Report - Miley Tunnel - Preston - 23/06/2015

[StephenBMTB]

As someone who's worked on the railway, this is one of those 'must visit' kind of places, I've spent many a time like a rabbit in a warren amongst Britain's railway tunnels on one of the most extensive and iconic railway networks in the world and Miley Tunnel, an 1800's Victorian built railway had to be added to the list.

Early afternoon I found myself fighting my way through brambles and bushes that felt like they were growing razor blades until I emerged in front of the gargantuan structure that is the Miley Railway tunnel.

A quick squeeze through the fence and a brief run through the tunnel to reach the other side without the cameras rolling commenced, along the way I took these photos -

Upon reaching the other side, I quickly set up my kit, a Nikon L810, standard flash and lens, a Gopro Hero 4 Black edition with customised lens and side lighting, I intended to have the Hero 3 Black edition rolling, but strangely the fully charged battery ran out within seconds... so that was the Hero 3 off the cards. Some pictures taken on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4. my lighting was a single Cree XML Extended battery 1500 Lumen head torch and a small poundland torch also.

As you can see, the outside parts of the tunnel are pretty overgrown...

Throughout the tunnel, I took these pictures (they aren't the best due to lighting)
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[Punk]

Nice looking tunnel

 

[ACID- REFLUX]

If you've spent all this time working om the Railway & in Railway Tunnels ? Surely it would be second nature to you to actually take some kind of lighting system (some people manage with a bright torch to actually light the thing up .

Otherwise you get what you have here .

The Tunnel could be 2 miles long or 30ft or even fully sealed. It's hard to tell from your pictures apart from the open section between the Tunnels that's done the lighting job for you

I'd expect someone unfamiliar with Tunnels to fail in the lighting side as its a common mistake but not someone with your history.

Hopefully your next trip will be more productive as even though it's not a photography site, decent pics were still part of the requirements for posting a report up the last time I looked . Unfortunately most of these don't achieve this IMO

Have a look at the reports below from here and other tunnels for info and techniques.which include light painting.

Also just the month and year is sufficient along with some history of the place you're reporting (as per every other report on the forum ....mostly ; )

 

[StephenBMTB]

If you've spent all this time working om the Railway & in Railway Tunnels ? Surely it would be second nature to you to actually take some kind of lighting system (some people manage with a bright torch to actually light the thing up .

Otherwise you get what you have here .

The Tunnel could be 2 miles long or 30ft or even fully sealed. It's hard to tell from your pictures apart from the open section between the Tunnels that's done the lighting job for you

I'd expect someone unfamiliar with Tunnels to fail in the lighting side as its a common mistake but not someone with your history.

Hopefully your next trip will be more productive as even though it's not a photography site, decent pics were still part of the requirements for posting a report up the last time I looked . Unfortunately most of these don't achieve this IMO

Have a look at the reports below from here and other tunnels for info and techniques.which include light painting.

Also just the month and year is sufficient along with some history of the place you're reporting (as per every other report on the forum ....mostly ; )

Thanks for your feedback! it's all appreciated.

The lighting being the issue that I have got some new lights in the post however they've not arrived as of yet. You'd he surprised with the torches we were issued on the railway, they're worse than the above but mainly as I actually worked onboard, I wasn't treading tunnels. However I've done a fair few.

This is my second report ever and I'm still fairly new to all of this. Thankyou anyway!

 

[Dave Bennett]

Well I really enjoyed your contribution, and thought the pics weren't bad at all. Very atmospheric in fact. The video was a nice bonus, and it almost felt like I was there myself.

I was brought up on Deepdale (Preston) and lived there when the line was still working for goods traffic. As kids, we occasionally used to trespass on the railway and we were fascinated by the Miley. Sadly, I never explored very far into it as we imagined we could hear trains coming, so have only been in as far as a couple of hundred yards from the Deepdale end.

I intend to put that to rights this summer, and explore it in full with a few other family members.

I'd like to ask your advice about the best way to access the tunnel. I've done a brief reccy myself, and note a couple of possibilities. One at the Deepdale end, and another at the Maudland end.

I'll try and contact you by message if that's a more discreet way to discuss these things, but I'm a newly joined member so may have to await moderator approval.

Thank you in advance,

Dave.

 

[StephenBMTB]

Well I really enjoyed your contribution, and thought the pics weren't bad at all. Very atmospheric in fact. The video was a nice bonus, and it almost felt like I was there myself.

I was brought up on Deepdale (Preston) and lived there when the line was still working for goods traffic. As kids, we occasionally used to trespass on the railway and we were fascinated by the Miley. Sadly, I never explored very far into it as we imagined we could hear trains coming, so have only been in as far as a couple of hundred yards from the Deepdale end.

I intend to put that to rights this summer, and explore it in full with a few other family members.

I'd like to ask your advice about the best way to access the tunnel. I've done a brief reccy myself, and note a couple of possibilities. One at the Deepdale end, and another at the Maudland end.

I'll try and contact you by message if that's a more discreet way to discuss these things, but I'm a newly joined member so may have to await moderator approval.

Thank you in advance,

Dave.

Hiya Dave. Feel free to pop me a message and I'll arrange something quite happily

 

[The Wombat]

thats not a bad effort
Tunnels are hard to light; and it comes with practice
looks a good explore though

 

[Zeebex]

Hi to those who are thinking of visiting please think of Homeless man,he is under the first bridge close to entry, he seems like a nice chap as I was speaking to him today for a short period of time 5 - 10 minutes, he showed me entry but its all he has and didnt want to intrude, it really made me feel sad and full of glum, I couldnt just go to his home empty handed as I can quote it was his everything, he looked genuinely in disrepute and not one of the professional beggar types you get in Preston.

I am interested in steam engines and local history relating to the East Lancashire Railway which is a preserved railway running from Rawtenstall to Heywood (Planning has been put in for it to be extended to Castleton)

I had to come to this site to take a look as 2 of the tunnels of the ELR are breeze blocked up and the other one is just a walkway / public footpath

I am from the waterfoot area

 

[Dave Bennett]

Hi Zeebex, that's an interesting post, thank you.

I was fully intending to do the explore back in summer, but never got around to it for various reasons, though I'm still raring to go when the weather gets better (or even if it doesn't).

Do you feel comfortable saying where the access point is from the Maudland end? (or by pm if you'd rather). I planned to access from the Deepdale end where there's a suitable place on Porter Street, though that requires a bit of a walk to the tunnel entrance.

Dave.

 

[Zeebex]

I would rather not be so open about things , im not sure if the £1000 tresspass fine is valid for disused lines, but you are very close to a live line, although they are clearly sectioned off, not close but not next to it just opposite side of the building but its a long way up, if you know what I mean, if you care to go for a reccy ill gladly come along im not from preston, not here often but had a list of things to explore and day didnt go as planned. got to see a place and almost got locked in for the night, miley could do with a better chair to be honest as the plastic one aint cutting it, if anybody has an old wooden chair they dont use and would gladly donate one as the homeless guys entry is the same as ours.