obvious is it that you are
inside it?
--
Roland Perry

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
That's one I hadn't heard about before. How obvious is it that you are
inside it?

It's fairly unmistakeable once you're the a large red-painted ring round
the otherwise tiled subway. IIRC there's also a small plaque there.

There's another tunnelling shield visible at the end of the over-run tunnel
at Moorgate Platform 10.

"Roland Perry" wrote:

How about the big tunnel machine that was used to build the Waterloo and
City line, then abandoned somewhere in the vicinity of Bank station,
then rediscovered when the station was modified to accommodate the DLR,
and which you can now walk through on one of the new connecting
corridors.

That's one I hadn't heard about before. How obvious is it that you are
inside it?


Strange that you hadn't heard of it - it was mentioned earlier in the
thread! (Mark Brader and Paul Corfield referred to it.)

Calling it a "big tunnel machine" is probably overstating it somewhat,
though. It is the original W&C Greathead Shield, but there is no machinery
there - just the shield itself (ie a red-painted metal ring, a little larger
than the main tunnel), which you walk through. It is located in what was
one of the W&C over-run tunnels at Bank, which was converted into the
pedestrian link to the DLR in the early 90s.



"David Splett" wrote:

There's another tunnelling shield visible at the end of the over-run
tunnel at Moorgate Platform 10.

That is perhaps more interesting, as it seems to still have some framework
inside (although this is a little difficult to make out). I *think* that
the item on display at Cutty Sark & Maritime Greenwich is a proper Tunnel
Boring Machine (complete with "teeth"), but I could be wrong.

The Greathead Shield that was used to build the Rotherhithe (road) Tunnel is
also still on display. One half of it forms an archway over the approach
road at one end, with the other half similarly at the other end. The
southern approach is but a stone's throw from Rotherhithe station.



--
MetroGnome
~~~~~~~~~~

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , Andrew
writes
How about the big tunnel machine that was used to build the Waterloo and
City line, then abandoned somewhere in the vicinity of Bank station, then
rediscovered when the station was modified to accommodate the DLR, and
which
you can now walk through on one of the new connecting corridors.

That's one I hadn't heard about before. How obvious is it that you are
inside it?
--
Roland Perry


It's painted red so stands out in the white tiling quite well. It actually
looks like a few exposed iron tunnel segments but is in fact part of the
tunnel shield I think. It's at a slight bend in the passage, and has a
small sign explaining what it is. I think it's on the corridor connecting
the Waterloo and City to the DLR.

Andrew.